Baby Chicks Hatch in Eckert and Smith's Fourth Grade Class

Something “egg-citing” is happening in Cottage Lane Elementary School teacher Claire Eckert and Katrina Smith’s fourth grade class! On April 1, the baby chick eggs that they had been monitoring for 21 days finally hatched! 

Eckert, Smith and the class have been observing eggs from three different types of chickens in an incubator within their classroom and keeping a log of the egg development process to see how they were growing as well as monitoring the humidity. “I had chicks in my classroom when I was their age when I was in England,” explained Eckert. “It’s something Katrina and I have talked about doing with our class for a long time so it’s exciting that we are doing it this year!”

Over the last few weeks, students have been learning all about the anatomy of an egg, the different egg stages and the hatching process. K-12 Instructional Technology Coach Marc Eckert set up a livestream feed so the class could check in on the eggs from home as they got closer to hatching and early last week, the class got to see eight of the eggs hatch. 

The class was buzzing with excitement as they got the chance to handle the chicks last Wednesday. “I really liked holding them and learning about how they form,” said Dameik. Sadie added, “My favorite thing is hearing them chirp because it’s so cute!” Jack noted, “We learned about the different parts of the eggs and something that I never knew was that they have something called an egg tooth to help them break through the eggshell as they’re hatching.”

As the class took turns holding the baby chicks, students learned about the characteristics and genetics of different breeds of chickens such as Silkie, Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red and Sussex chickens.