Chickens come home to elementary school
There was a ruffle of feathers, muffled peeps and then squeals of joy from Hirsch Elementary School students as 11 hens and four roosters were placed into the school’s new chicken coop Monday morning.
“They’re really excited that the chickens are back,” said Isabel Quijano, a second-grade teacher there.
Last school year, five classes of kindergarteners through second graders incubated around 60 chicken eggs, but when they hatched, there was nowhere for the birds to stay.
The chicks went to area farmers, community members and a few teachers who hoped to bring some of them to the school.
It did not take long for a plan to be hatched.
The school recently received a $2,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which it used to help build a permanent residence for the chickens, said Cheri Tondre, an instructional specialist for Gifted and Talented Education in the San Antonio Independent School District.
A forest green coop, complete with a roost and yellow sign reading “The Flying Huskies,” was built behind the school.
The grant also was used to dig six gardening plots next to the
coop, which currently are growing jalapeños, broccoli and corn.
Some of the students who welcomed back the birds Monday had watched the brown, white and blue eggs for three weeks last spring, learning about their life cycle, writing their observations, reading stories about chickens and measuring an area for the coop.
Anytime there was a sign the chicks were finally beginning to break free of their shells, students would run over to the incubator to watch, Quijano said .
“It’s important that we expose our students to things outside of these four walls,” she said. “A hands-on lesson like this will stay in their memory far longer than just a chapter they read from a science book.”
They even learned some life lessons from their feathered friends.
“They learned about responsibility,” Quijano said. “They learned how to take care of an animal. That you can’t just put an egg there and expect it to hatch. There is much more that goes into it.”
Teachers would assign students tasks such as checking on the eggs once an hour. This year, they’ll make sure the birds have food and water.
Tondre said many students have expressed an interest in forming a farm and garden club.
“There’s a social and emotional aspect to this too,” she said. “The students have compassion for the chickens, and it’s giving them something to look forward to each day.”
Eggs and future hatchlings from the Hirsch Elementary chickens will be given back to the community, Tondre said, while some eggs will be placed back in classrooms for students to watch and learn from.
“I really think the students have found so much joy in this,” Tondre said. “It’s like a whole other classroom.”