Birds of a Feather - Day Two Eggs We will spend the rest of the week learning fun facts about birds. First of all, all birds hatch from eggs. Ask the children to bring in a favorite blanket. It can be any color but must be big enough to cover them completely. They will be using the blanket throughout the week for a variety of activities. Circle Time Ideas Let’s look At Eggs It would be wonderful if you could obtain a variety of eggs for the children look at. Go to a local farm and ask them if you can have eggs from various birds. A goose egg will look different than a chicken egg. An ostrich egg would be exciting to look at because it is the biggest bird egg. And pigeon eggs are fun because they are very small. Let the children look at the different eggs and talk about how they are alike and how they are different. Some eggs are even different colors to camouflage them from their enemies. Good Book Inside an Egg (Lerner Natural Science) By Sylvia A Johnson Song CRACK Goes the Egg (To the tune of POP Goes the Weasel) Have the children roll into a small ball and cover themselves with their special blankets. Tell them to hold very still and pretend to be a baby bird inside his egg. CRACK Goes the Egg A baby grows inside an egg. He wants to see his mommy. Wiggle Jiggle Peck! Peck! Peck! CRACK goes the egg! A Science Experiment Egg In A Bottle Things you will need: One hard boiled egg Quart or half gallon glass bottle. (The opening must be smaller than the circumference of the egg.) Matches Newspaper Put the egg on the opening of the bottle to show them that it will not fit through the opening. Fold a 4 x 4-inch piece of newspaper like an accordion. Have another adult light the bottom of the paper with the match and quickly put it into the glass jar so that the fire is burning from the bottom upwards. Quickly place the egg onto the top of the bottle and watch what happens. What happens? The egg will be sucked into the bottle through the opening. Why does this happen? This happens because the flame heats the air inside the bottle. This causes the air to expand. When the flame burns out, the air cools down and the air pressure is less than that of the air outside the bottle. The outside pressure pushes the egg into the bottle. Another Good Book Dora’s Eggs by Julie Sykes  One More Good Book Too Many Eggs by M. Christine Butler  Movement Pass the Egg You will need 10 plastic, hollow eggs. (the kind you fill with candy at Easter) Put a number 1 in the first egg, a number 2 in the second egg and so on until each egg has a number from 1 - 10. Mix the eggs up in a bowl. Put on some music and have the children pass one egg. When the music stops, the child holding the egg should open it and “CLUCK” the same number of times as the number inside the egg. For example; If the egg has the number 5 inside, the child should say, “CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK.” The other children can count the CLUCKS. Messy Table Scrambled Eggs Put a hot plate on the messy table and set the heat on medium. Take the time to go over safety rules. Let each child crack two eggs into a bowl, add milk, salt and pepper. Let them use a fork to scramble the eggs and let each child pour their mixture into the hot plate. Depending on the age of the children, the teacher can do the cooking or the children can help. Let them eat their eggs right away. Cold eggs are YUCK! Cut & Color Table Egg Shell Collage Clean the eggshells from the messy table and dry them with a towel. Then, put them into a plastic bag and let the children crush the shells with a lightweight mallet. Let them use their shells with glue to make a shell collage on white paper cut into oval shapes. Variation: Colored Eggs Ahead of time, crush the shells and add food coloring to the plastic bags. You can make four different colors in four different Baggies. Shake the shells to disperse the color evenly. Next, put the shells on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 250 degrees for about ten minutes to dry the food coloring. Then, let the children make a colored eggshell collage out of the colorful shells. Creative Art Blown Egg Art Be prepared to have a headache when this activity is finished. You’ll never want to blow an egg again. Things you will need: one egg per child a needle a strong pair of lungs acrylic paints Q-tips Use the needle to poke a small hole at the wide end of an egg. Then, use the needle to make a slightly larger hole in the narrow end of the same egg. Place your mouth over the small hole and blow. The egg will ooze out the opening at the other end. The children will “ooh” and “Ahh” as the egg spurts out. When the eggshell is empty, let the child hold the shell and use the acrylic paints to decorate the shells. Remind them often how fragile the shells are so they do not end up broken. Poke the bottoms out of small paper cups and turn them over on the table. They can be used to hold the eggs as they dry. Good Book Rechenka’s Eggs by Patricia Polacco    Outside Egg Toss You will need one, hard-boiled egg for each pair of children. Have the children stand across from a partner. They should stand one foot apart. When the teacher says, “Go” the children should toss the eggs to their partners. With hard-boiled eggs, everyone can play the whole game because the eggs won’t crack. With each toss, the children should back up one step. Play until the eggs are destroyed or the kids get bored.