Chick Watch 2017

If you haven't heard, the First Graders are learning all about animals, their behavior, structures, changes and parent/offspring characteristics.  As part of this unit, the children are doing three in-depth investigations - one on a different animal in each room!

Mrs. Cibor is teaching the children about the structure of insects, focusing on the parts of an ant!  What make them so strong for their size?  We will find out soon as we build ant models this week through a STEM project and see how much weight they can carry!

Mrs. Cooper is conducting an investigation on the changes (metamorphosis) that some animals go through.  Each child was given a mealworm to observe and document their changes over the next few weeks!

In our classroom, the first graders are exploring eggs!  We have learned about the life cycle of a chicken and are currently caring for 12 eggs in our classroom incubator.  We have already learned what fertilized means (containing an embryo that could hatch), what an embryo is (the beginning stages of a live organism inside the shell) and what to look for in a healthy, developing egg including veins and an air sack.

As a grade level, we have already had the discussion prior to candling our eggs (using a high powered LED flashlight to see through the shell) that not all of the eggs may be fertilized, and even if they are, it does not mean that they will hatch.  It depends on three elements that we are controlling - heat, moisture and movement.  The children are in charge of checking the incubator's temperature (100 degrees), humidity level (86 degrees) and that the eggs are being rotated by our automatic turner named Mama, which moves the eggs just like a mother hen would to prevent the embryo from adhering itself to the egg's membrane as well as provide opportunity for a uniform egg temperature on both sides.

So far, we have candled the eggs on day 8 of 21 to check to see how many were fertilized.  Needless to say, we were all ecstatic to learn that all 12 are fertilized and developing!

Here they are inside the incubator...Benedict, Poachy, Yoko, Shelly, Huevo, Omelette, Scrambles, Sunny SU (as in Side Up), Foo Yung and his twin Les Oeufs (affectionately called Fooy and Zooy), Rolly and Meringue.

And here is what we found last week when candling.

This week we will learn about oviparous (egg laying) animals, the parts of an egg and their functions, as well as candle the eggs again to check on their development.  

Stay tuned to Chick Watch 2017 for more information coming soon!