Hi Everyone!! I hope you have all been enjoying watching the chickies these last few days. On the day before the official hatching day, the kids watched eagerly and excitedly as the chicks used their egg tooth to peck at their shell. We had a few early hatchers, but on the 21st day, all of the chicks hatched out of their eggs. Some eggs did not develop, and unfortunately, a few chicks hatched but did not survive. This opened up conversation about death among the children, so Marcia brought a dead chick for the class to touch and observe if they chose to. This experience was followed by a discussion. The class was asked questions like "How do we know this chick is not living?" "How does it look different from the other chicks?" One of the children asked "what does 'die' mean?", to which his friend responded "Die means it's not living". The kids observed that the chick was not moving, it's eyes were closed and that the feathers were still wet, unlike the other chicks.

On Monday, the children will be making a 'playground' for the chicks in our classroom using blocks. This is a really fun experience for both the chicks and the kids. In addition to building a playground, we've been doing various other chick activities. The kids have been doing observational art in front of the chick tank, painting with feathers, and simply observing their every move throughout the day. They love noticing when the chicks notice them... who's watching who!?

We had our field trip to the New Victory Theater on Tuesday. This was the first field trip we've been on where we were required to take our shoes off. So cool! The kids first learned how to use their hands and body to demonstrate the life cycle of a butterfly. They were then lead into a dark and mystical theater where they watched a very interpretive performance of two 'butterflies'. It was incredibly engaging, and many of our kids got to go up on stage to interact with the performers, but mostly the stage itself. Projected images on a white and brightly lit stage floor moved and transformed by the movements of the children. All of the kids had a lot of fun, but they wondered why it was called "The Butterfly Garden" when there weren't any butterflies! This was a show that really required them to use their imaginations.

On Wednesday, we had a songwriter come in to our classroom to work with us and teach us about song writing. She played the music she wrote for our very own song while the kids worked together to come up with lyrics. The class learned about the different parts of a song, including a verse, chorus and a bridge. They also had to come up with a lot of rhyming words to get the song to flow together. It was quite a challenge! They did an awesome job and they all really enjoyed it. The class requests to sing and dance to it throughout the day, and I've been singing the song in my sleep since Wednesday. Thank you to Michael Stack for putting this together!

Thursday was our smoothie day! Thanks to all for bringing in the delicious fruits, yogurts and juice. One at a time, each child made their own, original smoothie recipe as they added their chosen amounts of their chosen ingredients. Once it was all blended up, they enjoyed their homemade healthy treat for snack.

Because the weather could not have been more perfect on Friday, we took a surprise visit to safari park in the morning. The kids spent time hanging out with the hippos, stopping for a fresh fruit snack, and then they requested to take a walk by the reservoir on our way back to school. Many of them noticed the trees and flowers we learned about on our tree walk with Joe Bondy. I thought they were totally exhausted, but they wanted to stay even longer to eat lunch and rest in central park. Because we didn't have our lunches with us on Friday, we will have a planned picnic in the park THIS TUESDAY. Please make sure you pack a completely disposable lunch that does not need to be heated. We will start our day with literacy, snack and story, and leave for safari park around 10:00, followed by our picnic for lunch. We should return to school between 12:00 and 12:30 and finish our day with rest and freeplay.

Also, our last day of school is on Wednesday, June 9th from 8:30-10:30. All parents are invited to join us for our 'moving up' ceremony and celebration. I will keep you informed of the details as soon as everything is arranged and finalized. Let me know if you have any urgent questions.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Amanda