Spring Chicken

When one passes by first grade teacher Kelly Leininger's classroom, it wouldn't be uncommon to hear the laughter of children throughout the day.

For the past week, however, the din emanating from the room at South Elementary School in Sidney had a new sound added to the mix: the peeping of baby chicks.

Throughout April, Leininger's class worked together on a project where they incubated more than three dozen eggs as part of lessons on life cycles.

"We do ladybugs, tadpoles, butterflies, and then my room always does chicks," Leininger said. "We start with the eggs and talk about all of the changes they go through."

The project is one that is close to Leininger's heart, as she recalls participating in it when she was in first grade.

"I went to Sidney Public Schools, and was in the class that had baby chicks in it," she said. "On this side, it's a lot more work than I thought, a lot more in putting it together, but the kids are so excited about it. I remember that excitement."

Leininger said the class put together the incubator, complete with an "automatic turner" that turned the eggs to allow warmth on all sides. The students charted the eggs' progress every day, and attended weekly lessons on the life cycle with Nebraska Extension Educator Cynthia Gill.

"I've actually been providing eggs for several years," Gill said. "I worked with (teacher) Patty Ball when she taught this class."

Gill said her daughters used to be in the 4-H poultry project and volunteered with the school's project.

"And then once they went to college and Mrs. Ball retired, I started coming in and teaching lessons," she said. "I try to teach them a lot of the vocabulary and they learn a lot from (this project)."

Leininger said the project began shortly after Easter, but a miscalculation with the incubator forced them to restart the project with a new batch of eggs.

"It's only my second year doing this, so I'm still trying to get it right," she said.

"It happens," Gill said. "The children got to learn the ugly side of raising chicks, but they took it well. They took it better than the teacher did, actually."

Forty eggs were incubated during the project. Last week, the eggs began hatching, although a few days earlier than anticipated.

"It takes 21 days for the eggs to hatch," Leininger said. "But they were early this year. I was very shocked."

"Evidently, the incubation had already started when we got them," Gill said.

Leininger said the hatching took place during the school day this year, so her students were able to witness the baby chicks emerge from their shells.

"Last year, it happened on a Sunday," she said. "This year, they began hatching on Tuesday, and continued Wednesday and Thursday, so they could see them hatching and what they look like right after they hatch.

"They loved it. They were really excited about it, and we didn't get a lot done that day."

In total, 20 of the incubated eggs produced chicks. Gill said that was a good amount.

The baby chicks will remain in the class until the end of the week before Gill will take them to their new homes.

"They go to a farm," she said. "I'll probably take some this year."