From Egg to Hen: The Life Cycle of a Chicken

About This Resource

A complete Grade 2 science lesson pack on the life cycle of a chicken: the four stages (egg, chick, young chicken, adult), how a chick grows inside the egg for about 21 days, how it hatches with its egg tooth, what chicks need, the difference between a hen and a rooster, and comparing the chicken's life cycle with a human's. Includes slides, a timed lesson plan, flashcards, worksheet, quiz, homework, rubric and answer key.

Overview

Students follow a chicken from egg to adult. They learn that a hen lays an egg and keeps it warm, that a chick grows inside the egg for about three weeks, and that it uses a tiny egg tooth to crack the shell and hatch. They describe how a fluffy chick grows feathers and becomes a young chicken, then an adult hen or rooster that can start the cycle again. Students order the stages, label a life cycle wheel, read a farm diary and compare a chicken's life cycle with their own.

Resource Details

Subject: Science
Topic: Life Cycle of a Chicken
Category: Animals
File Type: PDF
File Size: 354 KB
Published: 04 Nov 2026
Downloads: 0

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Grade 2 (ages 7–8) 45 minutes Sequencing observing reading comparing explaining

Learning Objectives

Name and order the four stages of a chicken's life cycle.
Describe what happens at each stage, including hatching.
Explain that a life cycle repeats and compare it with a human life cycle.

How to Use This Resource

Start with slide 1: show an egg and ask, "What can come out of an egg?"
Teach the four stages and hatching with the slides, then do activities 1 and 2 together.
Students complete activities 3 to 6, then use the quiz to check and the homework at home. Answers are in the answer key.

Classroom Activity Ideas

Life cycle wheel: students cut out the four stage pictures and glue them in a circle with arrows.
Hatching role-play: students curl up as an egg, tap with a pretend egg tooth and slowly hatch as a chick.
Egg candling video: watch a short video of a chick growing inside an egg and draw what they see.

Differentiation

Support: use picture cards for each stage and focus on egg, chick and hen. Challenge: compare the chicken's life cycle with a butterfly's and explain why a chicken has no larva or pupa stage.

Assessment

Worksheet activities and the quiz check the stages, their order and what happens at each one (answer key included). Activity 6 and the rubric check comparing life cycles.

Teacher Tips

Stress the word cycle: it goes round and round. Draw the stages in a circle, not a line, and ask "What happens after the hen?" so students see that adult hens lay new eggs.

What's Included

11-page printable PDF lesson pack: teacher lesson plan with timings, materials and differentiation
Key vocabulary list (7 words with meanings and examples)
Student worksheet (6 activities)
Quiz / assessment (3 parts)
Homework practice page
Printable flashcards: 7 A5 picture cards (separate PDF)
Assessment rubric (4 levels)
Lesson slides (editable PowerPoint)
Editable Word version of all student pages
Complete answer key (also as a separate PDF)