How to Make a Colorful Chicken Life Cycle Craft with Kids

Let’s learn about the chicken’s life cycle for a little bit. It is one of the most fascinating life cycles that we have studied. We haven’t seen it all in person, but pretty close, actually.

The 5 stages of a chicken’s life are fun and easy to remember. The stages of chicken are eggs, hatchlings, chicks, adolescent chickens and adult chickens. In this post, we will learn how to make a colorful chicken life cycle craft with kids.

Chick to Hen Life Cycle

We have raised chickens for about 2.5 years now and it has been fascinating having formidable pets like these. We have 6 female chickens of different breeds. We have 2 Golden Stars, 1 New Hampshire and 1 Belgian Bearded D’Uccle.

These are adult chickens that lay eggs already. We also have 1 Silver-laced Wyandotte and 1 Buff Orpington that are chicks still. They will start laying when they are 4-6 months old, so around August.

We used to have 7, but my son recently auctioned one off (a Booted Bantam) at the county fair with 4-H. Now you know why we get excited to learn about chickens. They are our pets!

The Life Cycle of Chicken Books and Resources

What is a chicken life cycle? Well, in short, there is an egg that hatches and a chick comes out. The chick grows up and lays eggs (if she’s female). The mother hen and chick cycle is adorable.

The lifetime of a chicken varies by breed and quality of life, but we do know that they are able to live for many years. I have researched this a little bit and I know that many hens stop laying at about 8 years old, but can live longer than that.

Here is a list of great books that you can use to do some research and read, if you wanted this craft to be more educational and maybe even make it a unit in your Science class.

Where Do Chicks Come From?Chick Life CycleChicken Life CyclesChicken Life Cycle FlannelThe Life Cycle of a chickenFrom Egg to Chick life cycle

 

How to Make a Colorful Chicken Life Cycle Craft with Kids

Now that you have read some cool books, let’s delve into the life cycle of the chicken with a lovely craft. Your kids will love it. It doubles up for you, as the wonderful homeschool mom that you are!

This life cycle chick study falls under Science because it is about the chicken and egg cycle and life, but also under arts and crafts. Are you ready? Let’s get started!

Chicken Life Cycle Stages Craft Materials List:

• 5 river rocks (per child)
• acrylic paint (we used black, red, orange, yellow and white)
• paint trays
• cup (for water)
• paintbrushes
• pencil
• optional: permanent marker

Capcouriers Painting Rocks – Rocks ForApple Barrel Acrylic Paint Set, 1812 Pcs Paint Tray Palettes Plastic

 

 

1  With the pencil, draw the pictures on the rocks. On each rock, you will draw the cycle of a chicken: egg, chick embryo, hatchling, chick and hen.

2  Squirt some of the paint colors of your choosing on the tray.

3  Get one paintbrush for each color of paint that you will be using. if you only have 1 or 2, then you can use the water in the cup to rinse in-between uses.

4  Now, begin painting. I recommend starting with all of the eyes in white and the beaks in yellow.

5  As they dry, your kids can start with the egg and move their way through the life stages of a chicken.

6  Dry completely.

The Chicken Life Cycle Craft

7  Optional: You may want to give it a second coat because some rocks are porous. We only felt like the larger white and orange parts needed a second coat.

8  Dry completely.

9  Optional: If you want to give more detail to this beautiful chicken egg cycle craft, then you might want to use a permanent marker to go around all edges of the images. My daughter chose not to do this step.

You’re done! Look how lovely! 

Egg Cycle of a Chicken Game

Now, let’s look at how you can use this craft to learn and review your lesson. Here is a little blurb that you can read to your kids. Feel free to also show them the photo above to give them a visual on how the cycle goes.

Before you read this, place the rocks out of order in front of your kids. As you red the stages, have your kids find the relevant rock (I have numbered them 1-5 in the text below) to put in order.

They can place them in a straight line in order or in a circle, signifying the life cycle. Soon, your kids will be able to place these rocks in order. Ready?

“A hen lays an egg (1) and sits on it to keep it warm for about 21 days. If it is a fertile egg (that means that a rooster was involved), the egg develops an embryo inside (2).

Then, the chick hatches on its own (3). Chicks are full of fluffy, hair-like feathers. They don’t have feathers yet. As chicks grow, they turn into an adolescent chicken (or teenager chicken) (4).

When the females are between 4 and 6 months old, they begin laying eggs. Once they lay eggs, they are considered adult chickens or hens (5). The life cycle begins over again.”

Cool Chicken Activities

Here are some other chicken and baby chick activities that you and your kids will love:

The Most Popular Farm Animals: The Chicken Life Cycle

chicken christmas wrapping paperchristmas chicken wrapping paperpeck the halls chicken wrapping paper