Easter Chick Experience
The children at Farmoor have a strong interest in nature, looking after animals and learning about life cycles. As a result, we explored the possibility of having chicks at the setting to give the children a chance to observe, first-hand, the life cycle of a chicken from the very beginning.
The summer house was set up for the two week stay of our exciting visitors. The lady from Living Eggs arrived with ten eggs and an incubator and showed us how to set up.
The children and staff watched with great excitement and anticipation for the first signs of hatching, within two days, four chicks had hatched (the first one named Willow) and over the next couple of days another four hatched.
The children, staff and parents had great delight in watching them develop and grow and the children had the opportunity to hold, feed and care for the chicks, guessing which one was the first chick Willow.
Not only did this give the children an opportunity to see the life cycle of a chicken, it also gave plenty of opportunities to develop and practice new vocabulary, have insightful conversations, both at nursery and at home. We were able to see the increase in the children’s confidence around new and unfamiliar experiences.
The chicks have now left the setting and have successfully been rehomed with two of our families and we hope to continue to follow their journey.
“The chicks are very happy in their new home and P makes sure she checks on them first thing every morning! They have feathers growing and have got bigger!”
“I’m attaching photos of the chicks in their new home (on a Farm, in Swindon). As you can see, they have joined a flock of slightly older chicks.
In a few weeks we will have better pictures of the chicks outside. For now they are in an undercover area in a small enclosure with their heater.
I’ve also included a picture of some of the other animals (Charlie, Fig, and Maisy) that also live at the farm, for context!“
