Students in Mrs. Sara Brown’s pre-kindergarten classroom have been learning about farms and how farmers help their community by providing food for people and animals. As part of that learning experience, students have been incubating chicken eggs, which recently hatched.
“To help us understand the concept in a more concrete way, we worked in conjunction with Cornell Cooperative Extension to incubate and hatch our chicks,” Brown explained. “We also planted pea seeds and are tending and growing them in our courtyard. We are hoping that we will be able to harvest and taste a few before the school year is out.”
A key learning standard in science for pre-kindergarteners is understanding that baby animals look like and are similar to their parents but not exactly the same, so Brown’s student have also been watching the newly-hatched chick as they go “to notice similarities and differences between our chicks and fully grown chickens,” Brown said.
The newly hatched chickens in Mrs. Sara Brown's pre-kindergarten classroom huddle together in their brooder.
Students in Mrs. Sara Brown’s pre-kindergarten class are also raising pea plants in the elementary school courtyard as part of their ongoing learning experience on farming.