Lesson 7 THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY
FROM HEN TO HOME

Classroom time: 40 minutes

LESSON OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to:

  1. identify and sequence the steps required to bring eggs from hen to home.

  2. recognize the steps taken by the egg industry to ensure a quality product.

CONTENT SKILLS

  1. consumer education: sequencing the steps from egg production to home storage

  2. health: identifying, comparing and analyzing

  3. language arts: writing captions

  4. critical thinking: analyzing and sequencing

  5. art: coloring and/or designing

  6. social studies: identifying production standards for a food commodity

MATERIALS NEEDED

  1. The Incredible Journey From Hen to Home (activity sheet 8)

  2. The Incredible Journey From Hen to Home (online game version available soon)

LESSON BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Before the egg on your plate ever left the supermarket, it went on an incredible journey. It was:

Laid – In a controlled environment, a hen was fed a healthful diet of specially mixed grain and then laid the egg.

Collected – At a modern egg farm, the egg dropped automatically from the hen’s cage to a conveyor belt below or was mechanically collected from a special nest.

Washed – The collected egg was washed and sanitized.

Oiled – The washed and sanitized egg was lightly coated with a harmless, invisible oil to seal the shell pores, slow down aging and prevent bacteria from entering the shell pores.

Candled – After oiling, the egg passed over an intense light and was rotated mechanically so its contents could be examined without cracking its shell. A candler checked the condition of its shell, albumen and yolk. If it didn’t meet grade requirements for AA, A or B, it was removed.

Graded – Once it passed the candling tests, the egg was graded AA, A or B.

Sized – The graded egg was weighed to determine its size so it could join other eggs of a similar weight to make up a specific minimum weight per dozen.

Packed – To minimize breakage and maintain freshness, the egg was packed in a specially designed carton marked with its grade and size.

Cooled – After packing, the egg was placed in a cooling room with a temperature of 45° F to lower the egg’s temperature and maintain its quality.

Shipped – The cooled egg was shipped in a refrigerated truck and delivered to a store. Like most eggs, it reached the supermarket a few days after it was laid.

Sold – To maintain its freshness, the store kept the egg in a refrigerated display case where it was picked up and purchased by a customer.

Stored – The customer quickly brought the egg home from the store and kept it in its original carton on a refrigerator shelf. Within 4 to 5 weeks of the pack date or 3 to 4 weeks of buying the egg, the customer cooked it and enjoyed the meal!

LESSON PROCEDURE

  1. Using lesson background information, discuss the steps of the egg’s progress from hen to home. Have students complete The Incredible Journey From Hen to Home activity sheet by filling in the captions for each step and arranging the panels in their proper sequence. Encourage students to be creative with the captions as long as the proper steps are mentioned.

  2. To reinforce the lesson, using the poster/gameboard, player pieces, questions and rules, have students play The Incredible Journey From Hen to Home game in small groups. (Photocopy player pieces and questions. Have students cut and color player pieces or create their own egg characters from blank player pieces. Cut questions into "fortune cookie" strips, fold and place into a box, having students create additional questions, if you like.)

EGGSTENSION ACTIVITIES

  1. Have students decorate eggs for a holiday, such as Easter, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas or Hanukkah.

  2. Have students create a poem, song or rap about eggs and nutrition or the hen-to-home process.