Look who’s hatching in Douglas-Sarpy County

Anyone who has spent time with a preschooler knows that they will ask a million questions. Their inquisitive minds wonder aloud the darndest things: Why is the sky blue? Where is Grandpa’s hair? Where do babies come from?

Katie Krause figured out how to turn young children’s natural curiosity into an agricultural education opportunity through a creative embryology program called “Look Who’s Hatching.”

Krause was teaching preschool in Ohio when she first had the idea for the program. While attending a teacher training about 4-H embryology sponsored by the Ohio Soybean Council, her thoughts kept circling around how she could adapt the concepts to the preschool level.

“The curriculum was wonderful for third grade but was not developmentally appropriate for preschoolers, for 3, 4 and 5 year olds,” Krause reflected.

So Krause decided to take a different approach. Instead of telling the children what was inside of the eggs, she used child-centered and inquiry-based education to explore the different kinds of animals that come out of eggs. Thus, Look Who’s Hatching was born.

Krause has taught Look Who’s Hatching for 10 of her 11 years as an early childhood extension educator at Nebraska Extension in Douglas-Sarpy County. The program is geared specifically towards youth ages 2-6; the 4-H embryology unit is used in classrooms for lower elementary and grade school.

Looks Who’s Hatching has become popular in childcare centers, preschools and family home programs across Nebraska. The unique curriculum is also spreading into Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and other states, as well. Krause has presented the program for both extension and early childhood national conferences.

“Embryology and egg hatching are common in preschool, but the idea of not telling kids what is in the eggs is not. No other curriculum or guidebook like ours exists,” said Krause.

Teachers are encouraged to direct student learning by asking questions, such as “What do you think is inside the egg?” Activities and curriculum are then built around the children’s responses. Krause said that it’s “super fun” to hear what kids think will come out of the eggs.

“We almost always get dinosaurs or snakes as an answer,” said Krause. Following the emergent curriculum guidelines, the subsequent lessons would then examine dinosaurs and reptiles because that is what the children showed an interest in.

Working with youth in the Omaha area has resulted in some wild answers, like when elephants were introduced at the Henry Doorly Zoo several years ago. Krause said with a laugh, “Then they thought elephants would come out of the eggs.”

The overarching goal of Look Who’s Hatching is to connect children to agriculture. Krause said that they talk about how the baby chicks will live on a farm and lay eggs because they are laying hens.

“We want children to understand where their food comes from. The ag literacy component of Look Who’s Hatching is understanding the industry that drives Nebraska,” said Krause.

While most of the programming at Douglas-Sarpy Extension serves urban communities, Krause has colleagues in rural areas who also teach Look Who’s Hatching. These children also benefit from the emergent curriculum.

“Even the kids who know they are chicken eggs will play into the idea,” said Krause.

Through embryology, children are learning the cycle of life and how to care for other living creatures. Krause provides posters to help remind the students to check the humidity and temperature of the incubator before the eggs hatch, then teaches them how to care for the chicks once they hatch.

“It creates a culture of care,” Krause said.

An unintentional outcome of the Look Who’s Hatching program has been an increase of family engagement in the children’s learning. Many of the partnering childcare centers or preschools have reported that families slow down at drop off or pick up time to check the eggs in the classroom.

“The families are just as curious about the eggs and when they’re going to hatch as the children are,” Krause said.

The program has also been a fun engagement piece for nursing home residents. They anticipate hatching day as eagerly as preschoolers.

This goes to show that people of all ages have an inborn curiosity. No one can wait to “Look Who’s Hatching.”

For more information about the embryology programs available, contact Katie at Katie.krause@unl.edu or call her at the Douglas-Sarpy Extension office 402-444-7804