Friday, April 19, 2019

Little Joe Chickapig Cookie Treats

Hey y'all it almost time for a little Easter break {woo hoo!!!} The past few weeks we have been learning all about egg-hatching animals. Last month I just so happened to come across a fabulous book Little Joe Chickapig by Brian Calhoun. This sweet story about following your dreams has captured the hearts of my students. They have fallen in love with this adorable little half chicken-half pig critter. Little Joe Chickapig has helped inspire us to write about our dreams, motivated us to learn more about characters and settings of books, helped us to make text-to-self connections and also helped us to engage in oodles of hands-on learning fun. To sum it up... Little Joe Chickapig has become part of our classroom! We just love him!!  So as a little Easter treat, I decided to make a special snack for my awesome hard-working kiddos...





Oh yes! you guessed it... Little Joe Chickapig cookies! Omigoodness I wish you could have heard the squeals when they saw these sitting on the table. Happy, motivated kiddos sure do make this teacher's heart smile! I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!


Thursday, April 18, 2019

From Egg-sitting to Chick-sitting!


Check out what Little Joe Chickapig was up to in our classroom...

Yep! Thats's right LJC was doing a little egg-sitting for some of the hens back at the Chickapig farm & asked us for a little help. Of course we said yes & quickly discovered that egg-sitting is a lot of work. We had to check the eggs often to be sure that they were safe and warm. We also had to carefully turn them...just like the mama hen does. (Shhh, don’t tell them but they are also getting a little extra practice telling time!) We used our "EGG-SITTING LOG BOOK"  to keep track of all of this.
{This Log Book is part of my "What's Hatchin' Chick?" unit.}

First, all of the students made a warm and safe nest to keep their egg in. Many also chose to cover it with a little blanket (since they were a little too big to sit on the egg to keep it warm! lol) Awww, they're so stinkin' cute!






Check out some of these cute names... Little Bob, Rozee, Little Jo, Chi Chi...







We stopped about every hour to do an "egg check" (I tried to stop on the hour since my students were just learning to tell time to the hour.) The wrote down the time, turned the egg and check to be sure it was warm and safe.

















At the end of the school day, my students decided that they wanted to put the eggs back under Chickapig. When I asked them if they wanted to take their eggs home with them they said, “No we want Chickapig to keep them warm so they hatch!”  Hmmm... ??? 

Fast forward to the next morning... WOW! Little Joe Chickapig is one awesome egg-sitter chick-sitter! We found 6 adorable little fluffy chicks & a note. Omiword! these kiddos were beyond excited! A few things that I heard that morn... "Chickapig you did it!" "Thank you for keeping the eggs warm all night!" "He followed his heart!" "I guess he took the rest of the eggs back to the farm."
One of my favorite questions that morning came from a sweet little girl who raises chickens at home... "So Miss B, do you think these are baby chickapigs or just plain old chickens?" lol

Baby chickapig or baby chicken...we really didn't care but after noticing that they had beaks instead of snouts, we figured out they were chicks and... We LOVE them! <3



Be sure to check out my "What's Hatchin' Chick" unit for the Egg-Sitting Log Book that we used in this post plus oodles of other activities to go along with your hatching unit.

Thank you so much Little Joe Chickapig for hanging out in our classroom and inspiring all kinds of learning fun!
{Pssst! ...if you haven't picked up this awesome book yet, head to Target now!}

Also, be sure to check out the Chickapig Facebook page!
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Thanks so much for following our hatching & Chickapig adventures. Now it's time for me to head to the kitchen to come up with a fun little treat for my students...


{Be sure to check back to see pics of the cutest little treats ever!}



Thursday, April 4, 2019

Following Our Dreams! {inspired by Little Joe Chickapig}

All I can say is “Awwwww!” ...and that’s exactly the reaction I hear when someone sees our Chickapig writing display. It is so stinkin’ cute to hear about what a six year old dreams of doing someday! 🖤🖤🖤 Check these out...
















Hey Brian Calhoun...this little guy ⬆️ might be in the market for one of your cool guitars before long!! 

 ...such big dreams these kiddos have!! Can’t wait to see them follow those dreams! 

Just in case you miss my previous post on Little Joe Chickapig... check it out HERE. It includes the link for this FREEBIE writing craftivity. This adorable book written by Brian Calhoun @chickapig  is all about following your dreams. 



I hope your kiddos love Little Joe Chickapig as much as we do!