Baby chicks, ducks teach amazement of God’s creations during spring (Video)
“I think he is tired,” one kindergartener remarked, with his eyes fixed on the sight of a baby chick struggling to peck its way out of its eggshell, each tap revealing more of its fluffy down and the miracle of God’s creations.
The other children from Ally Perkins’ kindergarten class at Saint Rose of Lima Academy in Short Hills chimed in.
“I heard a chirp!”
“Aww, he’s so cute!”
“WOW!”
“This is great, this is so great!”
During springtime around the Archdiocese of Newark, Catholic school students experience the vibrance of spring and the beauty and awe of God’s gift of life: they grow, hatch, and care for baby farm animals.
For the past 21 days, the students eagerly awaited the moment the chicks would hatch. Similar to the faithful’s anticipation during Lent, the students’ anticipation grew each day as the seven fertilized chicken eggs nestled in the classroom’s incubator. A lesson of waiting was learned as the typical incubation period for chicken eggs is 21 to 30 days.
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“As the eggs came to the classroom it was a wonderful time to incorporate teaching the students about how God made all different amazing animals and people all over the world,” said Perkins. “God made each person and animal, so every life is important and should be protected.”
At Christ the Teacher Academy (CTA) in Fort Lee kindergarten students hatched a dozen baby chicks. As the eggs incubated in the classroom, the students eagerly tracked their growth by observing the eggs and documenting their findings in scientific journals.
The students also received lessons in caring for God’s creatures. Following the hatching, the students cared for the chicks by playing, feeding, and cleaning them.
“Nurturing these chicks shows the students how important being compassionate and caring to them will help to ensure that they will have a great start in life before returning to their farm,” said Cynthia Schirm, CTA principal.
Schirm emphasized the significance of caring for the chicks, stating that the lessons of compassion and stewardship towards all of God’s creations the students learned are invaluable.
By following Jesus’s example of kindness to all creatures, kindergartener Robin Lim said she learned to treat the chicks “gently and with respect.”
The students explored God’s amazing work of creating life inside the egg before the chicks emerged. To witness God’s work inside the shell, they learned the practice of egg candling.
Egg candling is a method used by farmers to evaluate the fertility and growth progress of chicken eggs during their 21-day incubation cycle. The technique involves passing a light source, often a concentrated and intense beam, through the eggshell to examine the internal contents of the egg.
The students charted the growth of the chicks by creating sketches of what they saw inside the eggs.
According to Schirm, the experiment fostered a deeper understanding of creation and “how precious a life is.”
Kindergartener Kaitlyn Cruz said that to keep all animals safe and protected, we should “help them if they need it or bring them to a shelter.”
At Hoboken Catholic Academy (HCA) in Hoboken, students had the opportunity to foster 12 freshly hatched ducklings. Under the guidance of their teacher, Angela Gravina, students in the kindergarten at HCA cared for and monitored the growth of the ducklings, who were visiting the school from Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Hawthorne.
The students learned the life cycle of a duck and “the wonder and beauty of God’s creation, and how to care for living things,” according to Gravina.
The lessons about the life cycle of ducks and caring for animals included teachings about the responsibility of stewardship for all creation.
Gravina said the students participated in class discussions regarding the basic needs of animals, such as access to clean air, water, and food, and emphasized how caring for the Earth ensures the availability of these resources.
Jack, a kindergartener at HCA, said students “have to care for them because they belong to God.”
Additionally, the students observed a connection to family dynamics by observing how the sibling ducks huddled in the corner of the crate, sharing warmth and affection.
Another student, Sandra, said, “God made them [the ducklings] special.”
The opportunity to care for the chicks and the ducklings served as a platform for the students to explore environmental stewardship and the shared responsibility of humanity to “care for our common home,” as articulated by Pope Francis in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’.
“It was a wonderful experience for the children to learn about the beauty of new life and how to treasure and care for it,” Gravina said.
Featured image: Students at Hoboken Catholic Academy took care of the baby ducklings for a week before they were sent back to the farm. (Hoboken Catholic Academy)
