A Chick Named Motor

The chicks in Mrs. Galloway’s 4th grade class are OUT. They all hatched yesterday. One chick had been notably more eager to hatch than the others. Annabelle wanted to name him “Motor” because he pecked away at the egg non-stop. The other chicks would get tired and take a nap break, but not Motor. He just kept at it until he got out. I think Motor is a cool name for a baby chick, and I can already imagine a children’s book with the same name.

Most of the chicks were gray, with yellow down on their chests. But one chick had a big tuft of yellow feathers around his chin, so the children named him "Yellow Beard." They borrowed the name from the pirate-themed musical they will be performing in May. Pirates certainly seem to be a common theme this year, don't they?

One of the chicks was a dark charcoal gray, with stripes down his back, so "Skunk" he was named. Another chick had flipped out of his egg upon hatching, earning the name "Flip Star, " a compromise between what the kids wanted -"Rock Star"--and the teacher's choice --"Flip". I would have gone with "Flip Wilson" myself.

One girl in the class has mental and learning challenges, but she had no trouble picking out a name for the one chick that was all yellow. "Hi Sam!! I named him "Sam" !" she said repeatedly. She was so excited, that the class agreed to let the name stick. One chick came out feet first, and had supersized feet, so he was named "Bigfoot." The remaining two chicks were named "Powerball" and "Stripes."

Annabelle tells me that her class spent about 3 hours doing school work and spent the other 4 hours watching the chicks. Which is as it should be. I'd wager you can learn a lot from watching new baby chicks that you could never learn from a book.