Did You Ever See An Egg?
(Tune: "Did You Ever See a Lassie?")

Did you ever see an egg and think what was inside it?
Did you ever see an egg and think what was inside?
It could be a chick, or a fish, or a lizard.
Did you ever see an egg and think what was inside?

For next verse, substitute other oviparous animals in place of chick, fish, and lizard.

I'm a Little Chicken
(Tune: I'm A Little Teapot)

I'm a little chicken,
Ready to hatch,
Pecking at my shell,
Scratch, scratch, scratch
When I crack it open, out I'll leap,
Fluff up my feathers and cheep, cheep, cheep!

Bird's Nest

Among the trees
Is a bird's nest,
And in the nest
Her three eggs rest.

And in each egg--
Hush, you'll be heard!--
There lies asleep
A tiny bird.

Eggs

Eggs come in many sizes.
Eggs hold some big surprises.
Speckled, brown, white, or blue.
Eggs hold babies that are new.
Chicks from eggs are fluffy yellow.
Chicks from eggs are funny fellows!

Baby Chick

Peck, peck, peck
On the warm, brown egg.
Out comes a neck.
Out comes a leg.

How does a chick.
Who's not been about,
Discover the trick
Of how to get out?

I'm A Little Chick
(Sung to "I'm a Little Teapot")

I'm a little chick inside an egg
I'm always sleeping - snoring away
Soon you'll hear a pecking,pecking sound
The egg will crack and out I'll pop.

Eggs

They're quite a few
Hatch from eggs
And lay them, too.

Baby Chick

Peck, peck, peck
On the warm, brown egg.
Out comes a neck.
Out comes a leg.

How does a chick.
Who's not been about,
Discover the trick
Of how to get out?

I Love Eggs
(Tune: Frere Jacques)

I love eggs, I love eggs,
Yum, yum, yum, in my tum.
Scrambled, boiled, or fried,
Any way I've tried.
Yum, yum, yum,
Yum, yum, yum.

What Is an Egg?

What is an egg?
It's a special place.
It's warm and it's safe.
It's a cozy space.

What is an egg?
It's a place to start
Growing bones and a beak
And feathers and a heart.

What is an egg?
It's a place to grow
For a chick and a duck
And an owl and a crow.

What is an egg?
It's a place to begin
For all sorts of birds;
For rooster and hen.

Shared Reading

It Started as an Egg
by Kimberlee Graves

Day 1: Ask students which animals they know come from eggs. After students have brainstormed animals that they know hatch from eggs,  present a chart with three columns (yes, no, maybe) and pictures of a variety of animals.  Let students take turns choosing  an animal picture card and orally stating the animal's name.   Let students decide if each animal definitely comes from an egg or definitely does not hatch form eggs.  Let students share how they know this information.  Place all other animal picture cards in the 'maybe' column on the chart.;  Explain that all this week, we will read books to find out about which animals actually do hatch from eggs and which ones do not.  Share that as we learn new information, the class will need to move some of the animals from the 'maybe' column to one of the other columns

Introduce title, author and illustrator of this week's focus story It Started as an Egg;  Show the cover and talk about what type of egg is shown.   What animal might hatch from this egg?; Take a picture walk letting students name and describe the baby and adult animal in each picture. What is the name of this animal?   Is it called the same thing once it is an adult?  How has the animal changed as it grew into an adult?;  Read aloud for enjoyment.;  Refer students attention back to the prediction chart.  Are there any animals under the 'maybe' column that we now know hatches from an egg?

Day 2: Refer to the prediction chart and the focus story in order to review  with students what they learned about animals that hatch from eggs; Reread It Started as an Egg.

Companion Story: The Chick and the Duckling by Mirra Ginsburg
Introduce title, author and illustrator;  Explain that this story is about two new animal friends; See what students already know about chick and ducklings - What is a chick?  What is a duckling? What is it's mother called? Do we know whether or not they hatch from eggs?;  Begin a Venn diagram and list what students already know about a chick and a duckling; Take a picture walk of the companion story, letting students describe the actions of the chick and the duckling.  Let students make predictions as to whether the chick will do the same thing as the duck in each situation.  Why do they think that?  Stop the picture walk when the chick hops into the water;   Read aloud for enjoyment.;  After reading, encourage students to think about other things they learned about the chick and the duckling.  how are they alike?   How are they different?  (mothers, hatch from eggs, beaks, feet, coloring, number of legs, uses for their beak and feet, sounds make, feathers, tail, wings, ability to fly, type of bird, etc.)

Day 3: Reread It Started as an Egg, encouraging students to join in on the words they are familiar with;  Brainstorm with students what the author might have wrote for a chick and a duckling; Use interactive writing to write about either the chick or the duckling and make additional pages.  (For example, "It started as an egg.   It hatched and it grew.  Its web feet grew so it could swim.  It started as an egg and it became a duck.")

Companion Story:   Review with students how the chick and the duckling are alike and different, reading the Venn diagram; Shared Reading - Reread The Chick and the Duckling.; Discuss  aspects of the story with students by asking a few of the following questions.

• How can we tell that the chick and the duckling are friends?
• What kind of things do they like to do together?
• What is the problem in the story?
• How did the duckling help his friend?
• What might the chick and duckling have learned by the end of the story?
• Do you think it is all right for friends to do and like different things sometimes?  Why or why not? 
• Share a time when you and a friend did different things.

Introduce the pocket chart story with pictures (duck only at this time) and words. Discuss with students what they see the duck doing in each of the pictures.   Show students the pictures of what the chick is doing, but out of sequence.   Ask students to place the pictures in order, alongside the corresponding pictures of the duckling;  Read the story chart with students.

Companion Rhyme: Introduce the companion poem 'Peck, Peck, Peck' by Aileen Fisher and read aloud.

Peck, peck, peck
on the warm brown egg.
Out comes a neck.
Out comes a leg.
How does a chick
that's not been about
discover the trick
of how to get out?

Day 4: Story: Shared Reading - Reread It Started as an Egg.

Companion Rhyme: Reread the companion poem 'Peck, Peck, Peck' - echo reading;  Change the name and picture of the animal from a 'chick' to another oviparous animal. Do this several times, letting students choose the animal.   Reread together. (This idea is from  Building Literacy With Interactive Charts by Schlosser and Phillips; Scholastic:1992.)

Companion Story: Shared Reading - Reread The Chick and the Duckling using the pocket chart story and pictures;  Have students mask letters such as d, e, m, t, s, etc.  Also have them locate sight words such as the, am, I, etc.  

Day 5: Companion Rhymes:  Reread the companion poem 'Peck, Peck, Peck'.  Let students name the rhyming words; Reread -  choral reading (half the class, every other line);  As yesterday, change the name and picture of the animal from a 'chick' to another oviparous animal. Do this several times, letting students choose the animal.  Reread together.

Story:  Together, reread It Started as an Egg;   Introduce the take home booklet in which there are pictures of animals that hatch from eggs. Students need to complete the booklet, by writing the missing letters of the names of the animals. Read together with students tracking the print in their individual booklet.

It started as an egg.
It hatched and it grew.
It became a __________

(Examples: hen, duck, butterfly, ant, spider, turtle, snake, frog, etc.)

Companion Story: Shared Reading - Reread The Chick and the Duckling using the pocket chart story and pictures.

Guided Reading

As an extension activity to a book about eggs, try this:
On a large nest, write a consonant. Match eggs with pictures on them. Ex: Nest has a letter "b" and matching eggs might have pictures of balls, birds, etc. Need a harder task? Substitute vowel sounds instead of initial consonants and have the children match eggs with the same vowel sound.

Shared Writing

Make a Class Book, "What's Hatching?" Each child completes a page for the class book using the following sentence stem:
"Crack, Crack, Crack. A ________ is hatching from _____'s egg!".

Interactive Writing

Make a list of animals that hatch from eggs.

Independent Writing

*Draw an egg with a tiny crack.  Write about the animal inside, trying to hatch out.   What is it thinking?  How is it feeling?

Little Readers

Egg Book: "What's Inside?"

This can be a layered shape book, but it works just as well if all the egg shapes are the same size. The students enjoy the layered "effect" once this book is finished. You can't tell that it is a layered book from the outside....the pages reduce in size as you go along. Size does not matter much, but it does seem to layer best if the largest egg shape (the cover and page one) is about 6 inches wide and 8.5 inches long. The book also works best if the writing and shapes are laid horizontally as if the egg is laying on its side.

You will need white, blue, green, purple, yellow, pink, and salmon (or tan) construction paper. With the smaller egg shapes, you can fit more than one egg on the blackline and duplicate onto the colored paper. The cover, white, and blue, however, are the larger eggs, and only one shape will fit per blackline. A suggestion is to create your largest egg, then use the 'reduction' button on your copier to create the smaller sizes.

The sentence strips are created with a word processor. The students can cut the sentences apart off a blackline, and glue them onto the egg shapes, or you could include the sentences on the blackline of the egg shapes.

The Pages:

• White egg:  "Inside the white egg is a turkey." (students draw a turkey.)
• Blue egg:  "Inside the blue egg is a fish." (students draw a fish.)
• Green egg:  "Inside the green egg is a turtle." (students draw a turtle.)
• Purple egg:  "Inside the purple egg is a snake." (students draw a snake.)
• Yellow egg:  "Inside the yellow egg is a chick." (students draw a chick.)
• Pink egg:  "Inside the pink egg is a snail." (students draw a snail.)
• Salmon egg: "Inside the speckled egg is...THE END!" (students dot the smallest page with dots of markers, colored pencils, or crayons.)

  The Cover:The cover is made from white or manila construction paper. The title, "What's Inside?" is glued on, and the egg is colorfully decorated like an Easter egg with chalk pastels, markers, crayons, or watercolors. The pointer is a small egg sticker glued onto the tip of a popsicle stick.

Graduated Graphing

Graph different colored plastic eggs in three different ways:
1. Real: Using real plastic eggs, ask each child to choose an egg and place it in the correct spot on the floor graph.
2. Picture: Each child removes one "real" egg and replaces it with a construction paper egg of the same color. These can then be glued to the graph paper and hung in the room for future discussion.
3. Written: Give each child a piece of programmed graph paper to transfer the information to their own paper.

Addition Families

Match the chicks to the correct nest.
Program chick shapes with number facts (4+1, 3+2, 5+0) and label a nest with the answer (5). Try lots of addition facts to 10... and subtraction, too!

Jellybeans & Eggs

Write numbers on plastic eggs and have students count out that number of jellybeans and put the jellybeans into the eggs. Be sure to have extra jellybeans just for eating.

Give each student a basket and a bowl of plastic or jellybean eggs. Have students use these as manipulatives for addition and subtraction number stories.

Give each child a handful of jellybeans and graph the colors.

Fill a basket with plastic eggs (or a jar of jellybeans) and have students estimate the number contained inside the jar or basket

Eggy Patterns

Provide a basket of assorted colors of plastic eggs and a few empty egg cartons.  Cut construction paper egg shapes in the colors that match your plastic eggs.  Glue the eggs shapes in various patterns onto tagboard and laminate.  Have your students select a pattern card, then extend the pattern by placing plastic eggs in the egg carton.

Numeral & Number
Word Match

Cut a several large tagboard eggs in half (using a "cracked" line). Write the numeral on one half and the number word on the other half.

Upper/Lowercase
Letter Match

Using plastic eggs, write the uppercase letter on one half and a lowercase letter on the other half. Children match the halves.

Plastic Egg Hunt

Place small objects into the eggs -  use cotton balls, legos, bells, pennies, small key, etc. Hide the eggs. Have the children find the eggs.When all have been found, have students go to "the circle area" and each child gets to shake the egg, feel the weight of the egg and pass it around for the others to do as well. They try to guess what the item is.

Art Center

Design your own oviparous animal and egg.

Writing Center

Children are encouraged to use a variety of writing materials including stamps, stickers, markers, pens, etc. to create their own egg stories.

Decorate an Egg

Pre-trace a large oval out of 12"x18" white construction paper. After the child cuts it out, he uses "dot" markers to decorate. If you do not have dot markers, bingo markers work exactly the same!

Read A Nest Full of Eggs. Discuss the various materials that birds use to build a nest. If possible, show your students a real nest. Take your class outside to find materials to build their own nests (grass, pine straw, leaves, twigs, etc.). Now to build...On a 9"x12" piece of white construction paper, trace the bottom of a large coffee can. Next, the child puts a LOT of glue around the circle. Put the natural materials, collected earlier, on the glue ring. Finally, the child dips his thumb in light blue paint and prints "eggs" in the middle of his nest. 

Wet Chalk Eggs

You will need the following materials:

1. Use wet chalk to decorate paper cut in the shape of eggs in pastel colors.
2. Show the children the difference between wetting the chalk in vinegar and water. The vinegar will be brighter.

"Eggs"ellent Prints

Place a piece of white paper inside a box and let children choose to colors of paint to "blob" into the center of the paper side by side. Take a hard boiled egg and place it on the paper inside the box. Let the children roll the egg around inside the box by tilting the box from side to side and all around. When the pictures have dried, you may want to cut them into an egg shape.

Chicks in a Half-Shell

Students will make cotton ball chicks in real egg halves.
For each chick - one egg shell cleaned with bleach and left to dry. One yellow cotton ball.
Two googly eyes or black eyes made with hole punch.
Small orange triangle.
Glue
Students glue the cotton ball in the egg shell. Add eyes and mouth.

Tissue Paper Eggs

Cover the egg with one inch squares of tissue paper by laying each tissue paper square on the egg shape and painting over the square with watered-down glue.  Overlapping the tissue paper will cause variations of color.

Egg Mosaics

1. Crush  egg shells into small pieces (not tiny!).
2. Glue the egg shells down on cardboard or paper to create a mosaic picture.

Shiny Eggs

Cut giant Easter eggs from 12x18 sheets of construction paper or tagboard. Mix sweetened condensed milk with food coloring to create several colors of "egg paint". Paint this mixture onto the eggs and let dry thoroughly. The eggs usually take 24 hours to dry! When dry, the eggs sparkle!

Egg Homework

Give each child a large plastic egg to take home. Ask children to put something inside their egg that wouldn't ordinarily be in an egg (other animals, toys, etc.). This is a time for them to REALLY use their imaginations! When they bring their eggs back to school the next day, have this poem in a pocket chart ready to go...

I went for a walk
and what did I find?
A _____ egg,
someone left behind.

It started to crack
before my eyes.
Out popped a _____.
What a surprise!!

Students take turns reading the poem (adding a descriptive word in the first blank). When they come to the second blank...hatch the egg and find out what is inside!

Phonemic Awareness
Activity

Put various animals that hatch from eggs into different colored plastic eggs. Then sing (to the tune of: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf)
"What's inside of the little blue egg,
the little blue egg,
the little blue egg?
What's inside of the little blue egg
That will rhyme with cake?
(Ans. is snake)
Crack open the eggs to see if you are correct!

Rice Krispie Treat Nest

1. Follow the recipe on the box to make Rice Krispie Treats.
2. Allow the mix to cool for just a couple of minutes so little hands don't get burned.
3. Spray children's hands with a butter spray (I used butter flavor Pam).
4. Give each child a small scoop of the Rice Krispie Treat mix.
5. Show the children how to mold it into the shape of a nest.
6. Put on wax paper to cool
7. Now for the fun part.
8. Put a "Peep" (those marshmallow chicks) in each nest.
9. Take the kids out, and while they are gone, have someone put a jellybean under each peep.
10. Watch the kids' faces when they realize their Peep laid an egg!

"Egg"-splorations

The Mailbox Magazine for Kindergarten, April/May 1999 has some really great ideas and data sheets for exploring eggs.
Weigh eggs in a balance scale with unifix cubes or other objects. Discover how much water an egg displaces. Fill a clear cup half-way with water. Mark the waterline using a crayon. Place the egg in the water. Mark the new line with a different color crayon. Discuss what happened.

Who's Hatching?

Buy a can or two of biscuits. Fold a plastic animal (oviparous, of course) inside each biscuit and shape into an egg. Bake according to the directions on the can. Bring the "eggs" to school and watch the children get excited seeing what is "hatching" from their egg!

Egg Riddles

Make an egg shaped page that can be opened with the fold at the top. On the outside of the "egg", write the following words: I am an animal that hatches from an egg. I _________________. I also _________________. What am I? (be sure there is room for the child's name) Let the children think of an oviparous animal and draw its picture on the inside of the "egg". Finally, let each child fill the two blanks on the outside with two descriptive clues.

An Egg Cookbook

Use a large egg shape piece of paper and have students write down their favorite recipes for making eggs. This is sure to give moms and dads a smile. You may also want to poll the students about their favorite way to eat eggs and include a graph of this information in the Egg Cookbook.

Chickens Aren't the Only Ones
by Ruth Heller

Make a chart listing all the oviparous animals children can name. (explain to children that oviparous means any animal that lays eggs from which its young hatch.

After reading the book, let children use recall to name more egg-laying animals that weren't mentioned before. Add these to the chart.

Cut out headbands for each child. Write the word "oviparous" on the headband. Let the children make and decorate a picture of their favorite oviparous animal (can use the chart listed above). Use many different art materials for decoration. Cut and attach their creation to the headband. For a special touch, wear the special headbands while eating a snack of deviled eggs or green eggs and ham!