March is here and it feels like spring is right around the corner. Begin exploring the next season with a deep study of eggs and birds. This newsletter is full of ideas to spruce up everything from your circle time to your sensory and science shelves.
Eggs
Spring is the season of rebirth. All around us, nature begins to wake up from its wintery ways. Birds begin to create nests and lay eggs, flower buds begin to bloom, and the days begin to lengthen. A wonderful way to study this season of rebirth is with eggs.
Eggs can come in many shapes and sizes depending on the animal it comes from. For example, a hummingbird’s egg is the size of a navy bean, while the size of an ostrich’s egg is an average of six inches long!
Begin circle time with an exploration of eggs in all shapes and sizes. This week’s worksheet is a set of matching cards that help you match photos of birds to their eggs. This matching game is a natural way to start an open-ended discussion.
The teacher can ask questions like:
- “Where do you see eggs in your life?”
- “Do you eat eggs? If so, what animal do they come from?”
- “What type of bird do you think has the smallest egg?
- “What type of bird has the largest egg?”
- “Do you think all eggs are the same color?”
After this discussion, the teacher can demonstrate how to use the bird egg
matching cards. Then the group can play a game where all cards are flipped upside down and students have to choose the matching pairs through a memory game. After the circle, this work can be left on the science shelf for independent exploration.
Relate this exercise to the Egg Size Sorting Work. This work helps children practice their sorting and classification skills by exploring ways to line up the eggs from smallest to largest.
Another fun sensory egg activity is the Sensory Sound Eggs lesson. This beautiful work has six eggs with three matching pairs. The children will learn how to listen carefully to each egg in order to match the eggs by sound. A fun extension to this work would be adding a blindfold or inviting the child to close their eyes while listening. Both of these works can easily be placed on the sensory shelf as extensions to the sound and sorting work already available to explore.
Life Stages
Tie in this exploration of birds and eggs to the Lifecycle of a Chicken. This lovely set of figurines help children learn the different stages chickens go through as they grow from an egg to a hen. These replicas can easily sit on the science shelf in your classroom and can be used in tandem with the parts of a bird puzzle and other bird related curriculum on your shelf.
