We have been discussing the life cycle of a chicken over the past few days in Kindergarten.  We learned that some eggs are cared for by a mother chicken and they hatch into baby chicks.  We noticed that the chicken life cycle starts with an egg (just like the life cycle of an insect!)  Although it was tempting to start chanting egg-larva-pupa-adult, we realized that the next stage of the chicken life cycle is not larva.  We also watched a cool video to see baby chicks emerge out of their shells.  This week, we learned a few more interesting facts about the life cycle of a chicken.

1. Some chicken eggs are white, and some are brown.
2. A mother hen will sit on a nest of eggs for three weeks. This is called brooding.
3. To get out of the egg, a chick uses its egg tooth, which is a special bump on its beak.
4. A chick is born with down, but it soon grows adult feathers.

We also used picture cards to do an animal sort after listening to the story Chickens Aren’t The Only Ones by Ruth Heller.  Students sorted their animals into two categories… animals that are born alive and animals that are born in eggs.  We learned two vocabulary words to describe these groups: oviparous and viviparous.  Oviparous animals are those that are born from eggs and lay their own eggs.  Viviparous animals are those that are born alive and give live birth. To further develop our understanding, we listened to the story Born Alive and Well, also by Ruth Heller.