Candy's Project Web: Phase 2

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Teddy Bear Class - Spring 2000

Chickens

Phase 2: Investigation & Representation

One of the wonderings that came up was, "did our chicken crack out of an egg?", and this led eventually to the purchase and set-up of an incubator.

Then children decided to go to the farm to gather eggs to place in the incubator, and we subsequently read all about candling eggs (shining light through the shell to view the contents) and how long it takes for eggs to hatch. We also added eggs that the chicken laid in the nesting box that the children had provided. We kept track of the days on a chart. We learned from a book that on the 18^th and 19^th days of incubation you can hear the chicks peeping inside the eggs. When, by this time, we could neither see nor hear chicks in the eggs the children insisted that I should open the eggs, which I did. When we found only albumen and yolk, the children had many theories as to why.

Why do you think there are no baby chicks in our eggs?

James O. – Because they must be out on the farm.
Miranda - On a farm with another baby chick.
Kalea - Because it didn’t hatch a baby chick.
Celeste - Because they didn’t die— Hey! I wonder where they went!
James C. - There was a rooster in the egg and there was a chicken in the egg.
Will H. - Because it’s empty.
Matthew - Because there was one, two, three…. We don’t have enough eggs.
Grace - The baby chicks went flys.
Max - They went away from their house.
Cassi - Because there is no rooster.
Will T. - No chickie in the egg.
Leyla - "Cause there’s no chicks and some eggs have chicks and some don’t have chicks. I think that we just didn’t get a chick. We need a rooster because the rooster makes a noise to wake the baby chicks and then they will come out of the egg.
Zachary - We don’t have a rooster.
Adam - The chickens are sleeping.
Ella - There’s no rooster.
Camilla - Because we don’t have any rooster and the rooster lays eggs. The rooster puts the chicks in the eggs.
Griffin - Because there’s no egg in there.
Jackson - Because we don’t have much room.
Cheyenne - Because there’s smoke in our eggs.

A common theme was the need for a rooster (which we do not have), so it was decided we should obtain eggs from a farm that has a rooster, which we did. We have a large poster showing the development of the embryo day by day and we used this to help keep track of the developing embryos. By day 14 of the 21-day incubation period it became obvious that none of our eggs was developing properly. Each day we would candle a new egg and when no development occurred the children insisted on opening the eggs to view the contents. Then we asked for theories as to why our set of eggs from the farm with the rooster did not hatch.

Why didn’t chicks grow in the eggs from the farm that has a rooster?

Henry - Maybe it didn’t have a chicken in it.
Adam - Baby chicks, no chicks, only yolk.
Jackson - I think there’s no baby chicks but hatch.
Will T.- Eggs cracked.
Will H.- Because they did and so I have baby alligator friends that fly.
DeAndre - I have no idea, Ms. Mandy. You’re a chicken!
Cheyenn e- Because they did.
Grace - They’res not need to.
Kalea - Because alligator eat him.
Cassi - Because they just didn’t want to. The mother hen laid a egg to hatch and the baby chick came out.
Griffin - Because they’re babies.
Matthew - There was a yolk and the baby chick was die.
Ella - Because we don’t have a rooster. Baby chicks don’t want to come out.
Zachary - They didn’t grow in there.
Clare - There’s no baby alligator and there’s no baby chicks.
Miranda - That’s why we don’t have a rooster.
Sophie - They didn’t come out because they’re not coming out.
Celeste - Because they won’t come out of the eggs because only real eggs come out.

We have obtained a chart of all chicken breeds and have learned to identify each of our five chickens, the Light Brahma, the Speckled Sussex, the White Silkie, the Buff Leghorn, and the Brown Leghorn.

Another interest that arose was the red skin around the face and mouth of the chickens. The children have learned that these are combs and waddles and they are in the process of being able to identify all eight types of combs. We now know that our Light Brahma has a "pea" comb. We think that our Silkie has a “silkis” comb, and we are pretty sure that the Speckled Sussex has a “buttercup” comb. We have provided description cards for all of the eight different comb types in our "science" area for the children to investigate.

Because eggs have been a large part of our project, we have provided many different kinds of plastic eggs and grass in large bins for the children to play with. There has been quite a bit of counting and sorting happening since these items were introduced.

Our classroom is set up in such a way that the children who stay for the extended care program in the afternoon focus on a different project than the morning project. Fortunately, they are focusing on veterinarians, and so we have made our dramatic play area into a veterinarians office, complete with tools, x-rays, and animals.

Since our class does not go on field trips, I arranged a formal "field trip" to our farm to interview our farm specialist and hopefully, the school’s veterinarian. We planned to take along clipboards and our camera to do an in-depth study at this field site. Beforehand, the children worked hard on making their own clipboards and so were able to record their notes and observational drawings on site. During our visit, Ms. Rachel, our farm specialist, showed the Teddy Bears everything on the farm relating to chickens. Everyone was able to get a close-up look at the chicken coop, as well as see where food is stored and how the chickens are fed. The children are still in the process of “digesting” all of the information they worked so hard to collect. [click here to join the field trip]

The children also continue to display their growing interest in and knowledge about our chickens in their artwork.

collage by Grace

This spontaneous creation illustrates
Grace's intrinsic interest in the topic.

observational painting by Will H.

Will's painting informs his observation;
his observation informs his painting.

[click on images for larger view]

We have also introduced small wooden chickens in our block area as well as small laminated paper chickens. The children have truly enjoyed building chicken coops for these chickens.

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