The Odd Egg: Give this a try with your kids!

This past week at our TD Summer Reading Club, we did a group read aloud of The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett. This book features fun illustrations, split pages, and a suspenseful and joking story line perfect for kids. This book allowed a lot of feedback as we asked, "What kind of bird is that?" and "What do you think will hatch out of this egg?" Each of the children at the program shared their guesses and were quite surprised when it was revealed what was really inside the 'Odd Egg'.

To make this read aloud even more exciting, we provided each of the children with plasticine and encouraged them to build a creature (imaginary or realistic) that would be found inside of their egg. Their creations included bunnies, elegators (a mix between an elephant and an alligator), and robots.

After the plasticine creations were finished, we set them aside and got each of the kids to create an egg using a balloon and paper mache. This activity was super messy, but we had a tarp to protect the carpet and asked each of the parents to send their children in play clothes so that prevented some of the mess. The older kids grasped the concept more than the 5-year-olds who seemed to just enjoy getting their hands covered in the gooey mixture.

Before the next program, Emma and I are going to do another layer of paper mache on each of the eggs, give them a quick paint job, and cut a hole inside the eggs just big enough to squeeze in the paper mache creations. When the children arrive, they'll have their 'Odd Eggs' with their surprise creatures to either play their own guessing games with or share with their families!

This book was an awesome choice for our story time and the activity supplemented it perfectly!