#2587. Extensions to An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni

Science, level: Elementary
Posted Wed May 15 13:09:21 PDT 2002 by Susan Myers (smyers@webmail.poasd.org).
Philipsburg Osceola School District, Philipsburg, PA USA
Materials Required: Books: Hen's Aren't The Only Ones and An Extraordinary Egg, Art materials and paper fasteners
Activity Time: 2 - 3 one hour sessions
Concepts Taught: brainstorm and research animals that hatch from an egg; Create an egg with creature, write a riddle

1. activate prior knowledge with a poem about a hatching egg
2. have kids gather in small group circles and brain storm a list of animals that hatch from eggs (designate one person to lead and one to write)
3.Teacher reads Hens Aren't the Only Ones (before reading, predict to what the title is referring and ask kids to listen for animals they wrote during brainstorm and to listen for animals they didn't include.
4.After reading the students go back to their small group and add onto their list
5. Whole group discussion about list additions
6. Whole group discussion walking through the reading process steps for the book An Extraordinary Egg(predicting story content, clarifying and checking; making personal connections)
7. read the story An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni(This is an amusing story about an alligator that hatches from an egg. It is a perfect Language Arts tie in to this science theme)
8. identify the story as fact or fiction
9. Allow students to research from other books animals that hatch from eggs (independently or cooperatively) and record in their science journal
10. Project: Students will create a large paper egg and cut it in the middle (teacher attaches a paper fastener to one side so that the egg can open and close) Then the student creates an egg hatching animal and glues it to the back of the bottom shell. The student will write a riddle about the creature inside (using at least 4 clues) and attach it to the egg.
11. Students may share their project and riddles whole group or small group