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Hatching Eggs

What animals are hatched from eggs? Children will learn about some of them and create a replica of a baby animal emerging from its shell.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Recycled Newspaper

Steps

  • Step 1

    Read a book such as "Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg?" by Mia Posada or "Chickens Aren't the Only Ones" by Ruth Heller. Challenge young students to think of other oviparous (egg-laying) animals that may not have been mentioned in the book. Did they consider a frog? Octopus? Platypus? Did they know that dinosaurs came from eggs?

  • Step 2

    Ask students to pick an animal to depict hatching from its egg. They can start by making a papier-mâché shell. Have them crumple a piece of newspaper into a ball. Then have them dip strips of newspaper in diluted white school glue and cover the crumpled ball with two or three layers of strips.

  • Step 3

    While the eggs are drying have them sculpt a baby animal out of Model Magic. Encourage them to look at images of their chosen animal and its eggs to inspire them. When it's done help them cut a hole into the papier-mâché egg and glue the baby partway in.

  • Step 4

    Ask students to present their babies and eggs to the class and talk about what animal it is and why they chose it.

Standards

SCI: Design pictorial or graphic representations/models that are useful in communicating ideas.

SCI: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.

Adaptations

Read "Horton Hatches the Egg" by Dr. Seuss, an allegory about adoption in which an elephant agrees to sit on a bird's egg while the mother travels. Have a discussion about how you don't have to be related by blood to be family.

What happened to dinosaurs? Talk about how scientists called paleontologists have been able to learn about these extinct animals by studying egg fossils, among other other artifacts. Look at images of fossilized dinosaur eggs, such as the ones displayed at Indroda Dinosaur and Fossil Park in India.