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MONROVIA, Alabama – The morning of April 27 was a happy one at Westminster Christian Academy’s elementary school campus in Monrovia. The highly anticipated hatching of some baby chicks had finally begun.

The celebration was short-lived as school abruptly ended at 11:15 a.m. after school administrators saw the storms that proved to be so disastrous rolling in.

The school’s first-grade teachers, Amy Madison and Jenni Matthewson, packed up the chicks and the unhatched eggs and kept them warm, despite having no electricity for several days.

“One teacher used hot water bottles to keep the eggs warm,” said Anna Lee Dunn, the elementary principal at Westminster.

When school resumed May 4, the teachers brought the growing chicks back to class to greet the students, Dunn said.

“It was a most welcome surprise, and the students shared their joy with the other students,” she said.

The egg-hatching project is one Matthewson has done the past few years, and Madison joined her this year in nurturing eggs for three weeks.

Each day, the students checked the temperature on the incubators and recorded the data.

“We were making sure the eggs were OK and that they wouldn’t get too hot or too cold,” said first-grader Rachel Pomnitz.

The students also studied the different parts of the chicken and learned big words such as oviparous – egg-laying animals.

“They get to see the whole cycle of life and all the little details of what has to go right in something we take for granted,” Madison said.

Once the chicks are a few weeks old, several Westminster families want them to raise for eggs, Matthewson said.

Beyond the excitement of seeing the eggs hatch, the teachers hope their students learn an important lesson from the project, Matthewson said.

“We want them to see life is precious and needs to be cared for and be protected.”

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