A chick is a bird. It is oviparous. This means it is an animal that comes out of an egg. It takes a hen and a rooster to make a baby chick. The mother hen lays the eggs. Then, she sits on the eggs to keep them warm. Also, the mother turns the eggs every once in a while. We do not have a hen in our classroom. We have an incubator to keep our eggs warm. We keep the temperature at 99.5 degrees. The incubator also turns the eggs just like the mother hen would do.
It takes 21 days for a chick to hatch. There is a lot going on inside the egg while the chick is growing. The baby chick eats the yolk inside the egg to grow. The baby chick has to breathe air from the outside of the egg. There are tiny holes in the egg shell. The air from outside the egg travels through the shell and through tiny blood vessels connected to the chick. This is how the chick breathes. The chick grows and grows inside the egg. The chick grows a brain, a heart, legs, a beak with an egg tooth on the end, a body and wings.
After 21 days it is time for the baby chicks to start hatching. The chick has an egg tooth on the end of it's beak. It uses this egg tooth to break a tiny hole in the hard shell. The chick breaks a straight line in the egg. Then, it uses it's strong legs to push the shell off. When the chicks falls out of it's egg, it is exhausted. The chick will lay down and rest. The chick's down is very wet when it comes out of it's shell. The down will dry after a few minutes. The chick will grow adult feathers and will lose it's egg tooth in just a few days.
We learned that it takes about 6 months until a baby chick becomes an adult. Then, it is either a hen or a rooster.
In our classroom, we have 15 chicks so far. There are 4 more that are starting to hatch in the incubator. This morning, we all got to watch a baby chick come out of it's shell. Mrs. Deaton and Mrs. Feller put the incubator in the middle of the rug and we got to lay down all around it. We chanted for the baby chick to come out of it's shell. The chick listened to us and came right out! We screamed and said "Welcome, baby chick!!". Then, we put the chick in the tub with his brother's and sisters. There is a heat lamp over the chick's tub to keep it warm.
We can't believe how many chicks we have! Mrs. Deaton wants 23 chicks to hatch so every child can hold a chick at the same time. Today, we got to pet, play with and hold the baby chicks. They are so cute! We love them so much! We have to be very careful not to squeeze or drop the baby chicks when we hold them. We don't want to hurt our new babies!
This is such an awesome experience that we will remember forever!! We love Kindergarten and we love our baby chicks!!
