The Babies Are Home!!

A Natural Feast

A tree had appeared right outside our window. 

What was the tree doing there?!

It was the tree that had been in the classroom before the holiday break. Now the decorations had been removed and it was ready to be returned to the natural environment. 

Mrs. St. Onge had a plan. With a little help from the kindergarten friends, the tree was going to become a feeder for the winter animals. She prepared cups of lard and had a bag of birdseed.

Everyone needed to dress very warmly before they headed outside to make a natural feast for the birds and squirrels and other winter animals.

Children took turns spreading lard on the branches. Once the lard was spread, birdseed was sprinkled on. Later, the tree stand was removed and the tree was moved to a natural area in the play yard. The trees there have long since lost their leaves. But the pine tree was still green. 

It is in the evergreen family of trees. 

All the children had a chance to take turns and make this giant feeder!

We will watch each day to see which animals come to visit the tree.

What winter animals do you think will come?

Water Play

Adding a simple machine like a hand blender whips up some sensational suds!

Suddenly, this was a most popular centre. 

Bowls, water, soap, scoops, measuring cups, mixer...

Simplicity offers the best opportunities to learn deeply!

Once markers had dried out, they were set in small cups of water. The water quickly took on the colour of the marker. Paint brushes had been added and children painted with the re-purposed markers. 

Once the children had finished painting, the cups of coloured water were put in the freezer for use on another day. This was the day the coloured water came out of the freezer.

What a wonderful surprise it was for the children to discover that the water table had frozen coloured ice cubes floating in it!

Ice, rocks, polar bears and walrus'.  

Why are polar bears white? Do they get too cold? 

Water play in the wonderful world of kindergarten!

Egg-citing News!

What are they looking at under the bright light?

Egg-zactly! The wonderful world of kindergarten is home to some soon-to-be hatch-lings. So many creatures come from eggs. The creatures developing in our eggs are fancy chickens with great plumes of coloured tail feathers.

Ricki, our co-op student from Riverside High School brought in some very special eggs. Can you guess the kinds of birds that hatched from them?

The big white egg was from an ostrich, and the dark smaller egg was from an emu. Ricki shared the eggs and the story of how she got them. Then she helped the children to learn about the birds that hatched from them. Ostriches, emus and chickens have so much in common! They have feathers and beaks and wings... but don't really fly.

It all began when Mrs. St. Onge had brought out this strange looking container and plugged it in for a couple of days. We became more and more curious. She was making sure our new visitors had a warm place to go when they arrived. She called this container an incubator. It was nice and warm inside as we awaited the arrival of our eggs.

We learned all about eggs... cracking them, what's inside them, , why they needed to be warm, why they are different...

Then, in came Farmer Richard! Most often, he tends the Living Wall by our kindergarten rooms, but this day he had a special surprise for us. He had an egg carton with some very special eggs. They had writing on them so that we could tell which type of hen they came from. Some were small and some were larger. There were many curious eyes and children! We learned so much about chickens and their eggs.

Mrs. St. Onge worked with the children to make a calendar so we could count down the days until we might see the chickens begin to hatch. We watch them every day and cross the days off as they pass. We are expecting our chicks around April 14... give or take a day. You know how those young ones have a mind of their own!

Since then, we have looked at the eggs to see how well they are developing. We can only do this for a short time because they need to stay warm in the incubator. 

We have seen a tiny dot that is a heart. We knew this because there were veins travelling away from the dot. 

Looking at the embryo of an egg with a bright light is called candling. This name came from how people first used candle light to look at the inside of an egg. We have candled a couple of times. We are able to see how the embryo is growing!

Just like any expectant family, we are anxious and protective over the newest members to our kindergarten family! 

Our chickens come back for a visit

What an exciting day it was for our friends on Friday when they welcomed back the chickens with Nonna Pizzuto. They came along with two eggs that were still warm so the children had the opportunity to hold them. They were thrilled to do lots of pictures so that they could go back home with them on their travel cage. They also realized they were twins and where one went the other followed.

When Nonna Pizzuto comes back to make pasta with the friends she will be bringing the fresh eggs to use in our pasta.

When the wind blew over the mirror we had no idea that the chickens would entertain us with how fascinated they were to see themselves in the mirror. The children came to the conclusion that they thought they were seeing more chickens.