Egg Activities for Kindergarten
Whether your class is preparing for Easter or studying the life cycle, eggs are a fun and easy tool to use in kindergarten activities. A good source of protein, eggs can come from a variety of animals, including birds, reptiles and fish. Your kindergartners can use eggs in games and art projects, or they can watch as baby animals hatch. Because eggs may carry bacteria like salmonella, always use caution when handling raw eggs.
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Egg Games
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An Easter egg hunt is a classic tradition, but there are several other games that children can play with fake or real eggs. Set up relay teams and give each team a spoon with a fake egg. Have the children run through an obstacle course without dropping their eggs, then pass the eggs off to the next team member. Set up two baskets in the middle of the room and divide the class into two teams. Give each team another basket of plastic eggs, and have one student from each team run one egg to their middle basket at a time. The first team to fill their basket wins. Use chocolate eggs in "bowling," or roll a ball across the room and see who can roll an egg closest.
Decorating Eggs
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Dying Easter eggs is always fun, but you can add a little variety to make it even more special. Let students apply stickers, glitter, colorful glue, ribbon or other craft items in addition to colored dye, or let them paint the eggs with water colors or washable opaque paints. If you don't want to use real eggs, cut out big egg shapes from paper bags, construction paper or poster board, or give students three-dimensional eggs made from Styrofoam. They could also make their own from modeling clay or papier-mache. Have them paint non-traditional eggs, like dinosaur or ostrich eggs, and give them a plethora of materials to flex their imaginative muscles.
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Cooking With Eggs
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Eggs are a key ingredient in several common foods, and kindergartners aren't too young to begin learning the basics of baking. Give your class a demonstration on making a cake, cookies, pancakes or waffles, setting out pre-measured ingredients and letting different students add ingredients to the bowl or stir. Make egg-shaped waffles or pancakes in class with a portable griddle, but bring in pre-made egg-shaped cake or cookies from home. Let your kindergartners decorate egg-shaped sugar cookies with icing, sprinkles and colored sugar, or let them help you frost and decorate an egg-shaped cake (or several small cakes). For pancakes and waffles, bring supplies like maple syrup, strawberries, whipped cream and butter so that the kids can decorate their snack. Bring a few eggs to class and do scientific tests like weighing, floating and spinning the eggs before and after they're boiled.
Hatching Eggs
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Watching real animals hatch from eggs is a profound experience for children. Set up an incubator and purchase some fertilized eggs. Place a calendar near the incubator, and mark off the days it takes for the eggs to hatch, which should be about 21. Talk to the students about the eggs and what will happen when they hatch, and discuss proper handling and care for the newborn animals, which don't necessarily have to be chickens. When the eggs show signs of cracking, gather the kindergartners so that they can watch the animals emerge.
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- Photo Credit egg in egg-cup image by Simone van den Berg from Fotolia.com
