Duckling Joy

Over the past few days, we’ve had the joy of caring for five sweet little ducklings. What a gift it has been. Each day has held quiet moments of wonder, bursts of unbridled joy, and everything in between.

We're enjoying watching our ducklings grow so quickly. These babies have taught us about the beauty of new life and the goodness in God's creation. We've experienced patience, gentleness, and how something small can bring such deep joy.

The children were surprised to learn that the ducklings are born knowing how to swim - no swim lessons needed!  God's design is so incredible. 

The ducklings are off to the Beliveau Family Resort for the weekend and will return for a few more days next week. This experience has been rich in Science learning, but even more meaningful in growing our faith. We’ve noticed God in unexpected places. The ducklings have shown us just how awe-inspiring God's creation truly is. 

Hatching and Harvesting

Hatching

Our duck eggs are halfway through their growth! Our friendly farmer, Mrs. Junck, visits once a week to guide our learning. 

Mrs. Junck is always full of surprises and brought two grown ducks from her farm. We compared the drake (male) to the hen (female), noticing that the female is brown and camouflages well. This is because she has to sit on the eggs for 28 days and stay hidden from predators. 

We candled a few eggs from our incubator. Candling shows us if the egg is developing into a duckling. We made our classroom very dark. Using a bright light, we were able to see if something was growing inside by noticing the air sack, dark shadows, and even movement. Bright, lit up egg? No duck (bottom right). Dark, shadowy egg? Duck! (top right)

Ducks take 28 days to grow and we candled on day 14. Our growth is right on track. Isn't God's plan incredible?

Harvesting

The seeds we planted in our grow towers have thrived! Today we sampled the fruits (or veggies?) of our labour! Each student was treated to a fresh salad. What a wonderful experience!

Our class is bursting with new life, signs of spring, and lots of joy!

Happy Hatching

Spring fever has hit Grade 1 and ducklings are on the horizon! Our hatching journey has begun!

This morning we reflected on what we already know about ducklings. Here are a few of the students' comments:

"They come from an egg."

"They like to swim."

"Ducks have webbed feet."

"They can fly."

"They grow into a duck."

We also generated a list of what we wanted to find out about ducklings:

Our local farmer, Mrs. Junck, brought us 13 duck eggs and an incubator from her farm. She will be visiting us weekly to teach us about new life, rural communities, needs of living things, and so much more!

Our eggs don't come with a mama duck, so the incubator will act in her place. It will keep the eggs warm and moist, and will turn them twice a day. Our job is to carefully monitor the incubator's temperature and humidity.

Near the end of April and into May, we will be welcoming our ducklings! We are about to experience God's new life, right before our very eyes!

Rooted in Gratitude & Love

As the end of a joyful school year approaches, we wish to express our deepest gratitude to the incredible support our families all have offered to our Grade 1 classroom. Your generous gifts of time, presence, and love have truly been a reflection of Christ’s service and compassion. Whether you were helping prep materials or joining us on field trips or special events, your dedication has made a lasting impact. Thank you for being instruments of God’s love and for helping us create a classroom community rooted in faith, kindness, and learning. 

This past week, our St. Nicholas Community opened our gym to our volunteers. To show our gratitude, we prepared some spring art to decorate our gym. We drew, coloured with pastels, and painted, creating stunning flower art. 

We put our art together to create beautiful blooms, and proudly displayed these flowers as decorations in our gym!

Thank you for all you've done to help our child bloom. May God continue to bless you for all that you’ve shared with us this year!

Duckling Joy!

Over the past few days, we've been blessed with the presence of seven adorable ducklings. Caring for them has been a delightful experience, filled with moments of wonder and gratitude.

Witnessing their rapid growth and observing their curious nature has been a testament to the beauty of new life. These little ducklings have taught us invaluable lessons in patience, compassion, and God's awe-inspiring work of creation!

We are thankful for this joyful experience and the cherished memories it has brought into our lives. Indeed, God's creations are truly marvellous.

Farewell, ducklings! 

Reading, Creating, Discovering and Hatching!

We've begun exploring the parts of a story and together we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle:

After enjoying the book, we closely examined Mr. Carle's illustrations. He has a unique method for making designed paper and then cutting it into the pieces for his pictures. 

We followed Mr. Carle's paper-making technique. First, we painted our paper. We added drips, drops, stripes and spots in every colour!

No shortage of creativity in our class!

Once our paint dried, we cut shapes to make butterflies!

Our week ended with tremendous joy and wonder as new life filled our incubator! We were thrilled to welcome several ducklings into the world. Once they’re fully dry, they’ll move into a cozy little “barn” right in our classroom. What a beautiful reminder of God’s goodness!

EGG-citement in Grade 1!

Our week was filled with EGG-cellent learning!

Today Mrs. Junck visited us. We compared the eggs and feathers of a turkey and a duck, learned how an egg forms inside a mama, and examined the development of ducklings inside the egg. 

Today marks day 14 in our incubation journey. We are halfway through incubating our duck eggs, and in two weeks our ducklings should be hatching. We were able to candle a few eggs and saw the growth of the ducklings inside. We could even see movement!

Eggs are a symbol of new life, which is why eggs are a symbol at Easter. We spent the afternoon making Pysanky, traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs. This took lots of patience and creativity, and we did have lots of fun! We kept reminding each other that "everything new is hard at first". 

So much EGG-citement this past week! Have a blessed Easter!

Hatching & Harvesting

Hatching

Our duck eggs are a quarter of the way in their growth! Mrs. Junck visits once a week to guide our learning.

Mrs. Junck is always full of surprises and she brought two grown ducks from her farm. We compared the drake (male) and the hen (female), noticing that the female is brown and camouflages well. This is because she has to sit on the eggs for 28 days and stay safe from predators. 

We candled a few eggs in our incubator. Candling shows us if the egg is developing into a duck. We made our classroom very dark. Using a bright light, we were able to see if there was a developing duck inside the egg or not. Bright, lit up egg? No duck (bottom R). Dark, shadowy egg? Duck (top R)! 

Harvesting

The seeds we planted in our tower gardens a few months ago have thrived! Today we sampled the fruits (or veggies?) of our labour and had a little salad! What a wonderful treat!

Our classroom is bursting with new life, signs of spring, and lots of joy!

Spring has Sprung!

Spring has sprung in Grade 1, and ducklings and seedlings are on the horizon!

Hatching Ducklings

Our duck hatching journey has begun! Our local farmer, Mrs. Junck, brought us duck eggs from her farm and is visiting us weekly to teach us about new life. Each day we carefully monitor the incubator's temperature and humidity. Near the end of April and into May, we will be welcoming our ducklings!

We are so excited for Day 28, also known as Hatch Day, to arrive! Until then, we will continue to pray for our little eggs and marvel at the new life growing inside. God is so good!

Planting problem

We arrived today, ready to plant seeds, but we had a problem … our seeds were missing!

We each received our own case files, with a list of suspects inside. We were challenged to work through several tasks. 

These tasks were a wonderful review of many skills, including comparing numbers, vowel sounds, shapes, blends, and more!

As we completed each task, we received a clue, eliminating a suspect. 

We found the culprit! The case of the criminal critter was solved and we found our seeds! We look forward to planting next week … stay tuned!

Clucking and Candling!

Tuesday was day 7 of our hatching journey!

We learned that on the 7th day of growth, the comb begins to grow and the egg tooth starts to appear. The egg tooth is a small, hard cap on the tip of the beak that allows the chick to peck out of the egg. Isn't God amazing?

Earlier this week Mrs. Junck brought in a hen and a rooster! We compared and contrasted hens and roosters, and then we learned more about the life cycle of a chicken. We were even able to gently pet the hen and rooster! It was like Old MacDonald's farm in here!

We candled a few of the eggs in our incubator. Candling shows us if the egg is developing into a chick. First we made our classroom very dark. Using a bright light, we were able to see if there was a developing chick inside the egg or not. Dark, shadowy egg? Chick! Bright, lit up egg? No chick. 

Can you see the dark spot on the lower half of the egg?
That is a developing chick!

We are learning about the miracle of life and have been exploring the life cycles. Ask your child to explain the life cycle of a chicken!

We are so excited for day 21 to arrive! That is when we will eagerly watch for our eggs to begin hatching! Until then, we will continue to pray for our little ones and marvel at the miracle of new life. God is so good!

Chickie Love

We've spent 21 days carefully monitoring our incubator!

This week, we were absolutely elated to experience hatching firsthand! We watched in awe as sweet little babies pecked out of their eggs, fluffed up in the incubator, and were moved to their home in the brooder box. God's new life is miraculous!

We wasted zero time and decided these little fluff balls needed some gentle cuddles. The boys and girls learned they needed to sit while holding a chick, and to keep a hand under their feet as well as lightly on their back. It was such a lovely experience snuggling with our new little miracles!

As a class, we'll be caring for these beautiful chicks until the end of the week. 

It has been an AMAZING few weeks filled with loads of valuable science and language arts lessons. More importantly, however, are the lessons we have learned about new life, respect, patience, and compassion. God's work is truly amazing!

Thank you, God, for blessing us with this experience! We are in truly in awe of your amazing work and beautiful creations!