Duckling Eggs!

The pre school children have been very excited on the lead up to the arrival of the duckling eggs. Over the last couple of weeks, the children have been looking in to the set up for the eggs and what environment they need to be in to be kept warm whilst still in their eggs. When talking about their incubator set up within their cage, Isla suggested, “I think that’s like my baby when she was born. We wrapped her in a blanket to keep her warm”. Once the eggs arrived, Phoebe was excited to count how many had been delivered and informed her friends, “We have 5 baby ducklings”. Each day on arrival at nursery, the children were eager to see if the eggs had started to crack and after a group time of the children using duck hand puppet props to help tell the story of Farmer Duck, Isabelle asked, “Can we go and check them again?” On Thursday afternoon, 4 of the ducklings made an appearance from their eggs and the children were very excited to see them. Sebastian reminded his friends, “Remember guys, they are very tired now so we have to be quiet so they can rest until they are ready to play”. Joseph agreed, “That’s right and then they can have a swim in their paddling pool”.

The toddlers have absolutely loved the arrival of the duck eggs and have been so excited to see the ducklings! When the eggs had first arrived lots of toddlers were asking to see them and they all got to have a look at the eggs in the incubator and the set up of the ducklings cage. Sebastian gasped and with an open mouthed look of amazement said, “Look all the eggs, one…two…three…four…five eggs”. While hearing about how the ducklings will hatch out and get to explore their little environment once they go all fluffy, the children heard a little ‘cheep’ causing both of them to gasp. Sienna squinted her eyes and leaned in close, trying to see if she could hear it again while Sebastian then whispered “Hear the ducks?”. Sienna then jumped back into the conversation previously, “There’s a duck…. In the eggs and going to come out…. and sleep in there” Sebastian looked to where Sienna was pointing at the small heater and took a deep breath and let out a pretend snore!

This week, the under 2s have been super excited about the arrival of our duckling eggs. Before the eggs arrived, the children were lucky enough to spot some Moorhen chicks with their Mummy, swimming along the water during one of our daily walks. Lyra pointed as she gasped, saying, “Oooo wow” and began to clap her hands. Once back at nursery, the children visited the duck eggs a few at a time. After explaining to the children that inside the eggs are ducklings, Lowen’s eyes lit up. He looked towards the eggs and said, “Quack quack” with a huge smile on his face as he looked at his friend Calvin. Calvin then began to copy the quacking sound which made them both giggle. Every day the children have a look to see how the ducklings are doing and if they have hatched yet.