21 Days to Hatch: Students Learn Lessons on Chickens

When Jennifer Wilkinson began teaching 13 years ago for Consolidated School District 158, she attended a chick hatching class at the McHenry County Farm Bureau in Woodstock.

The class showed teachers the proper way to hatch chicks in their classrooms - from incubating the chicken eggs to caring for the chicks once hatched.

Once armed with the necessary knowledge, Wilkinson brought the same learning experience to her kindergarten class at Mackeben Elementary School, 800 Academic Drirve in Algonquin.

“I love how this unit brings everyone together,” Wilkinson said. “Children are excited about learning. Parents want to visit the classroom to see the eggs and take pictures of the chicks. Kindergarten teachers invite all classrooms to come see the chicks. It is a schoolwide and community event at Mackeben in April.”

The program begins each year after students return from spring break. It’s part of the school’s Life Cycle unit. The chick lab offers a hands-on approach for teaching students about life cycles.

"My favorite part about the farm bureau class was learning information about the chick hatching process and gaining access to free age-appropriate materials I could use with my kindergarten-aged students," Wilkinson said.

The chicken eggs will be delivered to 10 Mackaben Elemetary School classrooms on April 4 and the chicks are first expected to hatch on April 25.

To learn more about where the chicken eggs come from, where they go when the chicks hatch and how District 158 incorporates various school subjects into its learning during the chicken egg development unit, check back to Lake in the Hills Patch tomorrow.