Students get hands-on experience with chicks

Sacred Heart kindergarten classroom kept watch over eggs stored in incubator
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

For students living on a farm, seeing newborn chicks hatch from their eggs is just another day.

For the kindergarten students at Sacred Heart Catholic School, many of whom have not grown up on farms, seeing the birth of the chicks for the first time was amazing — and educational at the same time.

Teacher Sally Slezewski has been bringing in chicken eggs to hatch from an incubator for the last 25 years, and most of the time, there are a couple dozen chicks peeping and drawing the attention and admiration of the young children. This year’s batch of eggs, however, did not fare as well, as only two chicks hatched out of about 36 that have been in the classroom for weeks.

It didn’t faze the students too much, though, as they were just as happy fawning over two chicks as a whole flock.

“They love it,” Slezewski said. “It’s great.”

She noted it was more fun for her students to learn about the animals and their life cycle through this hands-on approach.

“I think that it’s an experience that a lot of kids don’t get anymore because a lot of children don’t live on farms,” Slezewski said. “I think it’s good for them to be able to handle them and see the life experience.”

The students also got to see the chicks in their formative stages prior to hatching with the help of a candle and a box, according to Slezewski.

“In the 21 days (prior to hatching), we candled them with the box, which is in a very dark room,” she said. “Our windows are too bright, so we put them in a dark room upstairs. We got to see the life cycle in the 21 days.”

The students made sure to keep on schedule, letting Slezewski and her aide know when the eggs needed to be flipped or checked.

“It’s kind of like watering flowers,” Slezewski said. “You’ve got to take care of them. Every day, we had to flip them, and every day, we had to spray them so that the shells would get thin, and then the shells that got thin, the chickens would come out.”

This year, the eggs that hatched did so during the night, so the students did not get to see the actual moment when the chicks burst through the eggs.

“I’ve had years when the kids have actually seen them come out,” Slezewski said. “It pushes out using its back leg.”

As for why only two chicks hatched out of the whole bunch, Slezewski is still trying to ascertain the reason.

“I don’t know if the thermometer got turned up too high for a couple of days, or if there’s a chance some moisture affected it,” she said. “I’ve had as many as 25 out of 36 (eggs), and this year I have two. But we’re happy we have two.”

Another teacher at the school offered to take the chicks back to her farm to raise as soon as the learning unit is over, according to Slezewski.


lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com