Chicken Update

As of 10:41 this morning, we have 13 hatched chicks.  I have moved 7 chicks over to the brooder box, where they can eat some chicken feed and drink some water. 

I changed the live camera over to the iPad. UStream has a great app that is allowing me to use the iPad camera. Wish I had thought of that 2 nights ago. I left the microphone on, hoping that maybe the peeping will come through the live video. 

I also added a second Live Stream for the brooder box so you can see the fluffy chickens mulling around. From what I can tell, they like to get a lot of sleep...just like baby humans!

The Chickens are Coming! The Chickens are Coming!

Tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday, we should see our chickens emerging from their shells. You can click on play on the webcam to the right of this blog entry. I apologize for the ads, but it is a free way to stream our chickies live.

They have been incubating for 20 days. Tuesday is day 21...Hatch Day! There may be an early bird or two tonight. The majority should hatch tomorrow. There also may be a few late bloomers that hatch on Wednesday.

We have been checking the embryos' development by "candling" the eggs. We shine a light through the egg in a dark place (the preschool bathroom). The egg will show a dark spot where the developing chick is. When we last candled, we thought we could see a good 15 chicks that were developing. There were a few that did not look like they were fertilized at all. And then there were about another 15 that were too dark to be able to tell what was going on in the egg.

I am quite sure a few will hatch. As I am typing this next to the incubator, I keep hearing peeps from inside the eggs.  YAY!!! That's a good sign.

Here is the Fairfield Preschoolers' version of the Donald Crews book Ten Black Dots.

Monthly Podcast

Here is our latest podcast from the preschool. 

Tips on How to be a Good Friend.

Making Popcorn

Before we left for Holiday break, we spent our last day in pajamas, watched a movie of Maurice Sendak Stories and Songs, and made popcorn for the movie.

Picking away at the kernels on the cob.

Joanna Jerose, our school's outdoor classroom coordinator, was able to score up some real popcorn on the cob for us. On Thursday, the day before we popped the corn, we spent a lot of time at the science table picking the kernels out of the cobs. 

A full row out

We noticed the kernels were very small. We noticed it was a lot of work to pick them out one by one. It worked to strengthen the fine motor muscles in our fingers.

This is 100 kernels.

As we picked kernels, we did some counting. We made a pile of 100. We couldn't believe how little the pile looked compared to all of the kernels we picked. So, we counted out 50 more. It still looked little. We did some quick estimating and decided that we definitely picked more than a thousand kernels--and maybe even 2000. 

On Friday, Movie Day, we made the popcorn in a popcorn popper. The kids delighted in the spectacle. Many of them reported that they don't ever see popcorn popping. (I blame microwave ovens.)

I talked to them about how inside each kernel, there is a teeny bit of water. When the kernels heat up in the oil, the water inside ends up reaching its boiling point. They knew when water boils it gets bubbly. I told them when the bubbling starts happening inside the kernel, that's what makes the kernel explode into popcorn. As they watched the kernels burst, I also drew their attention to the steam coming out of the top of the popper. That was the other result of the boiling water inside the kernels. Steam is hot water being lifted into the air because it turned its gas form. 

We also learned The Popcorn Chant (by Peter and Ellen Allard). The words are:

"You put the oil in the pot and you let it get hot.

You put the popcorn in and you start to grin.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle,  

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, POP!"

Podcasting

Follow the link below and you can hear how our preschool students would prepare a turkey to eat for Thanksgiving. This is our first attempt at developing a monthly podcast to share our learning in preschool this year. 

I will continue to explore the ins and outs of Podbean, the podcast hosting and sharing website that I learned about when I wen to the Vita Learn statewide technology conference in early November. 

It looks like I will be able to embed a podcast player to this blog. That will allow you to link to all of the new podcasts right from here. I just haven't quite figured it out.

If you are familiar with RSS feeds, you can sign up for the preschool monthly podcast at the ffvtpreschool Podbean page.

Have fun listening to these creative ways to prepare Turkey.

How To Prepare A Thanksgiving Turkey by the Fairfield Preschool Students

Holiday Concert songs

Here are two links to You Tube videos of the two songs we will be performing for the holiday concert. You can watch them with your child andnpractice the words over the Thanksgiving.

What I Am

One Was Johnny