Miss McDonald had some CHICKS

With a peep peep here, and a chirp chirp there!

Last month our fifth graders incubated 12 eggs as part of an inquiry into animal life cycles. We studied and researched the incubation process and the life cycle of chickens. We checked for heartbeats, monitored their temperature, and tracked their growth and development.

This is Nugget, our class's chick. 

21 days later, only one of our eggs hatched. This prompted further research into why this happens during the incubation process. But, we couldn't just have one chick of course! So, we decided to purchase a few newly hatched chicks so ours could have a brood.

We've been observing and monitoring our brood for 2 weeks and have learned so much about their behaviors! Recently the chicks have been molting and we've observed them helping each other keep clean during this process. The kiddos were worried at first when we saw one of the chicks pecking at another, until we realized it was like chimps who help clean each other.

As part of our inquiry process, we took our knowledge public and visited kindergarten and first grade classes. We read a poem about chicks hatching and talked to the classes about incubating eggs and taking care of hatchlings.

The classes we visited were very curious about our chicks, and asked tons of great questions. Thanks to our research, we were able to answer most of them.

My pup Jasper also really enjoyed the chicks! He has been so intrigued by them when I bring them home over the weekend. I think he'll miss them when they go to the barn today.