Egg Unit
(Oviparous Animals)

~Nursery Rhyme~
Humpty Dumpty

~Books~

An Extraordinary Egg, by Leo Lionni
Hegdie's Surprise, by Jan Brett
Humpty Dumpty, by Daniel Kirk
The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck, by Beatrix Potter
Daisy and the Egg, by Jane Simmons
Dora's Eggs, by Julie Sykes
Daisy Comes Home, by Jan Brett
Chickens Aren't the Only Ones, by Ruth Heller

~Circle Time~

Hatch, Hatch, Little Egg
We play a game where the children curl up into a ball and pretend to be an egg. One child is tapped on the shoulder and pretends to hatch from his egg and act like an animal that would come from an egg (bird, fish, tadpoles, snakes, etc.) They make the animal's sounds and movements (the other children guess what animal). That student taps the next child.

~Art~
We decorate a paper egg with colored chalk.

~Fine Motor Skills~

The children use tweezers to pick up little chicks (yellow pompoms) and put them in mini Easter eggs. Using the tweezers and fitting the eggs together exercises their fine motor muscles.

~Language Arts~

What's Inside
The children open up a "cracked" paper egg, and on the inside, they draw a picture of an animal that comes from an egg (dinosaur, frog, chick, alligator, snake, fish, turtle, butterflies, etc.) Most of the children are interested in writing at this point in the year, and will ask me to spell the animal's name so they can write it on the page.

Beginning Sounds
I have letters written on plastic Easter eggs. The children work together as a small group putting oviparous animals (mini animal toys) inside the correct egg. We have dinosaurs, frogs, alligators, snakes, lizards, fish, birds, turtles, butterflies, flies, ladybugs, etc. They say the word, identify the beginning sound, and find the egg with that letter written on it.

Pocket Story
We make a pocket story for the book An Extraordinary Egg, by Leo Lionni. The children draw a picture to illustrate the book, then dictate one sentence to a teacher, which is written in the pocket. The sentence is written again on a paper strip and cut apart. The children put the sentence together by matching the words. The individual words are stored inside the pocket.


Who's Hatching?
We use a rhyming pocket chart called "Who's Hatching?" to learn more about animals that come from eggs. Children try to figure out the color words by listening to the beginning sound, and find the matching colored egg. We learn which animals come from which colored eggs.

~Math~

Floor Graph
A bucket of plastic eggs is passed around the circle. Each child takes one without opening it. While they're waiting I have them shake it and try to guess what is inside (they have mini animals inside). They have learned which animals come from eggs by listening to books and doing other activities, so they know to guess one of those animals. Each child has a turn opening the egg and placing it on the floor graphing mat. We count up each animal, and determine which has the most/least/same.

Object Graphs
We use animal counters (oviparous animals) and ice cube trays for a graph. The children choose a bag of animals and sort them into the two columns of the tray. I ask them to count each column and tell which has the most or least or same amount.


Patterns
We use the same animal counters to make patterns.

Weight
The children weigh plastic eggs in the balance scale to find matching pairs. The eggs have varying amounts of pennies in each egg.

~Science~

Gus the Alligator
Since alligators are oviparous animals, we watch the National Geographic video called "Gus the Alligator." The children are to listen for alligator facts. When the video is over, we make a web chart of alligator facts: food (what do alligators eat?), predators (who eats alligators?), home (where do alligators live?), etc.


~Technology~

Internet
We explore the "Eggs" Kids Page (www.prekinders.com/eggs_kids.htm). I read any information on the pages at circle time, and the children explore on their own at center time.

Kidspiration
The word "egg" is posted on the computer monitor for the children to type. They use the book "Chickens Aren't the Only Ones" as a reference, and search through the Kidspiration clipart to find animals that come from eggs. They click and drag the animals onto the page (at least 3 animals) and print.




Recommended resource book for this unit:
Eggs Eggs Everywhere
(Published by LHS GEMS)



© K.Cox 2003
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