MOSES LAKE — The first grade carefully counted down the days.

The first-graders in Regina Darlington’s class at Peninsula Elementary even had a special calendar. It takes 21 days for chicken eggs to hatch and the kids carefully monitored the entire process.

Darlington said it was a project she had wanted to do for a long time, even though she didn’t have any experience raising chickens. “I You Tubed everything,” she said. “I figured it out.”

The eggs were waiting when the first grade returned from spring vacation. The kids watched over the eggs for 21 days. “And it was really hard for us to wait,” Darlington said.

Darlington purchased an incubator, and for the 21 days the kids monitored the whole process. “We put the egg under a flashlight,” Emily Nolan explained, the process known as candling. As the days passed the first-graders watched the chicks develop blood vessels, bones and skin, and finally feathers. “Candling was one of the coolest things,” Darlington said, and the most interesting part of the project.

“The first one was born on the 21st day,” she said.

The first-graders were waiting. Some parents told her the kids were ready for school as early as 6 a.m., Darlington said. They didn’t want to miss anything. At least a few of the chicks were born during school, so the kids got to see the entire process.

But the chicks weren’t exactly cute when they pecked their way out of the shell. “They were slimy,” said Izzy Roloff.

“And sticky,” said Ezra Tutter.

“And soggy and wet,” Emily said. In fact, the newly hatched chicks had to go back in the incubator to dry out.

All the chicks hatched last week, and they are one of the biggest attractions in the classroom. Every morning many of the kids check the chick pen first thing when they get to school, Darlington said.

The kids had to teach the chicks how to eat and drink – to take a drink a chick has to tilt its head back, the first-graders said – and they cheep and chirp. A lot. They’re noisy, the kids said, but they do know Mrs. Darlington’s voice. When she’s reading the kids a story, the chicks will turn to look at her.

When they get a little older the chicks will go back to the person who donated the eggs. But Darlington said it’s the start of a yearly project. “Funnest thing I’ve ever done.