Unit 8 — April: Chicken Management Practices and Horticulture
Description
April focuses on practical chicken management and begins horticulture. Students transition chickens from indoor housing to outdoor coops and mobile housing systems. They learn about different chicken farming approaches such as free-range operations and chicken tractors, including how to use and move them. Students also participate in chicken showing activities, learning about breed standards, classes, categories, and desired attributes. Photography skills are developed as students document their chickens. The month also introduces planting and horticulture activities.
Essential Questions
- What are different approaches to raising chickens?
- How are animals prepared for showing and evaluation?
- What skills are needed in horticulture?
Learning Objectives
- Understand different chicken farming systems and their advantages
- Learn how to handle and care for chickens in outdoor systems
- Understand showing standards and breed evaluation
- Develop photography skills to document animals
- Begin learning horticultural practices and plant cultivation
- Understand the transition of animals to different housing
Supplemental Resources
- Printed images or photographs of different farming systems
- Chart paper for comparing farming approaches
- Markers and colored pencils for illustrating standards
- Clipboards for documenting observations
- Folders or binders for organizing photography portfolio
Crosscutting Concepts
Disciplinary Core Ideas
Earth and Space Sciences
Life Sciences
Science and Engineering Practices
Students engage in reading informational texts, conducting research, and producing written work across all units. They write reports, blog posts, and portfolio updates on agricultural topics; engage in collaborative discussions about food systems, natural resources, and animal science; present findings using multimedia tools; and gather information from multiple sources to support claims about agriculture and the environment.
Students apply mathematical reasoning throughout the curriculum, including calculating food costs and nutrition from grocery advertisements, computing feed amounts and percentages for livestock, determining square footage for chicken coop design, converting units of measurement in food science, analyzing water chemistry data using graphs, and computing ratios and rates related to population dynamics and carrying capacity.
Students apply life, earth, and environmental science concepts across all units, including investigating plant cell structure and function, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration; studying genetics and heredity through Punnett squares and DNA extraction; analyzing ecosystems, food webs, and population dynamics; conducting water chemistry investigations; and examining the roles of organisms in natural systems and the impacts of human activity on the environment.
Career readiness, life literacies, and key skills are embedded throughout all units. Students explore careers in agriculture, food science, natural resource management, animal science, agribusiness, and veterinary science; develop personal finance and budgeting skills through agribusiness activities; use technology tools to research and present information; and apply critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills in hands-on and project-based contexts.
Formative Assessments
- Observations of chicken handling and movement
- Journals documenting farming system comparisons
- Pair and share discussions on showing standards
- Photography portfolio review
- Self-evaluations of animal care quality
Summative Assessment
Projects comparing farming systems, presentations on chicken showing, portfolio with photography examples and horticulture observations
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding of chicken farming systems and showing standards through visual presentations, labeled diagrams, or oral explanations with teacher support. Simplified graphic organizers comparing farming systems or guided interviews about chicken care and breed attributes may replace written comparisons.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
During hands-on chicken handling and outdoor housing transitions, provide step-by-step visual or picture-supported guides so students can follow procedures with greater independence. For documentation tasks such as journals and portfolios, allow oral responses, dictation, or voice-recorded reflections as alternatives to extended written output. When evaluating breed standards and farming systems, offer graphic organizers or comparison charts with sentence stems to help students organize their thinking before sharing. Additional processing time and frequent check-ins during animal care observations will support students in connecting their hands-on experience to the learning objectives.
Section 504
Ensure preferential positioning during outdoor chicken handling demonstrations so students have a clear line of sight and reduced environmental distractions. Provide extended time for portfolio and project completion, particularly when students are compiling photography documentation and written farming system comparisons. Printed reference cards summarizing key steps for chicken care routines and showing standards can support sustained focus and task completion across the unit.
ELL / MLL
Introduce and preview key vocabulary — such as free-range, chicken tractor, breed standard, and horticulture — using visual supports like labeled photographs, diagrams, and real examples from the outdoor learning environment before beginning related activities. Simplified, clearly sequenced directions for hands-on tasks such as moving chickens to outdoor housing or beginning planting activities will help students engage with confidence. Where possible, encourage students to document observations in their home language first before transitioning to English, and pair visual or photographic documentation with vocabulary development throughout the unit.
At Risk (RTI)
Connect the unit's hands-on components — caring for chickens outdoors, using a chicken tractor, and beginning planting activities — to students' existing knowledge of animals, food, or outdoor spaces to build a meaningful entry point into new content. Reduce the complexity of comparison tasks by focusing on two clearly defined farming systems before broadening, and use guided templates with prompts to support journal entries and self-evaluations. Frequent encouragement and brief check-ins during animal care and photography activities will help students build confidence and maintain engagement throughout the unit.
Gifted & Talented
Encourage students to investigate the environmental, economic, and ethical dimensions of different chicken farming systems — such as comparing free-range and confined systems through a sustainability or food justice lens — going beyond surface-level comparisons. Students may develop an in-depth photographic essay or documentary-style portfolio that critically evaluates breed standards, animal welfare indicators, or the relationship between horticulture and integrated farming systems. Connections to agricultural science, local food systems, or community farming initiatives can provide meaningful extension that deepens understanding rather than simply adding volume to existing tasks.