In literacy  we have been looking at the life cycle of a chicken.
The eggs arrived in the incubator and we watched the chicks hatch. The first 24 hours are spent in the incubator where they get used to their environment.
Since moving to the brooder box, the chicks have been eating small pieces of ground seed made into small pellets and drinking water. They have been flapping their wings and running at the same time, and sometimes managing to jump quite high. We have observed the chicks scratching the ground and stepping back to peck any seed off the ground, and also wiping their beaks on the ground.
When they are tired they have laid under the light in the brooder box to sleep. We also made them an extension so they could run about during the daytime.
Most of the children had the opportunity to hold and stroke the chicks. We talked about how the chicks were living things and that we must be gentle and careful with them. We described what they looked and felt like, and also noted the changes that had happened since they moved to the brooder box. We compared their first feathers with the adult feathers that had begun to grow on their wings and tails. We talked about what they needed to continue to grow into healthy adult chickens, including lots of space to exercise as well as food, drink and a place to sleep. The children have had opportunities to choose many different chick activities during busy learning. We have also compared our human life cycle to the chick life cycle .
All the chicks will be rehomed on farms or people's allotments or in gardens