DAVENPORT, Iowa — The school year is almost over, but Jefferson Elementary School is welcoming three new students to the classroom. But these ones won't be sitting at a desk or carrying a lunch box.
Three ducklings hatched in special education teacher Sarah McGlynn's classroom. Two are yellow Pekin babies that will grow up to have white feathers. The third is currently black and yellow, a Swedish duck, with feathers that will eventually turn black and white. Their eggs were in an incubator in McGlynn's classroom for 28 days while her students learned about their growing process.
"We have a little book that we were checking in and a calendar of stuff so we were checking in on them everyday to see what they would look like each day and what was happening, when they were starting to grow feathers and their beaks were forming and all of that stuff," she said.
They started with 14 eggs, but only three hatched, and about a day late.
"Two needed, I did like little ducky c sections yesterday, and they needed some help getting out of their shells, which I don't normally do because it's sort of nature's way of saying they might not survive," McGlynn said. "Our little black and yellow friend was on the struggle bus yesterday, but he pulled through and he's doing great."
Second grader Jamarcus Baylor was surprised when he first saw the ducklings.
"I thought all of them was going to be yellow, but that little duck came out and I saw a bit of black," Baylor said.
"I mean, yeah, they're pretty small actually," said second grader Danyiel Bennett. "They're so cute and fluffy!"
This is the first year the baby animals have been an end of school year lesson at Jefferson. McGlynn previously hatched other ducks and chicks when she worked at Monroe Elementary. When the school closed last year as part of Davenport's long-range facilities plan, McGlynn decided to bring the tradition with her to her new school. She estimates about half of Monroe's students moved over to Jefferson.
"It just comes at the perfect time of the year," she said. "We need big carrots at this time when it can be hard to keep everyone motivated, engaged for the last week or two of school. So we have lots of class wide incentives."
Students can earn time to spend with the ducks, such as teaching them to swim.
"It's also our end of the year FAST Testing, so we're always trying to really incentivize their engagement and effort, so the student who has the biggest gains from winter to spring gets to name one of the ducks too," McGlynn said.
Two of the ducks were already named Eddie and George.
"Do we have any idea if they're boys or girls? Absolutely not," McGlynn said. "But we're just going with it at this point."
Second grader Demi Richardson wants to name the third Bella.
"There's so much more than they'd ever be learning than just reading about cute baby ducklings," McGlynn said. "There's a ton of responsibility involved. We talk about safety. I have a lot of students who have trouble staying regulated and this is a place where you have to be quiet, you have to be calm, they're babies. So we talk a lot about their personal responsibility and personal safety, but then they love having something else to care for so this is an exciting opportunity for them to be able to care for and protect someone else too."
At the end of the school year the ducklings will move to their new homes on farms owned by Jefferson teachers.
"I want to move to a farm so then I can see the ducks and all the rest of the animals," Richardson said.