Chick Fever at Little Owls Scarning Nursery and Toftwood Nursery
Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken!
It is that time of year that staff, children and parents all become involved in one of the most memorable events of the Little Owls calendar; chick watch.
From when Elijah was a Tawny Owl, a Snowy Owl and now a Barn Owl, having the chick eggs in the incubator and waiting for them to hatch is something we can both remember vividly from each year.
Chick fever spreads through the whole nursery whilst the children keep an eager eye on the signs of any cracks.
Each year the nursery (at their own time and expense) arrange with a local nearby collage to take a number of fertilised eggs this year there were a few more with the Scarning setting also getting involved in the fun!
An incubator is set up within one of the rooms, and the staff and children keep a very eager eye on any signs of hatching!
Displays with the life cycle of the chicken are put up and discussed and children all enjoy related stories as well. With the eggs acting as an visual aid the children become fully engrossed in their learning.
The staff have all done their homework too, they know all about the incubator, the temps, times and what to look out for. Along with the eggs and the equipment the collage provide a number of books and the staff all know what they are doing.
Each day the eggs are checked for signs, and this year the eggs even took over the nursery Facebook Page with regular updates. The children all loved discussing how long they thought they would take to hatch (4 years according to Elijah) and what will be coming out of them with dinosaurs being a common answer!
Parents are also swept along in chick fever, having a wander over at pick up to see what is happening and talking about it on the Facebook posts! With Elijah talking about them so much, my Nan even began asking how many had hatched! Chick fever had reached the whole family!
Slightly later than expected chick watch did reach is peak when the first signs of a crack appeared and the second shortly followed. The children from both settings were lucky enough to actually witness some of the chicks hatching from the eggs! I don’t think you can ask for a better interactive learning experience!
The children are taught how to handle the chicks, and what they need (water/food/heat) and of course what to name them! Elijah named most of the Toftwood setting ones after Power Rangers so for a week or so we have been hearing a lot about the golden and pink ranger chicks!
For anyone who was worried about the care of the chicks in the evenings, weekends they need not have staff were on hand to be chick babysitters and they are very well looked after.
It really is such a special event that the nursery puts so much time and effort into that make it such a special and memorable experience each year for the children, staff (and parents!).
To catch up with all the goings on of chick watch head over to the FB page @littleowlsandhoots