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Egg Hunt Reinforces Math, Language Skills

Subjects

• Arts & Humanities
  --Language Arts
• Mathematics
• Science
• Social Studies
  --History

Grade

• K-2
• 3-5
• 6-8

Brief Description

Do this egg hunt activity indoors, or take kids outdoors for a fun learning activity and a little exercise.

Objectives

Students

• reinforce important skills.
• get outdoors on a nice spring day for a little exercise.

Keywords

egg, matching, synonyms, math facts, equations, capitals, presidents, skill reinforcement, practice, Easter

Materials Needed

• plastic eggs (one or two eggs per student)

Lesson Plan

This activity is perfect for springtime when every discount store you walk into has those colorful little plastic eggs on sale for 99 cents for a couple dozen. Spring for a buck, and use them to make a fun learning activity that gets everybody outdoors to enjoy some springtime air and a little exercise. This activity can be used to reinforce many skills. Buy two sets and do it once for math and once for language arts -- more ideas below.

Before the Lesson
Before the lesson, decide what skill you want to reinforce.

If you want to reinforce math skills, you might use a marker to

• write a math statement (17 + 22, for example) on one half of an egg and the answer (39) on the other half.
• write a math statement (17 + 22, for example) on one half of an egg and an equivalent math statement (13 X 3) on the other half.

If you want to use the activity to reinforce language art skills, you might use a marker to

• write a word (scare, for example) on one half of an egg and a synonym (frighten) on the other half.
• write a word on (foot, for example) on one half of an egg and another word (ball) so that the two words together create a compound word (football).

No matter what subject you teach, you should be able to create a simple matching activity to reinforce it.

• If you teach social studies, have students match the name of each state to its capital.
• If you teach history, match the president to his vice president or the year to the event.
• If you teach chemistry, have students match the element's symbol to its name or to its number on the Periodic Table.
• If you teach a foreign language, have student match vocabulary words with their English translations.

If you teach young students, you might write the matching words, math problems… on egg halves of the same color. But if you teach students in the elementary grades or above, why not add an extra challenge? Mix and match the colored egg halves so the colors don't narrow the possibilities as students search for the matching halves of their eggs.

The Activity
By now you've figured out what's involved… Following are a few ideas for ways you might organize the activity.

• Level 1 Difficulty. Give each student half of an egg. On a signal, direct them to find the classmate with the egg half that matches theirs. Have them show their egg to you so you can verify the match was correctly made. How long does it take for all the egg halves to come together? Separate the eggs again and repeat the activity. (Chances are most students will get a different word egg or math-problem egg the second time around.) Do they do the activity more quickly the second time?
• Level 2 Difficulty. Create one full egg for each student. Separate the halves into two bags; one half of each egg in each bag. Give each student an egg-half from one of the bags. Spread the other bag of the egg-halves around the classroom or over an outdoor playing area. Challenge students to move around the playing area searching for the half that matches theirs. When they have found their matching halves, have them show their egg to you so you can verify the match was correctly made. If the match was incorrect, have them return half the egg to the place they found it and continue their search. How long does it take for all the matches to be made? Separate the eggs and play again. Do they find the matches more quickly the second time around?
• Level 3 Difficulty. Create more eggs than you have students. (Create as many as twice as many.) Spread them out around the classroom or over an outdoor playing area. Have every student go stand by an egg half. Then have them try to find the matching half (which might be held by a classmate or might be among those still laying around the playing area). As students find the matching egg halves, they bring them to you to verify, then they head off to pick up another egg-half and to find its matching half.

Assessment

Create a follow-up printable activity to provide additional practice, and an assessment, of the skill used in the game.

Lesson Plan Source

EducationWorld.com

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

This activity can be adapted to meet standards for almost any subject, including these:

LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills

MATHEMATICS: Number and Operations
GRADES Pre-K - 2
NM-NUM.PK-2.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-NUM.3-5.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
GRADES 6 - 8
NM-NUM.6-8.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates

See more Lesson Plans of the Day in our Lesson Plan of the Day Archive. (There you can search for lessons by subject too.)

For additional history lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

• Lesson Planning: History

• Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans: History

For additional language arts/reading lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

• Lesson Planning: Language Arts

• Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans: Arts & Humanities

For additional math lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

• Lesson Planning: Math

• Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans: Math

For additional science lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

• Lesson Planning: Science

• Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans: Science

For additional social studies lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

• Lesson Planning: Social Studies

• Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans: Social Studies

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03/29/2006