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Animals & nature · Prediction and retelling

Chicken life cycle hatching activity for preschool

Hide a chick under a paper eggshell and let your child predict what will hatch.

Try the activity
Portrait photo of the Playtime Felts Chicken Life Cycle set with a yellow chick, a hen, and hatching pieces.View this felt set on Etsy Opens in a new tab

What’s inside the egg?

Prep · About 5 minutes   Play · About 10 minutes

Gather · Felt pieces or drawings of an egg, a chick, and a hen. Cut a paper oval big enough to cover the chick.

  1. Set up the surprise. Set out the hen and the egg. Hide the chick under the paper oval and ask your child what might be inside.
  2. Tap and hatch. Tap the paper shell together. Let your child lift it, reveal the chick, and make a soft peep.
  3. Tell the hatching story. Move the chick out of the shell and toward the hen. Ask your child to tell what happened first and what happened next.

Try saying · “What do you think will come out when the shell cracks? What sound will it make?”

Make it easier · Show the chick before you hide it, then let your child lift the shell and say “peep.”

Keep it going · Add the grown hen and talk about how a chick can grow up. Let your child make the chick and hen sounds.

Get the materials

Storytime Club · Annual library

Print it for your next storytime

Find the Chicken worksheet PDF in the annual library. Print a page for follow-up and ask your child to tell you what happened when the chick hatched.

$97 a year gives you the full Storytime Club printable library. If the Etsy printables on your list are included in the Club and cost more than $97 together, you save with the annual pass.

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