Classroom Chicken Hatching Final Report

The hatching of chick eggs provided students with a valuable and memorable learning experience. We began this experiment in early April. The process took about 21 days. For many students this was their first exposure to farming life. It also gave students an opportunity to observe the miracle of life. Through this project the students had an opportunity to learn about the incubation process, embryonic development, practice animal care and handling, develop a greater appreciation and understanding of agriculture and specifically the poultry industry, and learn to perform specific skills such as reading a thermometer and candling an egg. Before undertaking this project, we made arrangements for the chicks that were going to hatch. Some parents volunteered to take one or two. The remaining chicks are heading to a local farm. We had a total of eight out of the 24 eggs hatch. In my classroom, I believe children learn best when involved in hands-on, real life experiences. The life cycle of the chicken was made real through the student’s participation in this chick hatching experiment. We were able to integrate several subjects into this project. Besides the obvious relationship in science we were able to tie into ELA, Math, and Social Studies. In ELA, our connection was through the use of stories and poems. We read “One Duck Stuck” by Phyllis Root and several other stories and poems that involved chickens and ducks. In Math, we graphed our predictions of the hatch rate. In Social Studies, we focused on the responsibility of taking care of living things/animals. We also learned about the communities that would normally have chickens and other farm animals. This is an experiment I hope to repeat in the future due to the high level of rigor that was produced throughout the process.