Hatching Chickens: A Project for Kids

Are you a teacher, a homeschooler or just somebody who likes to help their children learn about the miracle of life? Hatching chickens is a good way to do that, and provides a range of benefits for young ones. ScienceNetlinks has put together a lesson plan that walks kids through how to incubate and care for chicks as they hatch.

It’s designed for a classroom but can be used with any size group of kids, large or small — and even just one child.

PURPOSE

To help children understand the importance of carefully observing and caring for eggs and chickens in the classroom.

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CONTEXT

This lesson is intended to help students realize that they can learn a lot about chickens—and animals in general—through close observation. They also should come to understand that it is important to learn about the special needs of eggs/chicks in order to take care of them, whether on a farm or in a classroom hatching project.

This lesson can be used as an orientation for students before doing a chicken-hatching unit in class. It may also be used in conjunction with the unit to emphasize the importance of the proper care for eggs/chicks.

Students begin the lesson by expressing what they know about chickens in general and then are encouraged to think and talk about how eggs hatch into chicks and the kinds of special things that are needed to care for eggs/chicks. Students then watch a short movie of a chick hatching from an egg. They discuss what they observe to help reinforce and broaden what they are learning. Then students are prompted to think about what they would need (and how they should behave) if they were to have an egg-hatching project in their classroom. To help reinforce their ideas, they read about one kindergarten classroom’s egg-hatching project and close the lesson by depicting the materials and acting out the processes and behavior that would be needed to successfully hatch eggs and take care of newborn chicks in a classroom.

To read the rest of the lesson plan, including exercises and questions for kids, visit ScienceNetlinks.

Science NetLinks is a premier K-12 science education resource produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. At Science NetLinks, you’ll find teaching tools, interactives, podcasts, and hands-on activities, and all of it is free!

For the project’s supplies, look at Jeffers Livestock’s poultry incubation choices, including the simple-to-use Chick-Bator Incubator which comes with a free “Egg Hatcher’s Guide Boook.”