Experiencing the life cycle of an animal has to be one of the top ten most amazing experiences to have as a child or adult. When April rolls around in the classroom, many of you begin life cycle lessons on various life forms. Well, may I suggest chicks? Studying the life cycle of chicks is such a unique experience and when you use a set of hands-on life cycle of a chick activities, your student participation will shoot through the roof!
Using hands-on chick activities, students can learn about the chicken life cycle and engage in the process through picture books, directed drawings, and life cycle printables.
But incorporating chicks into your lesson plans isn’t all about the life cycle. For a well-rounded unit, be sure to include nonfiction AND fiction stories with chicks as the main character along with reading comprehension activities that help ensure they are targeting various skills.
Here’s a look at how to incorporate chicks into your reading lesson plans and lifecycle activities without missing a bit. Plus, you can grab FREE chick activities below!
Nothing anchors a lesson more than a good picture book, IMO. If you’ll be learning about chickens and how they are created, then it’s a wonderful time to read a few good books about chicks!
And these chick picture books don’t have to be all about life cycles at all. You can still use fun, fictional stories that center chicks during your literacy time and provide a look into their spaces, habits, and lifestyle.
Here’s a list of some of my favorite chick picture books! You can get the full list with links on my amazon storefront and I’ve linked them individually below.
{Disclaimer: These are Amazon affiliate links, but I only share books I’ve read and enjoyed!}
One of my favorite books from the list above is Chicks and Salsa. The story is a fun and witty comedy about a rooster looking to switch up its old chicken feed to something more exciting… chips and salsa! But something goes wrong when the delicious snacks go missing.
I love this chick picture book because it has many layers and lends itself well to a lesson on character traits.
The lead rooster in the story has tons of personality and wit. It’s a perfect character for students to analyze and describe. They can use a character traits printable to share evidence to support the traits they identify.
Another fun way to work on character traits with this book is using an anchor chart. With the anchor chart, you can work together as a class to describe the various animals within the story.
Students will not only be learning about character traits but also about the types of animals and environments that surround chickens throughout their life.
You can use this read-aloud and the companion activities for your main reading lesson of the week and supplement it with your life cycle activities for chicks!
{We include both of these activities plus many more inside our 1st Grade Rooted in Reading resource for May. Get access to 4 full weeks of reading lesson plans and activities in my TPT store.}
Now, it’s time to learn about a chick’s life cycle! To accompany your picture book, consider using an engaging nonfiction reader to teach your students about the chick life cycle.
I love accompanying the chick’s life cycle nonfiction reader with fun follow-up chick activities.
Here are a few ideas:
Whether you have a chance to hatch them in your classroom or not, you can still give your students the experience of a chick’s life being formed using interactive chick activities. And I am giving them to you!
I have FREE life cycle of a chick activities that you can use in your classroom to teach your students in an attention-grabbing way.
Included in the life cycle pack, you will find the chick life cycle posters, booklet, and activities for students to identify and label each phase of the process.
You can grab this FREE chicks resource inside my TPT store. I’ve also got a complimentary chick directed drawing below.
To end or complement your chick life cycle lesson, have your students draw a chick hatching from the egg! It is the cutest way to display what you’re teaching and they can write about what they’ve learned about chickens or the Spring season.
You can find a video of me showing your students how to draw a chick below! You can also access a FREE chick drawing template with step-by-step instructions and a writing page by letting us know where you would like it delivered.
Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.
Sample a day of Rooted in Reading with these lesson plans and activities for Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary, and Grammar!
