Hatching in the Classroom

Congratulations on your first step towards a new and exciting year of curriculum enrichment! The Hatching in the Classroom 4-H School Curriculum Enrichment program is intended as a cooperative effort between a school and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. It is designed to supplement and enrich classroom curriculum and compliment TEKS, not replace the required curriculum. The program helps youth develop needed life skills and address critical issues of life through hands-on applications. We are working hard to set up this webpage to serve you.

A huge thank you to Comal County Extension Office for providing many of the resources seen below.

For more information please contact:

Penny Berend
County Extension Agent
Family & Community Health
4-H & Youth Development
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
940-549-0737
penny.berend@ag.tamu.edu

A huge THANK YOU to our generous donors for donating eggs and resources to our Hatching in the Classroom program!

Spring 2024 Hatch Dates

The office will be hosting Hatching in the Classroom in the Spring if it is of interest and allowed on your campus. If you are interested in hosting a hatching program, please call or email Penny Berend!

Previous Hatch Chick Videos and Pictures

Our chicks that hatched this Spring are growing big and strong! Below are videos and pictures of them!

8 weeks 9

The chicks at 8-weeks old.

Educational Resources

Upon request all of our teachers will receive a Hatching in the Classroom resource binder during their hatch. Below are these same resources – and additional curriculum to utilize in your classroom.

Important Documents

Teacher Letter

Group Enrollment Form – Fillable PDF – Please fill out Page 1 and Page 2 of the form and give it to Penny when she drops off supplies, via email to penny.berend@ag.tamu.edu, or fax 940-549-8140. When filling the form out, please include any student who will be a part of the Hatching in the Classroom program. The Group Enrollment Form is a fillable PDF. If you have any problems, please let Penny know.

Parent Letter – Please distribute to the parents/guardians of your students.

Student Evaluation (Pre and Post Test) – This is the pre and post-test that students will need to take before and after they participate in the program. Please print enough for all of your students or contact the Extension Office for copies to be made for your class.

Curriculum – Class Sets

In addition to the curriculum listed below, we also have laminated Parent/Offspring Card sets and a Countdown to Hatch set available to teachers during the duration of their hatch. These are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please contact Penny Berend for availability.

The Countdown to Hatch set helps build suspense for students by allowing them a daily sneak peek at embryo development inside a fertile egg. The kit contains 21 plastic eggs containing a picture of the developing chick with a summary of the developmental milestones reached each day. Open one egg each day for the course of 21 days to demonstrate the 21-day hatching cycle. *You can open the weekend eggs on the Friday before or the Monday after each weekend. If you would like to download and create your own class set, here is the link.

When you open the last egg, discuss the process that you have observed over the last few weeks and what the chick will need now that it has hatched. Go through all of the eggs again and recall the process. What were the most exciting parts? What did students learn about embryo development and living things? What physical traits will help chicks stay alive after they have hatched?

The Parent/Offspring Card sets include 9 full-color, laminated pictures of common chicken breeds that can be used to highlight similarities and differences between parents and offspring and to discuss inherited traits. If you would like to download and create your own class set, here is the link.

Use this class set to compare and contrast the chicks to its parents. On the board, have students make a list of similarities and differences. Examine the list of differences. Ask students to point out which differences they think might turn into similarities as the chick grows and which traits will stay different.
Break students into groups and distribute the remaining cards to each group. Have the groups discuss the similarities and differences they can identify and have them list the traits they think will change with maturity and which ones will stay the same. Each group should be given time to make a brief presentation to the class.

Curriculum – For Download

Hatching Chicks Observation Book – This is a book that you can print out and have your students color and put together on their own. They will have the opportunity to make observations on different days during the project, make predictions, and draw pictures of the chicks that are developing.

Poultry Reader – This printable four-page reader from the National Ag in the Classroom website is packed with information about chickens, turkeys, and other poultry. Use this reader to share information about the parts of an egg, poultry-related careers, the diets of chickens, and more.

Eggology – This lesson from National Ag in the Classroom includes a PowerPoint, diagram, activity sheet, and student book which help introduce the parts of an egg and hatching eggs in the classroom.

The Incredible Egg – This is a great resource that takes Hatching in the Classroom concepts and integrates them into easy-to-use math, science, and language arts lessons. You can use all of the lessons or pick and choose which will work best for your classroom!

The Chick Story – The Chick Story is a project students where students will imagine they are a chick hatching from an egg. They will cut out an egg pattern, write a story about their experience, color themselves as a chick and create a small diagram (shown below) to share.

Eggs: From Hen to Home: The maze from this lesson is a fun and educational opportunity for students to learn the steps an egg follows on the journey from the hen to home. Students can trace the steps through the maze and color/label each of the steps along the way.

The Egg’s Path to the plate:

Parts of the Egg Diagram:

Matching Egg Colors and Breeds: