Hatching dozens of new learning opportunities - Hainan Lightning Fast Co.,Ltd

PIERRE, S.D. —One fourth grade classroom in Pierre has welcomed some new, rather noisy classmates: dozens of baby birds.

It's a project Lindsey Schilling has been incorporating in her Kennedy elementary class curriculum for the past eight years.

"My parents live on a farm outside of Groten, and my mom had decided to get chickens again and she had gotten a goose and some ducks, and I thought, 'oh my gosh, I wonder if we could do this at school,'" Schilling said.

Normally, Schilling teaches the fifth-grade class, but this is her first year working with fourth graders.

"This year was kind of different because I moved to fourth grade just for a year, so we still hatched some, but we didn't do as much curriculum stuff just because I don't want them to have it repeated when they go to fifth grade," Schilling said. "Fifth grade did a lot of reading about setting up the incubator, the whole process, lockdown. In here we had calendars up so we could follow, you know, like this is happening today."

It's a project that has become popular among students and has continued to grow.

"So, I started with one incubator. Now I am up to like four," Schilling said. "I love it. I love living things. I love learning about how the world works and nature. Life science is my favorite."

Throughout the years, her classes have hatched a variety of eggs, including ducks, chickens, quail, geese and turkeys. This year, they even tried peacock eggs, which unfortunately did not hatch.

"We crack open the ones that don't make it, just to see where they were in development," Schilling said.

So far this year, the classroom welcomed 5 quail, one duck and 26 chickens.

"It was interesting to see, like hold the baby chickens and see like their feet especially," said fourth-grade student Keira Laysbad. "It's cool to see like inside the egg."

Fourth-grade student Soren Brakke enjoyed learning about the hatching process.

"I have learned a lot of things from it," he said.

The birds don't just stay in one classroom, they make their rounds throughout the whole school.

"They take them around to the other classrooms and they take like 10 minutes just to talk to the other classes about the whole process and everything they have learned and then they walk them around so they can pet them and hold them," Schilling said. "You hear chicks going down the hallway often and it's loud and lively, but now it has become a thing. I just don't think we could stop doing it."

Since the school year is almost over, the baby birds will soon be making their way to their new homes, some with students and other farm spaces across the area.

Brakke is one of the students who is taking some chicks home.

"This is my first-time having chickens, my grandparents have incubated chickens before, so I have seen this a lot," Brakke said.

This project is a way to get kids excited about learning as summer approaches.

"I’ve seen kids who really haven't loved school and when we get to this time, they are so excited to be here and it's like if that's the one thing that gets them loving school, so be it," Schilling said.

Schilling encourages other teachers who are interested in adding a project like this to their classroom, to give it a go.

"Definitely try it," Schilling said. "It's so fun, kids that don't always want to get involved with different project you are doing, everybody wants to get involved with this and help where they can and at the end of the year, things are a little crazy anyway and so I mean it just adds something."