FFFriday

First, Fish:

Liam took our salmon study a step further by creating a life cycle diagram and several pictures of different salmon species. He shared his work with such pride. We were impressed by his effort. 

Finally, Frances:

Ms Munro's eldest daughter, Frances, had a pro-d day on Friday, so she came to help in class. We finished Friday with her reading a favourite family story, A Birthday for Frances.   Yes, Frances is named after a badger. 

Ms Munro was feeling a bit proud of her kid. 

CHICKENS IN THE HOUSE!!!

There are beautiful little chicks in the primary wing!  They hatched last week. We had to go meet them today. 

Of all 12 that hatched, only one is yellow. Its name is Sunny, of course. :)

Any more? Please?

The Hatchery tour

We started with a salmon identification game:

Then we had a funny puppet show to teach us how the salmon fertilized their eggs...

Next we looked at the incubating trays and inside the incubation room:

Outside, they raise the fry in tanks and then put them into protected ponds for them to grow into smolt.

Thanks to those dedicated biologists for producing all those salmon for us!

Seymour Hatchery

On Tuesday we were so lucky to be able to go to the Seymour Hatchery and take part in three stations. 

One was the tour of the hatchery, looking at the fertilization trays, fry tanks and the rearing ponds. Another was surveying the stream, Hurry Creek, to see if it was suitable for young fry:

We measured temperature, ( 5 degrees Celsius)

We measured depth:

And we found the stream most suitable.

Excitement down the block

On Friday, the rain stopped for the perfect amount of time for us to meet Ollie's honey bees and chickens in his backyard.  Here is Oliver's mum, Ruthie.

The Bachs' honey bees were mailed from New Zealand in this poster tube.  The ends were little white cages for air circulation. Inside, the queen was separate in a wee cardboard compartment.  

The wooden box here is the hive. The bees are in there. What are the three kinds of bees?

What's this for?

Why would Ollie have to use this smoker?

Ollie showed us his dad's bee suit that he wears when he's working with the hive.

The Bachs have kept bees before.  They get delicious honey from them, and, most importantly, they pollinate the trees around us and help new food grow.  Without them, we would go very hungry.

Onto more excitement: THE CHICKENS. 

Oliver holds Lucy upside down. Who knew chickens would let you do that?

Would you believe you can hypnotize chickens?!  Ollie demonstrated for us.  Lucy got very still and mellow just from him placing her on her back on the ground. We didn't hear if he said any magic words to her.  What would you say to a chicken to hypnotize it?

Here is Flappy, their second hen, in the coop.  The third bird is Penguino:

Isn't she gorgeous?

Chicken condo.

The Bachs' hens help the environment by eating food scraps (so less waste); pooping (which is excellent fertilizer for their vegetable garden); and producing beautiful, fresh, free range eggs for their family. Look what the hens laid on Friday!!!

Those colours!  Gorgeous!

Ruthie, Oliver's mum, then produced juice and honey grahams for us.  Bees make honey for the cookies, and they pollinate fruit trees to get the fruit for the juice.  The hens lay eggs for baking cookies.  It's all connected!

Oliver and Ruthie, thank you so much for having us to your backyard, where so much significant environmental activity takes place. 

I love our class of silly chickens. 

Creations

Look at these faces and creations!

With pattern blocks, the same thing s never happen twice.