IAITC 2025-26 Ag Literacy Grants
Learn more about the 2025-26 ag literacy grants from Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom and the IAA Foundation.
Chickens, Ducks, and Turkeys, Oh My!
Illinois Ag in the Classroom has an 'egg-cellent' collection of poultry lessons! The term poultry refers to chickens, turkeys, ducks, ostriches, emus, quail, pheasants, and geese. From egg anatomy to pudding cup turkeys, check out what IAITC has to offer.
Check out these fun poultry facts:
- National Poultry Day is March 19th
- An eggshell may have as many as 17,000 tiny pores over its surface
- Illinois has over 5 million chickens
- You can tell what color egg a hen will lay by the color of her earlobes
- A hen lays about 300 eggs a year
- Chickens raised for their meat are called broilers
Non-Fiction Texts for ALL Grades
Read about all things poultry with our Poultry non-Fiction texts. We have something for every grade level, Pre-K - 12!
It's Embryology Season!
Hatching eggs at home or in your classroom this spring? Don't miss our Embryology Exploration student workbook, which provides educational activities for students throughout the 21-day incubation process.
Recommended Reading
"Chick, Chick, Chick, Chick, Chicken!" by Vivian French
"The Interrupting Chicken" by David Ezra Stein
"Sonya's Chickens" by Phoebe Wahl
"Big Chickens" by Leslie Helakoski
"Mr. Watson's Chickens" by Jarrett Dapier
"What Will Hatch?" by Jennifer Ward
"The Good Egg" by Jory John and Pete Oswald
"Chicks and Salsa" by Aaron Reynolds
"The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County" by Janice N. Harrington
Turkey Pudding Cups
This lesson is designed to be a fun, hands-on activity that introduces students to facts about poultry and to talk about nutrition. From reading "Gracias the Thanksgiving Turkey" to creating the turkeys, students will 'gobble' with laughter at this unique activity.
Science + Egg Production
Eggs are so fascinating! Check out these science-based egg-citing lessons about eggs anatomy!
Click on the picture to link to each lesson.
Chicken Wing, Chicken Wing...
Despite the popularity of chicken wings as a snack or meal item, many people do not realize the similarities between chicken wings and the human arm. By dissecting a chicken wing, students can identify the parts of the wing that mirror those of a human arm. That is exactly what students get to do in our less "Chicken Wings!"
Check it out here:
Poultry Jeopardy
What’s more fun than learning while playing a game? We're pretty sure this is just about as good as it gets! Students will create their own Jeopardy-style game by researching poultry facts. Think about all the fun categories they could come up with…
Have we 'cracked' open an interest??
Illinois Ag in the Classroom has many more poultry resources check them all out!
Rows of Resources: Corn and Soybean Activities
Thanks to April showers aplenty this year, most Illinois farmers will spend the first part of this month planting rows and rows of Illinois' top agriculture commodities: corn and soybeans, and we will follow suit by sharing rows and rows of our favorite corn and soybean resources!
STEM and Inquiry in Agriculture
Fun, hands-on activities to get students thinking and problem solving by carrying out STEM and inquiry challenges with connections to agriculture.