Candy's Project Web: Phase 1

Our chicken project began in early April because of the interest my son showed in catching one of the chickens on the school’s farm. He became very proud of being the first child in the school to be able to catch a chicken and was thrilled to be able to share this accomplishment with his father’s preschool class who was doing a project on chickens. I told my class of three-year-olds (the "Teddy Bears") of my son’s chicken catching abilities and shared photos with them. We started having my son catch the chicken and bring it into the classroom every day, and so our chicken project "hatched".

The children had little experience with chickens outside of school, and upon seeing a chicken in the classroom they immediately began their lists of wonderings and of knowledge.

What we know about chickens

Jackson - Chickens have big claws.
Cassi - The chicken is a girl. She lays eggs.
Clare - She sleeps in the classroom.
Cheyenne - The chicken is a girl.
Camilla –They have long nails.
James O.- She’s a girl.
Griffin - She has a rolly face.
Miranda - The chicken is a mommy.
Ella - Chickens eat corn.
DeAndr e- They drink water and eat snails.
Libby - It’s a girl.
Sophie - Chickens have feathers.
Leyla - Chickens lick rocks.
Ms. Amber- Chickens eat oranges.
James O.- The chicken has brown eyes.
Will H.- The chicken has wings.

What do you wonder about the chicken?

Leyla - Is it a girl?
Matthew - Does she have wings?
Libby - Why was she getting scared?
Will T. - Does she have wings?
Camilla - Does the chicken use pencils?
Ms. Candy - What do chickens eat?
Miranda - Do they eat flowers?
James O. - Do chickens eat chicken soup.
Leyla - Does she wear socks?
Celeste - She has red things between her mouth. What are they?
Clare - Does she lay her eggs in a nest?
Ella - Why is she asleep near our art file?
Matthew - Can the chicken drive a race car?
Kalea - Does she lay eggs?
Clare - I think the chickens lay eggs and put their babies in them.
Camilla - Did the chicken crack out of an egg?

It was at this time that our teaching team sat down to brainstorm our topic web.

We also took the time to come up with a curriculum web as well. We were pleased to discover that we theoretically had a topic that would lend itself nicely to a variety of activities across many developmental areas. This web by no means represents what we will be doing with the children, but it did help us to know that our topic had a great deal of potential.

The one thing that the children all knew was that chickens lay eggs, because in past months we had gathered eggs from the farm for cooking projects. The children anxiously waited for the chicken to lay an egg in our class and when they learned that chickens do not like to be watched when trying to lay, the children decided that a nesting box would help. They worked on decorating a box.

Many of the children have created books and paintings about chickens and eggs. Some have taken advantage of the fact that the chicken likes to sit on the art table to make observational drawings and paintings.

Some of the children work well on their own and others benefit from a teacher talking them through the process by offering a starting place ("Would you like to start with the feet or the head?") or even narrowing down the observation ("Do you want to draw the whole chicken or a part of the chicken?").

(accidental painting by the chicken was a provocation for looking at chicken feet)

While talking about the chicken we found we needed to know what the names of all of the body parts are, so we searched for, and found, a labeled diagram of a chicken that we keep at the art table for reference.