Since it is getting close to Easter I decided to post some favorite egg activities.
Egg Learning Activities
What Animals Lay Eggs?
Ask students if they know from where eggs come? Explain that the word oviparous means any animal that lays eggs from which its young hatch. Ask students to name animals that lay eggs and make a chart of their responses or show pictures of various animals and ask students if they think they lay eggs or not and chart their responses. Read the book Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones by Ruth Heller. After reading the book ask students to add animals to the chart that were not already mentioned.
Use the egg pattern from page 3 to create an egg shaped page that can be opened similar to the one below. Have students draw an animal that hatches from an egg inside. Older students can write a clue about their animal on the outside of the egg and then have others try and guess what animal they drew inside.
Egg Learning Activities
Educational Egg Hunts
Letter Egg Hunt – Practice letter recognition and beginning sounds while having a fun egg hunt. Place small slips of paper with letters on them inside plastic Easter eggs and hide them around the room. When students find an egg, they crack it open and bring it to the teacher and tell them the letter or name something that begins with the letter. Another option is to have pictures hanging around the room and once a student finds an egg, they crack it open and then go and stand by the picture that begins with their letter. A third option is to place uppercase letters around the room and lowercase letters inside the eggs. Once students find an egg they must go and stand by the uppercase version of the letter in their egg.
Beginning, Middle, Ending Sounds – Place small slips of paper that contain a picture and corresponding word with either the beginning, middle, or ending sound omitted inside plastic Easter eggs. For example, a picture of a cat with c t. Hide them around the room. Students must find an egg, crack it open, and tell you the missing letter or hang letters around the room and have students go and stand by their missing letter.
Numbers & Counting Egg Hunt – Place small slips of paper that contain pictures students can count (for example, eggs) inside plastic Easter eggs. Hide the eggs around the room. Hang numbers around the room. When students find an egg they crack it open and count the objects on the paper inside and go and stand by the correct number or you can simply have the students come to you and tell you how many objects are on their piece of paper.
Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division Egg Hunt – Place slips of paper with math problems inside plastic Easter eggs. Hide the eggs around the room. Hang numbers around the room. Students hunt for an egg, crack it open, solve the problem, and then go stand by the correct answer.
**These egg hunts can be used to practice a number of skills. You can elect to give students stickers or small candies as prizes when they give a correct answer or stand by the correct answer.
Can You Put Humpty Together Again?
To prepare for this activity copy the Humpty Dumpty pattern below and cut it into puzzle pieces. Teach students the nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty. Explain that Humpty Dumpty was actually a big egg who fell down and cracked into pieces. Ask students if they would like to put Humpty together again. Complete the puzzle together as a group or make enough Humpty Dumpty puzzles for small groups or individuals.
“Eggs”ellent Gross Motor Activities
Easter Basket Egg and Spoon Races
Divide students into 2 teams. Give the first person from each team a spoon. Put a hard-boiled egg or a plastic Easter egg on their spoon. Have them run to an Easter basket without dropping their egg (if they drop their egg they must pick it up and place it back on the spoon), dump their egg in the Easter basket, run back to their team’s line, hand off the spoon to the next person. Play continues similar to a relay race. The first team to get all their eggs in their Easter basket and all their team members back in line is the winner.
Egg Rolling Contest
If you have a small hill near your school, have the children line up at the top and give each one an egg. On your signal, have them roll their eggs down the hill. The first one to the bottom is the winner.
If you do not have a small hill available play the game similar to a relay race and have each child roll his/her egg across the floor. Another option is to have them push it across the floor with their nose.
Egg Art Activities
Tissue Paper Egg Decorating
Provide hard boiled eggs for each student or have each student bring 2 hard boiled eggs to school. Cut tissue paper into small squares (use a variety of bright colors). Water down some Elmer’s glue and place it into small containers.
Have the children use a small paintbrush to “paint” the tissue paper squares onto a hard boiled egg using the watered down glue mixture. Ensure that the children cover each square on their egg with the glue mixture which makes the squares stick to the egg.
Allow the eggs to dry overnight.
Egg Art Activities
Eggshell Art
Children can create beautiful mosaic art with leftover eggshells! You can use Easter eggs’ shells that are already colored or create your own colored eggshells by following these simple instructions:
Collect a supply of clean, dry, crushed eggshells.
For each color, mix together 2 tablespoons of vinegar, a cup of hot water, and approximately 10 drops of food coloring in a bowl (using a different bowl for each color).
Place some of the crushed eggshells in each bowl.
Gently stir the eggshells until they become the desired color.
Remove the eggshells from the bowl and spread them onto paper towels to dry.
To create mosaic art pictures have the children use paintbrushes to spread glue in a design onto white construction paper. Allow them to sprinkle the colored eggshells onto the glue. Allow the glue to dry.
Egg Art Activities
Glossy Paper Easter Eggs
Students can create shiny, glossy Easter eggs by painting them with a special paint mixture of condensed milk and food coloring.
For each color, place a small amount of condensed milk in a container and add a few drops of food coloring.
Mix.
Copy the large egg pattern from the next page onto white construction paper. Give each student a paper egg. Have students paint their eggs with the milk paint mixture. These take a day to dry (if the students put on a thick coat it may take 2 days to dry). They dry looking shiny and glossy similar to this jelly bean (did not remember to take a picture of the eggs – sorry!).
