What's Inside?

Activity Overview

A major component of social and emotional learning in early childhood is the emphasis that educators and parents put on developing children’s creativity and curiosity and how they empower children to share their ideas and make their thinking visible. Imaginative thinking, when bolstered by adults who impart a deep respect and interest in young children’s ideas, leads to increased confidence, efficacy, and autonomy. The growth in these skills also helps students reflect on their learning and be able to see one’s self as a creator of new ideas. In this activity, adults support student thinking as they innovate and create curious interpretations of what is inside an egg.

What You Need

• An Egg is Quiet on Epic

• What’s Inside? slide deck

• White paper

• Drawing utensils

• Papier Mache Recipe and ingredients

• Newspaper, torn into strips

• Balloon

• Tempera paint

Steps

1. Provoke your student’s curiosity about what is inside an egg by reading the story An Egg is Quiet on Epic. Use the guided questions to explore the possibilities of what an egg might hold.

2. Use the What’s Inside? slide deck to review some different types of eggs and which animals emerge from the featured images. When clicking through the slides in Present Mode, the animals that emerge from the eggs appear as a surprise on each slide. Take a moment to stop and pause at each picture, as a way to create more curiosity and wonder as the animals are unveiled.

3. Present your student with a creative challenge - what would they want to see emerge from an egg?

4. With your student, brainstorm and extend their ideas and use the template in the slide deck to draw a representation. Encourage your student’s creativity - the depth of this activity is based in creativity and imagination, not science.

5. Follow up by presenting a papier mache challenge of building a 3-dimensional egg using a blown up balloon form, newspaper strips and papier mache mix (You may want to use two balloons – one for the top half and another for the bottom half of the egg – and put the pieces together when they are dry to simulate hatching).

6. After sufficient drying time, paint your egg pieces and find something to put inside that dovetails with your creative brainstorm: a toy car, a stuffed animal or even a creature you make using clay, Legos, or other materials.

Guiding Questions

• What is in an egg? Why are some animals that come from eggs?

• What could be inside this egg? What if it’s a robot? A dinosaur? A bowl of spaghetti?

• What would be inside your egg? What if it’s an animal with scales? An animal with fur? An animal with feathers? What if there’s more than one thing inside?

• How do we make sure that what is inside the egg is safe and cared for?

Extensions

• Read the following texts to follow up on the ideas in this activity:

  • The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown

  • The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett

• Extend the theme of this activity using the question “What’s inside?” to elicit curiosity about other hidden things: what’s inside a box, a drawer, a jar, a room or even our bodies.