The Great Hatch!

The last couple of weeks have been a very exciting time at nursery for the children with the arrival of 5 duckling eggs. On the build up to the ducklings coming to nursery, the preschool children have had many opportunities to engage in lots activities including learning about various life cycles and creating their own nests whilst engaging in imaginative play with natural resources collected from the nursery grounds. Once the duckling eggs arrived, the children were eager to take a look inside the cage and were intrigued when instantly they could see two little beaks poking out from two eggs which had already started to crack. The children were keen to learn all about what the incubator was for and why the ducklings needed the warmth from the heat pad, with one of the children explaining, “It’s just like using a blanket in our beds”. 

The children could not wait to get in to preschool each morning (and even some of their older siblings) to monitor how the ducklings were doing! Once all 5 eggs had hatched and the fluffy ducklings were ready to play, the children were so excited to hold, stroke and even watch the ducklings have a swim around the paddling pool. Groups of children spent many moments throughout the day, seemingly admiring the ducklings, smiling at them as they watched them cuddled together and sleeping. The children showed great kindness and care throughout the time the ducklings were at nursery, often reminding their friends to stroke gently and to use their quiet voices if the ducklings were trying to sleep.