Ducklings in the Nursery

Last half term the children in the nursery welcomed new members to the class. These new members were not children but eggs – which soon hatched into ducklings!

The children were very excited every morning to come to the nursery to see the ducklings and to observe their physical changes as they began to grow.

At first, the children’s curiosity was ignited by the presence of the eggs in the incubator. They had to use their observational skills – looking and listening – as they waiting for that all important TAP, TAP, CRACK!

The children experienced anticipation and had to exercise patience! Sharing skills developed as the children had to take turns to view the eggs, and the children learned that it would harm the embryos to lift the lid off the incubator.

And of course lots of questions were raised: What’s inside the egg? Why do the eggs needs to be kept warm and humid? How long will they take to hatch? What will the ducklings look like when they come out? What colour will they be? Critical thinking galore!

Once hatched, it was great to be able to see the children working together to look after the ducklings – reminding each other to be quiet around them. This supported their communication with one another, and it’s was lovely to watch all the children come together. The children loved it when the ducklings had their daily swim in our water tray and they made some wonderful observational drawings of the ducklings.

Well done Nursery for providing such a lovely, caring  environment for the ducklings to be in!