Journal Prompts
Write a journal prompts on small slips of paper and put each one in an egg. Have each student pick an egg and write about what ever prompt he or she gets. You can find over 250 great journal prompts here.
Math Line Up
Write a different math problem on small slips of paper and put one in each egg. Make sure each answer is different. Have each student pick an egg and solve his or her problem and write it on a personal whiteboard or a piece of paper. Then the students must form a line from the smallest answer to the largest. This would be particularly challenging using fractions. The game can be played again simply by having the students return their math problems to their eggs and redistributing the eggs.
Synonym Search
Write synonyms on different slips of paper. The synonyms can be in pairs or you could use several synonyms (for example, big, huge, gigantic, vast, enormous etc.). Each student takes an egg and draws a picture to represent his or her synonym. The challenge is for the students to use their pictures to find their matching synonyms. No talking allowed. Here is a good synonym resource. This could also be done with antonyms.
Getting to Know You
Write a different open-ended question on different slips of paper and put each one in a different egg. In turn, each student picks an egg and answers the question. Here are some great open-ended questions for this activity. You could also use this for review or test prep by using relevant questions.
Getting to Know You II
Have each student write down one interesting fact about him or herself that is not widely known and put it in an egg. Redistribute the eggs and either have each student try to find the person whose fact he or she has, or have students take turns reading the facts out loud and guessing who the person who wrote it is. This last one is probably better in a smaller group.
The Great Egg Rolling Experiment
In small groups or pairs, experiment rolling eggs down an inclined plane. What happens if you put something (or several things) inside the egg? Hypothesize about what might happen. Test the hypothesis. Draw conclusions. Compare results between groups.
What's Inside?
Have each student bring an egg home and fill it with exactly ten of the same small objects (beans, paperclips, pennies etc.). The objects must make a noise when the egg is shaken. Group the students into pairs and have each one guess what is in his or her partner's egg by shaking it and by asking yes or no questions. When everyone is done, discuss what kinds of questions worked the best. Give everyone a different partner and try the game again.
Counting Change
Put a different number of coins in each egg and have each student pick an egg. In the first round, each student counts his or her change. In the second round each student finds a partner and they add their change together to get one total. In the third round, each pair of students finds another pair and the four students add their change together to get one total. Continue combining groups and change until the entire class has added its change together to make one total - the teacher may need to facilitate the last round or two. Here are more Math Activities.
Egg Story
In small groups, have students decorate the eggs to make them into characters in a story (or part of a story) you are reading. Glue a craft stick to the back of each one Then have students use the eggs like puppets to act out the story. Older students love this. Here are some other ways to respond to Literature.
Math Matching Center
Write a different math problem on the outside of twelve eggs with a Sharpie. Write the answer to each problem in the cup parts of an egg carton. Students match each egg to its answer.
Egg Weighing Center
Fill six different color eggs with different amounts of pennies or other objects so they will all weigh different amounts. The student lines each egg up from lightest to heaviest, first by picking up each egg and guessing, and then using a scale to check his or her guesses. Use a recording sheet with six empty eggs to record guesses.
Egg Book Project
For this project, each student uses twelve eggs to represent different parts of a book. The student may put a small object in the egg or a picture to represent a character, setting, important object, or idea. The student decorates an egg carton to go with the book (being sure to include the title of the book and the author). You could also have the students each write a few sentences about the contents of each egg - what it is and why it is important to the story. Here are 15 More Terrific Book Projects.
