Throwback Thursday, Sort Of...

Hi Friends!

Today's linky with Freebielicious is supposed to be a Throwback Thursday--a blog post that you wrote a long time ago. Well, since my baby blog is only a month old, I don't really have anything for Throwback Thursday. So I decided I am just going to blog about a fun lesson that I did with my kids back in the spring, and we will call it a deal. Sound okay?

Alrighty, here we go. Last spring, right after Spring Break, we started my favorite project of the year, chickens! We incubated and actually hatched baby chickens--and it is AWESOME!

I start the unit out by showing the kids a book on the life cycle of a chicken. I like to use this one because it puts the cycle in terms that the kids can understand. You can purchase it from Scholastic.

Next, I show the students the incubator. I explain how it works and how it is going to keep the eggs nice and warm while the babies are growing. I am very honest with my students and tell them that not all the eggs are going to have babies in them. I also explain to them that when we are eating eggs for breakfast, we are not eating baby chickens. They always get worried and ask, so I just tell them up front. I also show them the Magic School Bus episode called "Cracks a Yolk." They do the best job of explaining the fertilization process, without going into TOO much detail, which shows the kids why some have chicks, and others don't. When it was over, my kids acted like they chicken experts--which they were! 

After that, we put the eggs into the incubator. I got them from a sweet lady that Hubs works with. She raises chickens and was happy to help us with the project. My kids called her the "Farmer." The eggs stay in the incubator for 21 days before they hatch. 

Aren't they beautiful!?!

Fast forward 21 days and they were ready to hatch at any point. The kids were so excited and I was too, but on day 21, we didn't have any hatch. I was super disappointed when I headed home and right before I turned the lights off, I heard a little "PEEP!" from one egg. I could hardly sleep that night! When I got back the next morning we had a BABY!

After they dry off for a little bit in the incubator, we moved them to a box with water, food, bedding, and a heat lamp to keep them warm. My students were so excited when the came in. They named him McPufferson. (Any GoNoodle fans out there??)

About an hour later we heard more peeping from the incubator so we peeked in a saw the smallest crack in another egg. My kids were just beside themselves and so we just sat and watched for a long time. I can't get much more real life experience than this!

When they go back from P.E., we had baby number 2! Her name is Fluffy. Here is Fluffy and McPufferson hanging out in their box!

Precious.

Fast forward 2 more days and we ended up having 8 babies hatch, and 7 of them survive. I brought them home so we could take them back to the farm. Annabelle was very interested in our temporary house guests. 

Here they are back on the farm!

So that is my Throwback Thursday post-- sort of! Ha! This is one of my favorite projects of the year and the students LOVED it. They were all so sweet and gentle when they would hold them and really took ownership in the project. 

*Quick story that is too funny not to share*

I invited all of the teachers in our school to bring their students by to see the chickens. One of the second grade classes was walking beside the box and looking at the chickens when one little boy said, "Mmm...I hope my mom make chicken for supper tonight!" My kids and his teacher looked mortified and needless to say, he was whisked out of the room rather quickly. I had to hold back my giggles, my looks on my kids' faces was priceless. #kidssaythedarndestthings

Be sure to check out all of the Throwback Thursday posts on Freebielicious today. Tomorrow is the last day of this fun linky party.

Have a wonderful Thursday!