Let's Make Learning 'EGG'-citing!

Spring is (nearly) here so grab those plastic eggs and...

Today I am here with 10 ways to use plastic eggs for ELA, Math and Science!

I always do an Oviparous Animals unit in my kindergarten classroom each spring.

Because I am a 'theme nerd' and have a need (sickness maybe?!) to make everything connect, I have my ELA and Math centers include eggs, as well!

Here are 10 simple, relatively no-(major) prep ways to incorporate plastic eggs into your centers!

They range in grade level from PreK-2 depending on how you offer support and/or enrichment!

You can also have a recording sheet that has 'Real' and 'Nonsense' listed on top.  As students twist and read a new word, they can record if it is a 'real' or 'nonsense' word!

Focus on just one vowel, a combination of a few students are having trouble with or a mix of all 5!

Don't have enough magnetic letters?

Click here to download this FREE editable pack!

You can type in sight words, CVC words, vowel pairs, vocabulary words, spelling words, digraphs, blends, letters, etc!  Print, cut, stuff!  

Your center is all set!

Use it both ways for differentiation!

Target words your students are working with, or need more practice reading and writing!

Type, cut, stuff and you are ready to get crackin'!

So easy to set up!

Want to make it more appropriate for upper elementary?

Put 2 'blue' and 2 'green'

Students make the blue number from both dice (either add the two numbers, use it as 'tens and ones' or multiply) and do the same for the green.

(Ex. roll a 6 and 2 for blue.  It could be 8, 26 or 62, or 12)

They compare the numbers they created to find the greater/less than number!

I made 0-5 dice so that the greatest sum would be 10 for my kinders.

To support students, place counters or manipulatives for them to use to assist their computations.

To make it more appropriate for upper elementary students place 10, 20 or 30 sided dice in the egg for students to add/subtract!

Decomposing is a difficult skill for many kinders to understand, but I found using the double sided counters really helped them!

You can read more about how I had my kinders use eggs and counters on THIS POST.

(You can even find free recording sheets to download!)

Recruit parents and fellow teachers to save egg cartons for you (and maybe even donate some plastic eggs since this activity requires quite a few)!

The idea of making an egg carton into a 'ten frame' came from a post back in January 2014 by Laura at Differentiation Station Creations!  

And it works PERFECT for this activity of using eggs to make groups of 10!

You can read all about how I used it in my kindergarten class, and download the free spinner and recording sheets on THIS POST!

You can make the eggs match on the same color (top/bottom) or mix the egg colors for a bit of a challenge!

This is just a few ways of using the eggs with numbers!

There are so many other ways to practice numbers with eggs!

So now we are back to the oviparous animals unit!

I use the eggs to introduce the unit to my kinders!

Each child cracks open an egg (I do have some duplicate animals in eggs because I simply ran out!) to learn about what animals are oviparous!

I use different size eggs (the tiny ones to the extra large) to show how eggs can be different sizes.

I highly recommend reading Chickens Aren't The Only Ones by Ruth Heller if you plan on conducting an oviparous animals unit with your students!

You can find some easy non-fiction readers for your oviparous animals unit here:

and a supplement pack of activities here:

I also have several lifecycle crowns that are a great way for students to display what they learned about oviparous animals!

and there is also a butterfly lifecycle freebie available for download:

I hope you and your students have an 'egg'-citing time learning math, words, letters and more using plastic eggs!

Do you teach your students about oviparous animals?

Are you a 'theme snob' too- and feel the need for everything to coordinate?

I'd love to hear from you!

Until next post,

Making Two Groups From Ten 'EGG'-stra Easy!

Next week we begin working with making groups from 10- aka- how to decompose 10 into 2 smaller groups!  It is also the week before our Spring Break, so I thought of an 'egg'-citing way for us to incorporate our need to grasp this difficult concept with a bit of egg fun!

Here are just some examples of how they eggs can be arranged!

I have stock piled a ton of egg cartons after I saw what Laura from Differentiation Station did with them when teaching a 'ten frame' so I was more than ready!

This particular set is clear, but the cardboard or styrofoam ones work just as well!

I also have quite the collection of plastic eggs- I love to use them in centers the week before break to keep our 'egg'-citement about the week off ahead channeled into meaningful learning experiences!

I put our 'mix and fix' sentences in some, letters to build CVC words in others, digraph stamps in another set and this year will have a set for math- decomposing numbers (see previous blog post)!

Even with all those eggs already ear-marked, I still had enough to prep for this week's 'Making Groups From 10' lesson!  But that didn't stop me from picking up 3 more bags from the new Christmas Tree Shoppe that opened close to my house!

So what will my kinders be doing with these eggs?

I have a set of composing and decomposing number sentence cards for 10 that I had made to go with some other activities, so I pulled them out.

I also made a 10 space spinner:

The beauty of this spinner is that you don't even need a brad or 'spinner parts' to make it work!  Simple have a child hold a paper clip in the center with the tip of his/her pencil and then push the paperclip.  Whatever number the paperclip lands on is the number of eggs you will start with!  

There are 2 ways we will 'play' to make groups from 10:

1. Spin the spinner.  Put that many of 1 color egg in the carton.  

2. Determine how many more eggs we need to make 10 (fill the carton) and put that many of a different colored egg in the carton.

3. Write the decomposing number sentence on a white board

Ex. 10=6+4

The other way will be for students to draw one of the cards and to then use eggs to show the sentence.  They will need to figure out that the first number is the amount of eggs that need to go in the carton first and then the second number is the amount of a different colored egg that needs to go in to fill the carton.

At first I was going to have them work in small groups of 4-5, but now that I have 100 more eggs, I am going to have them work in pairs.  They will also work on switching roles (spinner, egg counter, recorder, etc)

For recording I am going to have them use this recording sheet:

where they will color the eggs in the cartons to match what they just built.  They will also fill in the number sentence to show they understand what is happening in the picture.  There is a front and back so that groups that work a bit faster can continue to record as they wait for other groups to finish up!

When we return from Spring Break we will be learning all about space as we prepare for our field trip to the planetarium!  To review making groups from 10, I will have this as one of our math centers:

Just like the eggs, they will spin to fill in the ten frame on the rocket- adding Earth, Sun or Moon images until the ten frame is filled!  They will record their number sentence and/or find the number sentence that matches what they had just constructed!

Following that week,  we'll be saddling up for Farm Day!  I plan to make the center completely independent at that point, and assess for mastery, as they complete this Western set:

Both sets contain the composing to 10 and decomposing from 10 number sentences that we will be using with the eggs!  You can use them as a 'work mat' or glue the pieces into a file folder to make it a portable and organized game that is ready to go...or for an early finishers basket!

Hopefully by now you have downloaded your free 10 space egg spinner and recording sheet so that you will be all set to have an 'egg'-citing math lesson on making groups from 10!

BUT....

I'd also love to give away one of the sets above!

Simply leave me a blog post with a fun idea/way you use plastic eggs in your classroom, your choice of set (space or western) and your contact information!

I'll randomly select a winner sometime next week!

I wish you an 'egg'-citing week filled with laughs and a love of learning!

Until next post,