Science – hatching live Chicks from eggs
In Year 2’s Science topic “Animals Including Humans,” the children learnt about the different life cycles of animals.
As part of this, the classes learnt about the lifecycle of birds. To support their learning, chicken eggs were delivered to school and kept in an incubator, in the classroom, until they were ready to hatch. This real-life experience caused a great deal of excitement and the children were sometimes able to watch, by pecking their way through the shell with their egg tooth.
When the chicks emerged, they were very wet from the fluid that had sustained them; however, once they had dried out, they could be transferred them to the brooder. At this point, the children were made responsible for looking after them - ensuring that they had enough food, warmth and water to survive. After a week, the chickens were sent back to a local farm.
The children used what they had learnt in lessons and these first-hand experiences to make non-fiction books about chicks, with a lot of scientific information.
