Positive Thinking Day on PhotoPeach

Last week Mrs. Henn hatched 6 chicks.  She is letting us board 3 of them in our classroom until 5/12.  The kids have loved seeing the little fluffy chicks. Friday students got to hold them during indoor recess. Thanks Mrs. Henn!

I am sad to say we had an unsuccessful hatch.  Our eggs were expected to hatch on Monday (day 21 of incubation).  We waited for them through day 23 but none had any cracks at all.  We aren’t sure why this occurred but here are a few hypotheses:

• Maybe the temperature was too hot.
• Maybe the temperature was too cold.
• Maybe the temperature spiked or dipped on the weekend or evening when we couldn’t adjust it.
• Maybe our eggs weren’t fertilized and had no chicks to grow. (when I candled them on day 8 I didn’t see any veins so this is a definite possibility)
• Maybe germs penetrated the eggshells and harmed our growing chicks.

Mrs. Henn’s chicks have started hatching and Mrs. Swavely’s will hopefully hatch next week. We will enjoy seeing their fluffy chicks.

Lesson learned: Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!

On Monday I read the class a book called The Greedy Triangle to begin our study of geometry.  This triangle isn’t happy with his number of sides and vertices.  So, he visits a Shape-Shifter who grants his wish and gives him one more side and vertex.  Now the triangle is a quadrangle.  The greedy character still isn’t happy so he returns to the Shape-Shifter over and over and changes to a pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, etc.  After listening to the book the students had a chance to build their own shapes with toothpicks and marshmallows to match the changing shape character.  We even got to eat a few marshmallows at the end of class!