Hatching Chicks 2023!

Our chicks our now three weeks old!  What an amazing experience hatching our very own chickens from eggs.  We waited in anticipation for their arrival, our eyes glued to the incubator with great interest, waiting for every slight movement, wiggle or jiggle that would suggest a chicken would hatch sortly "ooh, it's woggling" says Tyson as the the egg began to move.  "I think it's going to take 100 days" say Riya.  Looking at our books and posters we started conversations about the life cycle and began our predictions of what day they would hatch, what they would look like, what colour they might be and how many boys and girls we could have.  Some of us had been through the experience before but for many of us this was the first time.  We had 10 eggs in total and we had to make sure the temperature was just right and the water was filled up daily in order for them to have the right environment for our eggs to hatch. 

The incubator became the central hub of our Kindergarten.  Everybody stopped to check the progress before going on with their activities, the first day saw us all using our patience as not much happened. It was an ideal platform to support and expand our vocabularies and the ability to verbalise our ideas, predictions and use our vocabulary for a range of purposes.  We regularly referred to the life cycle poster on the wall and further developed our expectations.  This experience was ideal for extending our knowledge as well as our Oral Literacy.

Then the moment arrived....... A little pip a little crack....... and an egg hatched "That's amazing said Tyson.  It took a lot of work for our babies to themselves out of the shell and it was very tired and wet when they are first born.  There was no shortage on conversation and idea sharing, as we watched our newborn chick.  It appeared to be hard work to be a chicken, because it fell asleep quite regularly.  We watch eagerly as it moved around, and before long it was able to stand, and its fluffy hair was drying off and revealing a cute little fluffy chick.

Over the Tuesday and Wednesday we saw more chicks hatch.  These experiences were equally as exciting as the first.  We again watched on as the chicks made bigger and bigger cracks in their shells.  At times all movement would stop for a while, which we were able to deduce was the chicken falling asleep, based on the behaviour of sleeping a lot we noticed from our first chick.  

Setting up the brooder

The chicks need a new home after the incubator, this is called a brooder.  As we set up the brooder we discussed what the chicks might need and had a look at the list of instructions that had been left for us to follow. This was a great opportunity to test some of our working theories as well as to practice our literacy skills. We made sure to give them light for warmth, some water and food and made them a nice cozy bed out of wood shavings.

Once all the chicks had hatched, and their fluff dried, they were all able to be moved from the incubator to the brooder.  The brooder provides the chicks with a bit more room, but they still have the heat of the light bulb to help keep their new born bodies warm.  As the don't yet have feathers, they are unable to regulate their temperature.  The day periodically saw a large number of children sitting and watching these entertaining creatures.  The would sleep, eat and move about their brooder, under the watchful eye of our tamariki.

Finally our chicks were big enough to venture out of the brooder and start exploring the big wide world. We set up a temporary chicken run with the rocket boards. Everybody was super excited to see what our chicks would do when given more space to move around so seats around the outside of the run were very popular. There was lots of negotiating and compromise before everyone was seated and it was time to let the chicks out. There were also some rules that our Tamariki had to follow for the safety and well being of our chicks. These were to look with our eyes but not to touch with our hands and to stay back from the edge of the boards so that we didn't risk frightening or squashing our chicks. Finally the chicks were placed in the circle and they were as excited as we were. They ran and scratched and the ground and flapped their tiny wings. The were so fast and looked so cute and fluffy that it was really hard to resist picking them up but our Tamariki displayed their understanding of the reasons behind our rules and great self control as they looked but didn't touch.  Mahi Pai Tamariki. 

Cuddle time:

As the chickens got fluffy and grew a bit bigger and stronger we were able to have lots of opportunities to hold and cuddle them.  They could feel how soft their fluff was and feel their scratchy little feet on their hands and laps. The children had a great sense of responsibility to be able to hold the chickens and understood the importance of the rules associated with this special task such as sitting down and being quiet and gentle. 

This has been an amazing experience for all our tamariki and we can't wait to have more cuddles and look after them as they grow each day.  Once they have full feathers we can set up their coop outdoors where they will have lots of fun and room to roam and one day in the future they will lay us eggs.

As we learn about different life cycles we are exploring curiosity and the ability to inquire into , research, explore, generate and modify working theories about the natural world.