Eggs-Ray Vision!

Okay, so I know that chicks grow and develop inside and egg, but I guess I never really stopped long enough to really grasp how amazing that truly is...or maybe it was the fact that today, we saw it firsthand! Today marks day eight of our eggs, so it was time for some candling. Umm....I may never *ever* eat eggs again, but this really is incredible! 

Our babies' progress...

Check that out! Amazing, right?

Our sweet chicks are now developing their feathers and the egg tooth is beginning to develop. We have been following along with our chicks' development at Chickscope. If you plan on having chicks in your classroom, this is a great resource! 

After today's candling, I am hopeful that we will see a few babies in about two more weeks. I am still in awe of nature and all of the amazing wonders that it has to offer. Like...for real! It's just plain crazy! What a cool world we get to observe. 

In other animal news...

Yesterday, we began studying the different habitats that support the life of different species of animals. I divided the students up into groups and gave them about 30 minutes to become experts in one specific habitat and prepare their presentations. Then, we did a little jigsaw and took some time to share our knowledge with others. Rather than having the students present one by one, we did a little gallery walk. Every five minutes, the students would rotate and another group member would be in charge of their "exhibit." The students used sticky notes to leave specific feedback for each presentation.

We talked about the importance of useful and constructive feedback. Their sticky notes had to be specific and something that would help the group improve, as well as something that they did extremely well! 

Here are some of the presentations...

During their presentations, we focused on how to involve the audience through eye contact and responding to questions. They were such engaging little teachers. 

Today, we revisited food chains to match them to the habitats that we studied yesterday. I had the students create actual food "chains" with a twist. 

I laid out colorful paper and we worked to assign colors to specific classification groups within a food chain. The students had to illustrate a specific food chain within a chosen habitat. Then, they had to show how the consumer classification could be broken down into specific types of consumers. Here is what we came up with...

It's a chain within a chain {if you will}. This really helped them understand how consumers can be broken down into herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. Super simple, but a strong visual for those that didn't quite get it the first time around! 

I can't believe it is already Friday {tomorrow}! I hope my teacher friends have had a fabulous week!