Grade 2 students get farm life experience hatching eggs

A new program that allows second-graders to watch the daily development of fertilized eggs is getting rave reviews from some Prince Edward Island teachers.

Called Egg to Chick, the program supplies classrooms with fertilized eggs, an incubator and a special light called an egg candler, so children can watch the development of each chick inside the egg. Within about 20 days, students get to watch the chicks hatch.

"There's just so many learning opportunities from it. It's really quite amazing," said Angela Brothers, a French immersion teacher at Montague Consolidated School.

It's an initiative of a group called Agriculture in the Classroom P.E.I., which oversees the program to make sure the students and the chicks are safe.

Brothers offered up her classroom to pilot the program during the last school year, and this year it launched in 10 Island classrooms.

Brothers said it has helped her students learn about the life cycle in a way that's easy to connect with, because the children become attached to the eggs.

"It makes them want to find answers, so it creates that desire to learn," said Brothers.

Having chicks in the classroom has been an opportunity to improve vocabulary, draw the chicks weekly at different phases of development, and create data and graphs as their growth progresses.

"I know what I'm doing is creating memories, and that's kind of the most important thing," Brothers said.

"That they leave school with a positive feeling and a feeling of connection and working as a team to hatch chicks and to take care of the chicks."

Veterinarian Rose Mary Garrett was brought on as a co-ordinator to make sure teachers were equipped to deliver the program, answer any questions they had and provide ongoing support to classrooms.

She started a private Facebook group for Egg to Chick teachers and students to connect and share photos and videos.

"It was just phenomenal, like the chatter, the excitement, the momentum that they had," she said.

"When you bring something living into the classroom, everybody can connect."

Garrett said thanks to the collaboration among the Agriculture Sector Council, volunteer farmers and the Department of Education, the program is giving Island students a meaningful and memorable lesson.

"I think that they'll never have breakfast again and look at an egg the same way," said Garrett.

"I think they'll just have an appreciation for life and how if they properly take care of things, what can happen. And it's just the miracle of an egg hatching and these little chicks now running around, it's probably an eye-opener for them."

Once the chicks are hatched and given a few days to dry off, they are transported elsewhere for care and feeding. Participating schools will be given the option to have the chickens returned to them for a holiday meal — all part of helping students understand where the food they eat comes from.

P.E.I.'s Department of Agriculture gives Agriculture in the Classroom $70,000 per year to help deliver programs like these. The department's community food security program gave an additional $10,000 for the Egg to Chick program.

Brothers is hopeful that funding will continue and someday be expanded to allow children to visit their growing chicks at Island farms.

"It really allows you to integrate all of the outcomes from all different academic areas into one," said Brothers, who said a highlight of the program for her has been watching her students connect with the chicks.

"It allows us to explore how animals can get sick and how people can get sick and why the proper environment is important. They all feel a sense of responsibility."