After independent study time ended, I gathered everyone around and did what I love... talked about agriculture. We have had a little 'break' in ag class to talk about environmental health topics. Today, I had a story to tell straight off the farm!
In order to help them keep the key facts of the story straight (chicken egg incubation time vs. guinea egg incubation time, out breeding coop and free-range nesting box layout, etc), I brought out a technological marvel... an overhead projector. How awesome is it that a classroom full of 9 and 10 year old students can see an overhead projector and be in awe of how it works! Of course, this led to an impromptu group discussion on technology, high costs of public education, and whether or not expensive gadgets actually cause children to gain knowledge at a faster or more impressive rate.Once we were back on track, I explained that, in a nutshell, one of our guineas had started laying eggs, which I confused as a lavender orpington egg. I had placed them into the incubator, along with the other chicken eggs, only to realize later what had happened. Thankfully, I pulled them out and put them into a separate incubator right during lockdown! (Guineas need an extra week of incubation. If I had not realized what they were, I would have assumed that they had simply failed to hatch!)
We talked about weekly feed costs for chickens, and the children calculated the number of eggs that were needed to cover costs. Then, they took the average weekly egg production of marans and orpingtons to come up with the number of chickens needed to replace my aging flock of layers. Finally, they calculated up the number of eggs that they think I should set in order to have enough hens (remember, there are roosters that hatch out of those eggs, too!) for the spring. They used an average hatch rate, and then we decided to be very conservative with that number since "you shouldn't count chickens before they hatch!" We have chicks due this week, three sneaky guineas due next week, another incubator due to hatch in 2 weeks, and then we will have to recalculate how many more to set!
Once we worked through the farm math, I brought the class back to our nutrition lesson. We touched on the definition of nutrients, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, protein, fats, and the importance of water. This is just the framework for the week's online nutrition lesson!
In Spanish, Ms. Cindy began by assigning the class into three groups. Each group competed to answer review questions. They did a great job recalling what they have learned! Ms. Cindy then brought out her cd player, got the kids on their feet, and yet again incorporated Total Physical Response (TPR) into her class! TPR is based on the coordination of language and physical movement. In TPR, the teacher gives commands to students in the target language, and
students respond with whole-body actions. This class always has them smiling while they learn!
The students took turns sharing their posters that they created on different Spanish-speaking countries. The kids did such an awesome job with these! Actually, I loved the fact that, as soon as they got out of their cars this morning, they instantly started showing them off! This is the type of positive educational peer interaction that I strive for! Excellent!
Social Studies- Next week is the deadline for the students' WWII projects! The class worked on their projects today. They will finish up at home, and bring them to class on Tuesday to show them off for a grade!
We continued reading "Romeo and Juliet" today. I love it when the class recognizes Shakespearean quotes! It's like a light bulb goes off, and then instantly "get" the reference that they had previously heard!
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