Chick Life

We enjoyed our time with Stew, Chipmunk, Brownie, and Oreo.  They went to a GREAT home at the end of the week where they'll be spoiled!

To celebrate our first chick's arrival we made some hats!

Of course we spent a lot of time with them, letting them run around and taking turns holding them.

And I promise, NO chicks were hurt in the process of getting the pics below.  It has become a tradition of taking pictures of the chicks in a McNugget box!

Newsletter for the Week of May 14th and a New Arrival

And in other news...  We had our first arrival tonight and on Mother's Day.  Welcome to the world Stew!!

Chicks!!

Today was Day 7 with our eggs.  We have 24!!  This is the most I've ever had and I have two incubators set up.

We candled our eggs today.  This is where you shine a light through the egg and look to see a black dot, which is the embryo's eye.  Some of the egg shells were hard to see through so we were unsure of those.  As we looked at each one I put a smiley face or a sad face on the egg.

We saw 15 little eyes looking back at us!!  Here are a few.

Fingers crossed we get a GREAT hatch this year.  Keep checking back for updates.

Patiently Waiting...

Tuesday was Day 21 for our chicks and we patiently waited for the first peck.  We even wore chick hats and watched!!

Of course this year it didn't work as planned and the chicks hatched at night and in the early morning so students didn't get to see the full process.

I'm okay if you even say that my ed tech and I look like first graders too.  That would be quite the compliment.  I mean, can you spot us?

We have 5 lively, little, ADORABLE chicks!!

 

One girl ran up to me and told me I had to look at a chick.  I wasn't expecting to see anything unusual but then this happened!!  Of course my heart dropped and I thought the worse but he was just relaxing.  This is really how our little chick was sleeping.

We've spent a lot of time just looking at them but today they were out and about!

More pictures to come...

We Have some BABIES!!

We candled our eggs this week to see if we had any LARGE, black eyes.  This shows us that an embryo is growing.

Out of 12 eggs we spied 11 eyes looking at us.  We have 13 more days.

This is always such an exciting time of the year for us and of course I'm a nervous wreck hoping they all hatch!

Mrs. Littlefield also came in to talk to first graders about farms and chickens.  She even brought some 3 week old chicks in to share with us.

She also taught us the parts of an egg.  

The Chick Eggs are Here

Here are ALL 12 eggs.  In 21 days we should have some adorable chicks.  Keep checking back for updates!!

Chick Life and New Shoes

The Lyons' chicks have arrived.  We now have 7!!

We've had SO much fun watching them and YES I'll admit that we have sat in a circle with them running around for a good chunk of time.  This has also helped to keep my sanity (can we say that Summer Fever has taken over my class even though it was cold today)!!  The room quiets down (because you have to be quiet as to not scare the chicks) and everyone is happy and getting along.  No squabbling, arguing, or grumpy students.  Everyone is giggling and just loving the chicks.  Ahh, maybe I need to keep the them in my room until our last day, June 18th.

Here are some pics of them hanging out and of students picking the chick they wanted a picture with. Click to enlarge.

Oh yes, and I also had New Shoes in my title.  Yesterday, I heard it. Small whispers in my room.  The girls in the corner on the mat whispering back and forth.  In my head I kept going back and forth on what they could possibly be talking about.  

"Did I have something in-between my teeth?"  

"Was my hair out of place?"

"Did I have something sticking to my shirt that I couldn't see?"
"What were they whispering about and why was it spreading like wildfire?"

Then I heard it.  A sweet little girl piped up and said, "I really like your shoes!"

Oh, to have their approval!  Here's a picture of them.  I just ordered them and LOVE the pop of color.

Our FIRST Baby Chick

Here's our first baby chick.  He/She arrived this afternoon.  Of course we all stopped what we were doing to watch.  Our 3rd grade reading buddies also got to watch.

We'll name our baby tomorrow!!

Do You SEE them?

Do you see them!  The BIG black dots?  Those dots are the eyes.  Yes, a baby chick's eye!!  Today we candled our eggs and we saw 12 black eyes.  They seemed to be dancing around inside the eggs.  There were lots of "Ohs," and "Ah's" as I placed each egg on the light.

Keep checking back for updates.

We're also keeping a Dear Diary.  Students are going to pretend they are a chick inside the egg.  They're going to record what's going on and how they're feeling.  Here's an entry for today.  Check out my TpT Store if you're interested in this diary.  It's FREE (Diary of a Chicken)!!

The Chick Eggs are Here

Make sure you check back to get the latest updates on our eggs!  We put them in the incubator today and in 21 days we should have some ADORABLE babies.

We had a lot of eggs so I set up a second incubator.  The rest of the eggs will go in tomorrow.

Our Chick Announcement

Two chicks have hatched and the kids are beyond excited.  Here are some pics!!

Before the day was over we had one chick that was beginning to peck through the egg.  Hopefully when I arrive tomorrow we'll have one more chick in the incubator.