The pamphlet, From Egg to Chick , supplied by the county Cooperative Extension Service is invaluable for supplying technical information on the proper care of the incubating eggs and of the chicks after they hatch. The Program Science, math, reading and writing activities revolve around incubating eggs and hatching chicks. Several fiction and non-fiction books about chickens are read to and by the children daily. Vocabulary develops as the children encounter words such as embryo, oviparous, allantois, albumen, yolk sac, and membrane. Students accumulate written work in a chicken-shaped portfolio.
Students write from brainstormed lists of words and phrases, as well as recording observations.
Eggs are common objects to first grade students, but they aren't often allowed to investigate the pores in the shell or crack the egg themselves. Students work in pairs to break open an egg, examine it with a magnifying glass and diagram the albumen, the membrane, the air space, the yolk and the growth spot. Eggs and chicks provide many opportunities for estimating, weighing, measuring, and graphing. For example, on the first day of incubation, students estimate how may eggs will hatch. Eggs and chicks are both weighed in a balance scaled using paper clips and a unit measure.