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September 17, 2011

Life Cycle of a Chicken

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My preschooler and I are having fun learning about birds this week. We started by reading some books about birds and we made this “Life Cycle of a Chicken” craft. I saw the idea in The Mailbox Magazine a while back and I just love how it turned out. Find a list of the books we read to go along with this activity at the bottom of this post.

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HOW TO MAKE A LIFE CYCLE OF A CHICKEN CRAFT

Supplies you will need:

  • poster board
  • white and orange cardstock paper
  • shredded brown paper
  • black, orange, yellow and red marker
  • googly eyes
  • washable red tempera paint (We received ours from our friends at Craftprojectideas.com and you can find some at your local Walmart.)
  • glue

Directions:
1. Start by cutting an egg shape out of a piece of poster board. Then I printed out a little rectangle label from the computer that said, “Life Cycle of a Chicken” and we glued it to the center. You can also just write Life Cycle of a Chicken with your black marker in the center of the poster.

2. At the top of the egg we talked about how chickens start out as an egg. Then we made a little nest by putting glue all over and adding shredded pieces of brown paper.

3. After the nest was complete, I cut a small oval shape out of paper and my son glued it into the nest. If preschoolers are able to cut themselves, have them do the cutting.

4. Then we discussed how the Mommy Chicken sits on her eggs to keep them at the right temperature, while the birds grow inside the egg. When they are all grown they begin to hatch out of the egg. I cut a larger egg out of paper and my son glued it to the poster board. Then he drew a jagged edge circle on the egg to represent the egg hatching. My son colored the inside yellow and he added googly eyes to represent the chick inside.

5. To keep it simple, I also used another oval egg shape to make our baby chick. My son colored it yellow and glued it on the poster board. Then he added the googly eyes, and a small orange diamond, folded in half for the beak.  My son colored on the feet with a marker and I added the wings with a black marker. As an alternative you could also make a handprint chick with yellow paint.

6. Next, we made the grown chicken. I covered my son’s hand with our red tempera paint and he placed his hand on the poster board to make a handprint. After the paint was completely dry, my son glued on a googly eye and drew on the feet, beak and waddle. I added the outline of the wing with black marker.

7. To complete our chart, I simply drew arrows between each stage to show that it is an endless cycle and we talked about each stage one more time. It was such a fun project!

Here are some books we read before making this project:

  • Birds (DK Eye Wonder Series)
  • Five Little Chickens by Nancy Tafuri
  • The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend

You might also enjoy these crafts:

  • Hatching Chick Craft
  • Paper Bag Frog Puppet
  • Apple Print Butterflies
  • Tissue Paper Ladybug Craft
  • Balloon Print Chick Craft

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Filed Under: Uncategorized 23 Comments

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Comments

  1. Kristy says

    September 17, 2011 at 9:25 PM

    LOVE IT!!!!!!!

    Reply
  2. Dianne says

    September 18, 2011 at 12:25 AM

    What a fun craft, and that handprint chicken is adorable!

    Reply
  3. artsy_momma says

    September 18, 2011 at 6:28 PM

    Love it! You could have even done a handprint chick like this one http://designsbya.blogspot.com/2009/08/april-handprint-and-thumbprint-chicks.html

    Reply
  4. Anonymous says

    September 19, 2011 at 11:22 AM

    That is so very cute! I love it! (Though I couldn't resist thinking there should have been a fifth stage, representing chicken soup or fried chicken, lol.)

    We got baby chicks this year, and they have just started laying eggs! No roosters, so no more chicks on the way, just lots of eggs eggs eggs!

    Reply
  5. Cheryl says

    September 19, 2011 at 12:16 PM

    Stumbled upon your blog. Love it! We have much in common. Will be telling my friends.
    Cheryl
    http://www.cherylbastian.com
    http://www.cherylbastian.blogspot.com

    Reply
  6. Esther says

    September 19, 2011 at 2:40 PM

    Wow! Love it! All the stages of the life cycle are adorable! Love the cracking egg!

    You are so creative and the end result of the crafts are so beautiful

    Reply
  7. Big D and Me says

    September 19, 2011 at 4:25 PM

    So cute – hey, how about you get a few chicks at your house so you can really learn about birds (he he). Something about which birds live in your area would be fun too

    Reply
  8. Amy says

    September 19, 2011 at 10:39 PM

    This is just adorable…so fun and so educational too. 🙂 Pinning!

    Reply
  9. rebekah says

    September 20, 2011 at 12:36 PM

    Wow! This looks great… came to you via Paint On The Ceiling. Now following! 🙂

    Reply
  10. Aimee from Classified: Mom says

    September 21, 2011 at 1:51 AM

    That is so adorable- the life stages of a chick? I have to say that I have never come across a craft like this! Great work and Thank you for sharing this on The Sunday Showcase.

    Reply
  11. Michelle says

    September 21, 2011 at 2:10 PM

    This is adorable, I would have loved this when I hatched chicks with my 1st graders! Now Emily and Juliette will get to make it :0)

    Reply
  12. maggy, red ted art says

    September 21, 2011 at 7:17 PM

    ADORABLE craft! Love love love it! Every stage of it!

    Thank you for joining in at Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

    Reply
  13. Little Wonders' Days says

    September 22, 2011 at 12:08 AM

    This is such a cute project! I love it and will have to try it with my kids one day soon.

    Reply
  14. SnoopyGirl says

    December 29, 2011 at 5:03 AM

    Simply precious!

    Reply
  15. Maro's kindergarten says

    March 8, 2012 at 2:31 PM

    Great craft!!!!

    Reply
  16. Linda McCardle says

    March 28, 2012 at 12:33 AM

    I'm so glad I found your site. You have wonderful ideas.
    Linda
    A Teachers Touch

    Reply
  17. Kristin Young says

    April 5, 2012 at 10:25 PM

    I LOVE your blog. I'm a new follower and am super pumped to use your ideas in my kindergarten class. Especially this little chick life cycle…totally goes along with my chick hatching journal and other activities I posted. Thank you!

    Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten

    Reply
  18. Storytime Fun says

    April 30, 2012 at 11:08 PM

    Hi! I found your blog post while looking for baby chick ideas for a storytime at my library. I love your craft! Wish I had time to do this at my weekly storytime ~ ah well, maybe at my 2 hr program in the summer…

    I have a Blog Hop on my blog right now that is all about eggs and chicks. I would like to invite you to link your post to my Eggs and Chicks ABC’S Blog Hop. The ABC’S stands for Activities, Books, Crafts, and Snacks which are all things I share on my site for parents of young children. I think your post would fit right in with several areas, don’t you?

    Here is the link to my blog hop post: http://librarystorytimeabcs.blogspot.com/2012/04/eggs-and-chicks-abcs-blog-hop.html

    I hope you will stop by to visit and link up with us!
    K @ Storytime Fun

    Reply
  19. JDaniel4's Mom says

    July 23, 2012 at 6:23 PM

    This is adorable! I would for you to link it to Read.Explore.Learn on Friday!

    Reply
  20. Carla at Preschool Powol Packets says

    August 18, 2012 at 2:52 PM

    I love this craft! I'm featuring it today on my Sharing Saturday post–all about Birds!

    Reply
  21. MommyHood says

    July 9, 2013 at 7:20 AM

    I'm going to do this with my daughter tomorrow we've talked about the life cycle of chickens while reading books about chicks. I wish I had found this craft at the time but it still works out nicely because we are actually going to an agriculture center in 2 days where there will be chicks. So excited !

    Reply
  22. graciegirl says

    April 13, 2014 at 5:21 PM

    What a great idea…pinning it and using it with my homeschooled kids. Thanks a bunch!

    Reply
  23. Aarthy Sivakumar says

    March 19, 2015 at 1:57 PM

    My daughter and myself enjoyed doing this project

    Reply

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