Spring Chicken

When one passes by first grade teacher Kelly Leininger's classroom, it wouldn't be uncommon to hear the laughter of children throughout the day.

For the past week, however, the din emanating from the room at South Elementary School in Sidney had a new sound added to the mix: the peeping of baby chicks.

Throughout April, Leininger's class worked together on a project where they incubated more than three dozen eggs as part of lessons on life cycles.

"We do ladybugs, tadpoles, butterflies, and then my room always does chicks," Leininger said. "We start with the eggs and talk about all of the chan...