School this year wasn't all it was cracked up to be due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One principal decided to take things into her own hands and send her students into summer break on a positive note.

Saint Rose Elementary School Principal Mary Crysler’s idea: to care for duck eggs with her students for 28 days.

"There are Os on one side and Xs on the other, because you have to turn them multiple times, so that way I know that I flipped them all," Crysler said.

She says the students love it. One began to hatch a day earlier. The eggs won’t be flipped at that point, so as not to impede the ducklings' progress.

"It’s science, but it’s fun at the same time," Crysler said. "So they see from the beginning, when the eggs come, you can see the little black dot inside the egg. The embryo. Every week, we candle them and we keep looking inside of them. You see the veins and the air cell, and you can see them moving around as they get bigger and bigger."

"When [kids] see them move … they just get so excited," Crysler added.

After weeks of waiting, the real excitement happened when 17 of the 19 ducks were born. Students gave the ducks names like Donald, Tiny, and the most popular name, Curly.

"Now that they’re here, we can play with them," one student said. "They’re so cute. It’s fun."

"It was great the kids were able to help," Crysler said. "It’s been a long two years with COVID and the restrictions, and the things we couldn’t do. So this was a great way to end the year. Celebrate new life together as a group."

Crysler says that since ducks are herd animals, all 16 will live and grow up together on a farm in Marcellus.