Nursery School Egg Hatching Unit

One of Nursery School’s most anticipated traditions is our egg-hatching unit. The St. Patrick’s Nursery School children have been engaging in “egg-hatching” for over two decades. This year we started with two incubators with eggs placed in each just before Spring Break. Prior to Easter weekend, two eggs hatched, with others trying to break through!

The children returned from Easter weekend to find six fluffy chicks. This past Thursday, we had quite a bit of excitement on the Nursery School floor, with all the Nursery School cohorts visiting the chicks in the N2 classroom and Nursery School hallway. 

Our “egg-hatching unit” is authentic learning at its best. The primary instructional outcome is, and has been for many years, for the children to have a clear view of a life cycle rather than the abstract experience of only observing fertilized eggs delivered in a box and immediately placed in an incubator. We will bring two to three hens in the coming weeks to live in our coop on the Primary Grades Playground. Caring for the hens and chicks and seeing them grow in tandem with observing the incubation of fertilized eggs will allow for a hands-on and motivational experience for the children to develop their self-care, collaboration, and expressive and receptive language skills.