Chicks, Eggs, Matter...& MORE!

Is it Thursday already? Where did this week go?!? Oh...how could I forget? We have been knee-deep in PASS Testing! ;) The good news? PASS Testing is over!!!!! Well, until May when we have to test in every other content area. :) Even more good news? My kids totally rocked it and worked so stinkin' hard. I am so proud of them. They truly gave it everything they had and then some. Today, I gave them a little treat to reward them.

Now my mom {a.k.a. the class grandmother} on the other hand promised them pizza. So we *may* have had a small pizza party as well! ;) I will be sharing more about how I pump my kids up for state testing in my new unit coming out this weekend! It's a really fun community project that involves our younger friends who are not tested! The kids love it and look forward to it every year! Be on the lookout! 

Although we have had tons of testing coming our way this week, we have also been working on some really fun projects as well. 

Our chicks are due to hatch tomorrow! Praise the Lawd they did not begin hatching during out testing today! That would have been craziness. 

They are now off of the turner and we should start hearing some chirps from inside the eggs tomorrow. 

The kiddos have really enjoyed charting the developmental stages of the chick each day. My sweet teacher friend {who has hatched eggs for years} gave me this super cute idea. We have been charting each day's development on egg shapes. Then, we put our information in plastic eggs and keep them in order in our egg cartons. We will decorate the front with a picture of each student and our sweet chicks. 

On the back, the students describe what is occurring in the egg during each day of development. 

Tomorrow we will add our final day! Day 21...which means it's hatching time! 

Along with our chick study, we began a new science unit. For the next few weeks, we will be all about matter. They are already thrilled about this unit because it opens up so many opportunities for experiments. 

I began this unit with a fun experiment that I found right {HERE}. We called it balloon poke! I set up three balloons and explained that each balloon represented one state of matter. 

I called on three volunteers to poke our ballon. Then, we charted our observations and classified each balloon as a solid, liquid, or gas. 

Solid! 

Liquid! {I say when you have made a mess...it's a great day! Our sweet custodian disagrees!} ;) 

Gas! 

Oh my! 

Today as we continued with this little study, we learned all about what the molecules look like in each state. Once again, I selected three volunteers to represent each state of matter. They suited up, and I used balloons to represent what these molecules would look like if they could be seen with the naked eye! Once they were suited up, we let them jump around and around. We observed what happened to the molecules.

In this example, nothing moved and it kept a definite shape. 

In this example, the balloons bounced around everywhere super fast! 

In this example, the molecules moved past one another. 

 After we observed each person in front, we showed what happened using Froot Loops! 

Finally, we classified our three friends as a solid, liquid, or gas. 

Then, we finished up with a little note taking and sorting activity using flip books. 

So, let's talk about the fact that I misspelled liquid and didn't even realize it until I had printed everything in color. Umm...nothing a little paint pen can't fix! #tired! 

Tomorrow we will be exploring gases! Lot's of crazy experiments in store. I also have a reading group staying after to watch James and the Giant Peach and a school dance! Let's just say that I may be sleeping until noon on Saturday! 

Have a great day tomorrow, friends!