Chicken Coop Research

Our latest project - converting our cardboard fire truck into a house for chickens.

For the past week the children have been asked what we would need to do to this box

to make it into a chicken coop.

This morning we visited a local farm to have a first hand look

at a chicken house.

This is what we learned.

The first thing we noticed, other than chickens, was the feeder.

We saw wooden sticks hanging from the wall

for the chickens to perch on.

We saw a group of nesting boxes.

Each of them had a chicken in them.

Shannon, the farmer, showed us how to check under the chickens for eggs.

We found one.

Shannon keeps a basket handy in the coop to collect the eggs.

We saw a small entry with a drop door in the back of the coop

for the chickens to go into a fenced yard.

Then we got to feed the chickens.

We went back in the barn, out of the rain, to record what we saw.

The first thing we drew was the shape of the building,

the children are showing me the shape of the roof

by forming a peak with their hands.

As the children recalled what they saw I made a list.

This is now our plans for what we will need to do back at school.

To finish our tour we were going to make nests but it was quite rainy

so I had made paper bag nests for each child.

In the nest was a plastic egg with a chick inside.

We practiced our poem "Five Eggs".

This afternoon, at school, I set up our documentation

to help us remember what we want to do.

Made a peaked roof on the box and set up for painting.