Hatching and Raising Coturnix Quail Unit

Lesson 7/7

Let's Talk About Our New Life

In this lesson, the students will review all of the steps we went through to acquire the quail eggs through the incubation, hatching, watering and feeding process.

Step 1. Students will examine the photo of a 2 day old quail and discuss the following with their team members:

1) What was the most interesting part of this activity for you.

2) Each team member will then do a quick write in their science journal about their idea.

Quail Eggs

Step 2.    Teacher passes out several new quail eggs to each group. Students will discuss with their group everything and anything they can think of about the quail eggs, including where the eggs came from.  Also they will discuss anything learned about eggs and the differences between fertilized and non-fertilized eggs.  After discussion, each student will sketch quail eggs in their journal and color if there is time.

Step 3.  Students will re-read their journals to recall their initial reactions to the newly hatched quail chicks.  They will then talk about how they feel about it now.  Key words: smells, sights, sounds, touch

Step 4. The students decided to keep the empty egg shells and let them dry out and get sanitized and then they would try to create something artsy with the shells.  It started out interestingly enough as they attempted to glue the egg shells to a picture frame, but they were extremely fragile and kept turning into dust.  The students ended up putting them into the school compost bin.  We talked as a large group about the disappointment and how we wanted to have a permanent photo in the frame.  Oh well.

Step 5.  Each student color coded their chick so they could monitor it until it went home to my barn.  They at first tried to use a marker on their legs, but that was too difficult to see.  They eventually put a dab of color on their chick's head and it lasted about 20 minutes as they all started pecking at the color and pulled it all off.  They discussed different ways and threw out ideas like coloring the beaks, and settle on mini bands on the legs.  The legs were too fragile and the students decided that they would endanger the chicks so we gave up on monitoring precisely.  Each day for two weeks, chicks were weighed and measured and charts and graphs were everywhere to be seen.  (I didn't get any pics of those and now those kids are in a differenct school!)

Step 6.  Safety precautions
The students were required to research some safety issues and they re-lived their finest moment when they discovered that the chicks can drown in very little water.  One of the students found that adding marbles to their water dish did two thing:  1) the colorful marbles drew the chicks to the water and 2) the chicks could escape the water by pushing against the marbles.  This review casued them to re-live the early days when were all afraid they would not survive.

Step 7. A paper was due from each student describing the activity and highlights of the quail activity with a description of things learned and observed.

Recalling the field trips we took with the quail out to the playground was a lot of fun.  Those quail can run pretty fast!

Here are their baby quail 6 weeks later.  Some of them have already started laying eggs, thus bringing the circle back around.

Blog Critiquing

The first blog I visited is called The Great Adventure. The first thing I noticed  is that Cherie Blessing, the blog creator, actually keeps her blog up to date! I think this is one of the most important things about blogging.  If a blog has lots of time between posts, of if the posting is random and sporadic, I think viewers will tend to lose interest, especially kids.

I like the simplicity of the blog and find it easy to maneuver around in it.  Cherie uses lots of photos and videos, which make it easier and more interesting to read.  I think the use of photos of students will motivate students as they enjoy being a star!  The photos also document activities and can remind students what was done and also create possible future writing activities.

Another thing I like is that she has allowed students to create their own blogs and has the links to them right at the top of her blog.  This shows that she values them very highly and wants everyone to visit them.  I think having students create a blog can be an excellent way to encourage good writing and thinking as everyone in the class will go and read the posts and view any photos or other forms of media.

All in all, I like this blog.   I think I would like to see something a little more interactive with built-in assignements.  Cherie has some of that, but I think I would like more in mine.

School is Cool     

The next blog I visited is called School is Cool.  This blog is excellent.  I liked everything about this one, except for how overwhelming it is for me to think about all of the work she has put into this and continues to put in to maintain it.  I particularly like all of the educational links she has for students, parents and other teachers. 

The author, Mrs. White lets me see how I can put my entire curriculum on a blog and use it as a focal point for the school year.  This will help me change the way I teach by allowing me to use the technology we have in our building to make learning more interesting and challenging.  I can also see how this will allow parents to be as involved as they wish to be.  She has put a lot of interesting sidebar gadgets on the blog, which makes it more interesting.  This blog is a wealth of information and links!

Mrs. White allows anyone to come in and view all of the information contained in her blog, which includes lots of photos of children and their work.  I am a little uncomfortable allowing such free access, as the location of the school as well as names are all plainly visible.  I think I would keep my classroom blog a little more controlled as far as who may view it.

I just finished perusing Mr. Toft's blog called Mr. Toft.ca. I looked around this blog to see what the main point of the blog is and I believe one of the main purposes of the blog is to involve the students in the use of technology and helping stimulate personal academic involvement by using cool technology.  I really enjoyed the TV episodes.  These look really good!  The students did the work on the program and it looks like they are having a lot of fun while learning some great stuff.

Video can lend such a great hand to motivating kids.  Most kids love the camera and then watching themselves and getting a good laugh.  I can see how a monthly TV program like this can focus learning and activities and make them memorable. Time is a huge requirement as the programs have to be planned, scripted, filmed edited and then polished into a final product.  This can be very time consuming!  However, if academic achievement goes up, it is a good thing.

I am going to continue to explore this site and test out the various technologies Mr. Toft is using to see if fourth graders can handle it, and if I can handle it!

Next, I went to Mr. Rhodus' Classroom Blog.   I  found this one to be simpler than the others I visited.  There weren't as many links to other sites, but I'm not sure I missed them.  Mr. Rhodus does cool things on this site that the students enjoy.  I like his slideshows that commemorate important school functions and also how he gives assignments like: comment on this and on two other student's comments.  His school-related links seem to be mostly functional and not stimulating.  I like having the lists of materials, spelling lists, rubrics, etc., available for both students and parents.

However, there doesn't seem to be any real academic use on this blog.  I don't see much in the way of student interaction areas.  It seems to me that a blog like this could go to another level and include continually updated information on the academic areas so both parents and students can know what is going on in the classroom and what is expected.  I must admit that I find this blog to be a bit stodgy and boring.  Looking through the blogs at the Edublogger is very helpful in finding out what kinds of things I think are important to have in my blog.


26 Bay Bloggers is the last blog I visited today and I must say, I was initially unimpressed.  The white background and all the business on the sidebars made this blog difficult for me to wander around.  It seems like it needs more distinction for each section so visitors know what they are looking at.  The Blog Visitors gadget is full of HTML and looks way too busy and cluttered.  Maybe the teacher in charge hasn't been on in a while to "clean things up." 

On the other hand, there is a lot to like about this blog.  It is full of  interesting student-made videos, which look complicated and challenging.  I like the freedom the teacher gives the students for their contribtions.  Another of the things I like, is the Voki Avatars.  I think students would love to create these.  However, the down side is that you have to pay at the web site to have the class create them.  All in all this is a decent blog.  It can be hard to look at, but if you dig, you will find lots of creative and student-led initiatives. 

A Few of the Things That Interest Me

I have lots of things that interest me and I love to pursue my interests in order to learn more about them from other people and to have a better experience with them.  The internet provides a seemingly unlimited number of web sites that are full of interesting and challenging ways for me to improve myself and perhaps give me new ideas of interest.

Sweet corn growing behind bars to keep the pesky raccoons out.

Being a teacher allows me some free time during the summer to pursue some of my interests.  One of them is gardening.  By gardening, I mean intentionally planting things in the soil and working to help them grow.  Right now, I have two vegetable gardens growing on my little five acre farm in Michigan. One of the experiments I am doing this year is to raise all my vegetables organically.  By organic, I mean without the use of pesticides or artificially produced fertilizers.  One of the sites I visit often is called Organic Gardening. This web site is full of interesting and useful articles that help me solve problems and also give me ideas on other things to try.  Today, for example I read the little article on Super Sturdy Tomato Cages and have actually made five similar ones already, and I really like them.  They have the added benefit of keeping nosey chickens away from my tasty tomatoes! Another web site I love to visit is called Mother Earth News. This site not only has loads of interesting and useful articles on gardening, but it also has a huge variety of the latest thinking on just about everything, from global warming to getting your house off the grid. 

Adirondack Chairs under our trees.

Another area of interest I have is wood-working.  I like to build things out of wood.  I am not a craftsman by any means, but I can generally build the things I like and they look good when I am finished.  For example, one of the things I like to build is a good old-fashioned Adirondack Chair. I enjoy watching Norm on the "New Yankee Workshop" TV show as he IS a craftsman and I learn a lot by just watching what he does.  He has a video demonstrating how to build an Adirondack chair and it is very helpful to get little tips that make the construction go better and the chair will look better as well.  I have just been asked by my son and his Fiancé to build two chairs for their wedding, (which is later this summer on my farm).  They want to use the chairs in some way for guests to sign or leave a wedding wish or something.  I am not sure, and I don't think they are either.  However, I am getting ready to build two chairs.  I also am going to build them a Cornhole game. We have one already that I built several years ago and it is the center of a lot of fun when we have groups over to the farm.  We are going to paint their silhouettes on each of the cornhole boards, thus creating another cool wedding memory. 

Pure maple sap dripping on a sunny day in February.

Living out in the country allows me to try all sorts of things I may not have thought about while living in town.  Two years ago, I got a hankering to try my hand at making maple syrup.  Having quite a few maple trees on our property gave me the push I needed, so I found another interest: making my own syrup.  I went to a local maple syrup farm and learned a few things to get started and now I make two to three gallons each February-March and share it with my family.  I find it relaxing and also a good time to get caught up on some reading.  What else do you do when you are boiling forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of pure maple syrup?  From tapping the trees to gathering the sap, I find this a fulfilling hobby and also one that reaps sweet rewards.  I like to build a fire out by the woodshed and get the sap boiling.  My neighbor came over this year and he got hooked as well.  He is a welder, so he built a very handy boiling system that allows him to have the sap drip in at one end and golden syrup drip out the other.  I need to get him to make me one of those!

End of the Year Team Project

One of the groups measuring out one of their walls

As this school year was winding down, we fourth grade teachers wanted to give our students a project that would bond them together as a group as they head into middle school next year.  We had already divided them into nine groups for their 5th grade placements in the fall, so we decided to use those groups, without letting them know they were working with next year's classmates. For the past few years, we had been kicking around the idea of having the students build pneumatic geometric structures, using only 500 sq. ft. of neoprene and several rolls of duct tape for construction. They needed a fan of some sort to inflate their structure once it was completed.  Another criteria was that the structure had to be large enough for their entire group to fit inside simultaneously and read once construction was complete.

Hmm, this is our ceiling.  Will we all fit inside?

The groups had to first work together to come up with a geometric shape and then with graph paper, they had to create a scale model.  This demonstrated their math skills as they had to determine square footage of all the sides and also figure out how much tape they would use on the edges.  Then they had to wrestle with the idea of the volume of air inside their proposed structure and decide if the fan they had would be enough to inflate it.  This was such a great activity for them to HAVE to work together and work on their math skills, comunication skills, small motor skills for drawing and cutting and then the most difficult part of all, was the actual construction of their structure.  Our only input was to answer direct questions that showed that they had struggled with the issue and were at an impasse.  Also, if a group was arguing too much, (we told them a little arguing is good for learning and cooperation), or if group members were goofing around, the team would be penalized with the loss of 50 sq. ft. of neoprene for each incident.  We didn't have to penalize any team!

They didn't think they could do it, but they learned something about themselves!

Various structures in the gym, all working!

Brian gives his opinion on the project through a vent hole he made!

All in all, this was an unbelievable project for our fourth graders to take on.  They were hard-working, creative, and they never gave up.  If something wasn't working, they would simply try something else.  The only time a teacher had to actually help was with the taping for a group that had designed a structure with curved sides.  That took the entire group, working together, as well as the teacher to get the taping done and the structure inflated!  After all the structures were completed, every class in the entire school came down two at a time to wander through our new village and go inside and have a fourth grader read a story to them. I think we have a new tradition for the end of the school year for all students in our building to look forward to.  Some will be building the pneumatic structures and most will be experiencing them and sitting in them, perhaps planning for when it is his/her turn?

My Third Post

I am finding the creation of this blog to be intriguing as I think about ways to make it useful, interesting and academically challenging. I can't believe all of the variables involved with blog building!  I spent some time exploring the various gadgets and believe there are many more that I will find that will be useful and fun to use.

My thirty fourth grade students are working very hard at becoming good writers. We have been struggling to put together cohesive paragraphs that use topic sentences, lots of details and then wrapping up our big thought with a concluding sentence that reminds the reader what we were discussing in the first place.  By the end of the school year, fourth graders need to be able to do this well.  Then we push them a little harder!

The next big writing exercise is using powerful words to help us get our point across in more interesting ways.  One way is through a descriptive writing assignment.  Before Spring Break, we started a creative writing piece in order to work on descriptive writing. The assignment is that the students have each discovered a new animal, which is actually a combination of two of their favorite animals.  They have to write an introductory paragraph that describes how they discovered the creature and then they move on to three paragraphs that describe the animal’s appearance, its diet and its habitat. The students then write a concluding paragraph to wrap up the adventure and describe what will happen in their lives from this moment on.

This exercise is a lot of fun for the students as they explore the English language and various ways of acquiring new words.  They can’t believe that Word has a Thesaurus built right in!  I think this blog could become a way to interact or conference with students with their writing in a new way for all of us. It might let us push the envelope a little farther with our technology and how we can put ourselves and our writing into a more interesting light.

Welcome to my Classroom Blog!

I am excited to use technology in different ways to stimulate and inspire as many students as possible across the curriculum. With the ever-changing landscape of education these days, I want to give as many options to students as I can in order to find ways to encourage their learning and help them to see that they can learn and the sky is the limit. When students are presented with different ways of looking at or thinking about ideas and concepts, it can help them understand how their own brain works and maybe help them discover how they can approach different or difficult problems.

One way I wish to use this blog is to explore what different teachers are doing with blogs in their classrooms. I have ideas for how I wish to use it, but am looking forward to seeing what others do and what successes or "failures" they may have had. I use the word failure loosely as I agree with Thomas Edison when he was asked how he felt when he had hundreds of filaments fail on his way to inventing the lightbulb, and he replied, "they weren't failures, we were successful in finding out what doesn't work." (not his exact words, but this was his thinking). I am excited about finding different teacher blogs from the USA and around the world to gather ideas and to expand my own thinking about using this technology to help the learners in my classroom.

My second goal with this blog is to use it with students in various ways to help them think and write. I currently teach fourth grade and I have a lot of great technology in my classroom from a Smartboard and document camera to clickers and Flip cameras which students have full use of. We spend a good portion of our day using this technology but I am ready to take things much further with a daily interactive piece, like a blog, where students will be required to read and respond, or create their own interactive idea for other students to respond to. I am looking forward to exploring the different ways this technology can be used to help students learn and love to learn.