PRESCOTT — What says “Spring” more than baby chicks hatching? Eggs-actly, right?

All cliches aside, two Prescott educators hatch eggs in their classrooms each year to showcase STEM programming. Soon the cheep, cheep, cheep of tiny voices will draw students to their classrooms in wonder.

Monica Graske, St. Joseph Parish School first grade teacher, and Karey Sizemore, Prescott School District STEM teacher, help their students experience the whole incubation process, hatching and caring for chicks once they make their way into the world.

Graske said her class’ eggs went into the incubator on April 6. It takes about 21 days for them to develop and begin to hatch, so the excitement built until April 26. This is Graske’s sixth year of incubating and hatching eggs in her classroom.

“Nick Wiltermuth presented me with the idea and materials and I have run with it as it plays nicely into our science curriculum on life cycles,” Graske said. “We have hatched chicken eggs, turkey eggs, and quail eggs, all of which have been so much fun to learn from.”

Graske said this year’s eggs are chickens. She and her students read books, sing and dance in anticipation, plus access a virtual classroom where students can explore chicken activities and videos.

“The part that my students are most excited about is seeing the pictures of what is happening inside the eggs each day,” Graske said. “They recently learned that the chicken embryo starts to look like a chick on day five.”

Graske said the excitement is not contained just to her firstgrade classroom. Once the chicks start hatching and cheeping, other curious classes want to know what’s going on too.

“In a non-COVID year, our class invites 4K through sixth grade to come and visit the chicks,” Graske said. “Now this year, I’m not sure what that will look like, but I am hopeful that we will still be able to share in some form.”

Once the hatching reaches its finale, and if there are unhatched eggs remaining, the eggs go to St. Joseph’s sixth-grade class where they learn about reproduction and development stages in life science. Graske called the experience “unique and inquisitive.”

“They take the unhatched eggs outside of the building and dissect them,” Graske said. “This year they will be able to discover at what stage and day they stopped developing, due to the resources in our virtual classroom.”

Sizemore said this is the second year she has hatched eggs in STEM at Malone Elementary and Malone Intermediate. Before starting the STEM program three years ago, she hatched eggs in her classroom teaching position.

“I focus most of my lessons around the chicks with my firstgrade students,” Sizemore said. “We read books and do activities while they are in STEM class. It fits very nicely with a couple of the next generation science standards and is a wonderful hands-on way to experience this learning.”

All students get to see, hear and experience the chicks as they come through the STEM room. Their eggs hatched last week.

“The cheep, cheep, cheep from the chicks is hard to resist,” Sizemore said.

Photo courtesy of Monica Graske

Photo courtesy of Monica Graske

Photo courtesy of Karey Sizemore

Photo courtesy of Karey Sizemore

Photo courtesy of Karey Sizemore

St. Joseph Parish School students Colin Hammer (left) and Emit Kiefer clutch their new buddy on Wednesday, April 28.

Prescott Malone Intermediate fourth graders (from left) Sophia Most, Rozzy Bernick and Brynn Duffy examine their new chick on Monday, April 26. They are part of Karey Sizemore’s class.

This bright new chick debuted on Saturday, April 24 at Prescott’s Malone Intermediate School.

Alina Bauman (left) and Caitlyn Overland cradle two new chicks last week at Prescott’s Malone Intermediate School.