Life Cycle of the chicken

Observe and discuss the behaviour of a live chicken at the carpet or outdoors.
Review what students have already done on animal characteristics/behaviours/needs/life cycles.

How does a chicken have babies? Eggs. And what do eggs grow up into?
Draw on the board what students come up with, to form a circle: the life cycle.
Add missing parts e.g. male chicken, if they are not added already.

What other animals have a similar life cycle and lay eggs? (e.g. Dinosaurs)
Humans - do we lay eggs? Do we have eggs?
See attachment for animal life cycle summaries.

I don’t have a rooster. But my chickens keep laying eggs. They are not fertilized, so will not grow into chicks. But they have all the parts to nourish chick growth.

At their desks, students do an egg structure study
Review what students have found, and help them label their eggs.
Talk about function of parts and students add to their drawing.
Show green egg.

Online video of this lesson.

Function of Feathers:
Hand out feathers from other chickens (mine are different colours).
Show chicken image and students can find which chicken their feather comes from.
Look at live chicken and guess where their feathers come from. (Downy feathers come from back end. Keep eggs warm when chickens sit on them. The downy hairs trap air which is a good insulator. Down jacket or duvet works the same.)

Food web:
Brainstorm as a class what chickens eat, and who eats them. Form a food web.
We eat eggs, we eat chickens. Racoons, rats, coyotes.
Chickens eat worms, insects, plants.
Chicken poop fertilizes earth.
Students add these ideas and more to their worksheet (see attachment).