Abbie Weimer Blod Post #2

Now that all of our planning was complete, it was time to teach the 4th graders! We were all so excited to finally put everything we'd learned into action! I''l admit we were a little nervous to begin, but as soon as the kids walked up we knew we would do great. We decided to start with a fun introduction, telling the kids our names and, if we were chickens, what our chicken names would be. We had each kid one at a time tell us their name, their chicken name, and what they ate for breakfast. Asking them what they ate for breakfast allowed us to connect food, mainly eggs, to chickens! It was a nice segue into our next activity, a True or False chicken fact game! We handed out flashcards with facts (either true or false) to each one of the kids. They as a group had to work together to figure out which facts belonged on the true side or the false side. This encouraged the kids to use deductive reasoning to deem a fact either true or false. We then went from kid to kid and had them explain why they believed they belonged on that side, and then we told them if they were right or not. The kids were really into it! They were fascinated by some of the facts, their favorite being that chickens are the closest living relative to the T-Rex. At this point we had the kids turn to the chicken section in their booklet and write their chicken name and two of the facts they learned that were the most interesting to them. Once the kids finished up with this, we asked them to grab a couple pieces of grass and follow us into the coop! Inside the coop, Clare led the teaching of the diagram of a chicken. She pointed out some of the body parts, and explained the importance of them. After this, we let the kids roam around, and we encouraged them to make observations and write them down. They loved petting the chickens and feeding them grass! We also took a couple kids at a time inside the nest area, where they were able to see the eggs the hens had laid. The kids had so much fun, and they all walked away talking about what they had learned. Overall I think this was such an amazing experience, and I would totally do this again if I had the chance!