After setting up the incubator in your classroom, the first lesson to teach students is what the eggs will look like at various stages and how the chicks develop. Begin by talking about how the incubator works as a substitute hen, keeping the eggs warm. Next show pictures of each stage of development within the egg and post the pictures near the incubator so students can watch each day to see what stages the eggs are in. Follow with a little bit about how the chick gets out of the egg and how long the entire process can take. Students will want to know that their chicks are safe, even if they are only partially out of the eggs. Conclude this lesson by letting students make their own chicks in one of the different stages out of modeling clay. Put the models into different categories and display them in the room during the incubation process.
Having incubating chicks in your first grade classroom will enhance every subject. Use the chicks as a theme for math lessons on learning to count. Each day observe the eggs and count which ones have started showing signs of movement, cracking or parts of the chicks emerging. Put up a chart near the incubator and graph the number of eggs and what they are doing. As the chicks emerge, count them in a second graph by number hatching on which day of the week. Follow these counting lessons with chick-themed worksheets on counting.
Chicks in the classroom are a welcome inspiration for first grade art projects. For this lesson, students can create their own eggs out of construction paper. Give each student two egg sections made of construction paper and one construction paper chick. Make the egg sections and the chicks large enough to fill an 8-1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper. Glue the chick to the paper and decorate it with eyes, beak and any other things the students would like. Glue one half of the egg over the bottom half of the chick. Attach the top part of the egg with a metal paper fastener at the corner of the bottom part of the egg. The top part of the egg should open and close freely to reveal the chick inside. Students can decorate the outside of their eggs with glitter, feathers and other creative items. Display them around the classroom or in the hallway throughout the chick incubation process.
Extend your chick incubation classroom project with reading lessons all about chicks. Choose both fiction and non-fiction books and point out the similarities and differences between the stories. Non-fiction stories should feature photographs of the developing chicks at different stages. Picture books, such as "The Little Red Hen" and other stories get student's imaginations moving. After reading about chicks, have first grade students develop and illustrate their own stories with chicks as the main characters.