Chickens. By: Stacey DeSimone

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1 Chickens By: Stacey DeSimone

2 Background During the fall of 2011, the children and I had a conversation about classroom pets. Having a reputation for not keeping things alive, early on the children knew that whatever pet we got had to be easy to maintain. Chickens were always a topic of conversation. Within the classroom two children had backyard chickens. To begin the project, we needed the materials. verify= &challengeid=40591

3 Why With the addition of an incubator, our students will be able to see the life cycle in action. Once those eggs are hatched, our students will provide a proper, heated environment to see those chicks grow. Once the chicks are ready, we will be working with a local farm to learn about his sustainable development processes. Finally, our chicks will find a home with him where they grow on to produce eggs and re-create the cycle again. Our students will become amazed and fascinated every step of the way! To see the joy and amazement over new life in my classroom will make everything come full circle. From learning about history to see the present and hope for the future, the incubator and supplies will create a lasting memory for the students I teach.

4 Materials Needed Mini-Incubator Brooder Chick Feeding Set

5 The Eggs Arrive Three weeks before the eggs were to arrive, a few students started to look at the ins and outs of what we would need to hatch eggs. They researched and tested the incubator, learned about pitfalls and bad eggs, what type of settings are needed, what happens after hatching etc. Carolina Biological mailed out the eggs on March 6 th and they arrived on March 7 th where they immediately made it into the incubator. Lots of discussion on what was going on.

6 Incubation Once the eggs were in the incubator, we used the chick life-cycle to go through the stages. Each day during our morning meeting, we shared the different stage the eggs were at. From there, we passed along each egg to the lower elementary classroom where they shared the egg with their classroom. Those children had follow-up work to go along with their egg journal and the different stages.

7 Candling A few of my fifth and sixth years were in charge of candling. Candling is a process of taking an egg into a dark room and shining a flashlight under the egg to see if the egg has a viable embryo. The children candled on day 8, day 10, and then again on day 15. They originially thought we only had a few viable eggs. As the candling came to the later days, they were able to see air sacs and subsequently they assumed two eggs were bacteria ridden.

8 Eggs Before Hatching

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10 Chick is Hatching Video of chick #4 (Cutie Pie) Hatching

11 Chick #4 Arrives

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14 The Rest of the Chicks are here!

15 Spending time in the UE! Visiting Hours Once the chickens arrived, there was a flurry within the classroom. Everyone wanted to come and see! The kids sent out a birth announcement and created a visiting hours poster on the wall so that the school could come and see without disturbing the work that was going on in the classroom. The chickens stayed in the classroom for two weeks, graduating from a card board box to a guinea pig cage.

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18 Pet Sitting During the time we had the chicks, the children were the responsible party. They cleaned the cage twice a day, made sure there was food/water, and created a safe environment. Empathy played a major role in my classroom the children were more aware of babies within the room. There was a daily log kept of the chicks by some students, others were reading about chickens, still others planned their break time around monitoring the chicks. While this was going on, three students were in charge or arranging the going out to deliver the chicks to Jenny s Grandfather s home making sure we had drivers, planning what we would do there, deciding how we would transport, when we would go, etc.

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20 2 Weeks Later As we grew closer to April Vacation, our chicks grew larger. They did not want to be held as much and became daring jumping on the brooder, trying to get away when the cage was cleaned, etc. We loaded the chickens in the cars and took the journey to their loving home. 1 chicken had already gone to Sydney s home and 3 of the others were going to our Executive Director s home. Jenny s grandfather gave us a tour of his backyard farm with goats, other chickens, barn cat, a duck, and a future with horses. He showed the kids the coop, how he kept the chickens, how he was going to introduce them to their new homes, did an experiment with eggs, and shared his farming skills. It was a great learning environment for all.

21 After The chickens still lived on in our classroom. Sydney created an amazing power point to share about backyard chickens. Dyovelis did some research on the Naked Necks chickens. Oren worked on plans for constructing his own coop. There was a group who made a fabulous poster on the life cycle of a chicken. The chickens lived on. On Grandparents/Special Friends Day Jenny s Grandparents came into the classroom. Before they left, we asked for an update on the chicks. He shared how he slowly introduced them to their home over time. It was great to hear how they are doing now.

22 July Photos

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