Eggs, Eggs Everywhere, Part Five: Colors and Sizes

I had some coloring pages that had a variety of eggs on them for them to compare and contrast. We talked about camouflage and how some eggs were colored to take advantage of this but that others did not need camouflage. We then painted the egg pictures as accurately as possible.

The Ostrich egg is 8 1/2 inches long and 6 1/2 inches wide.

We also discussed the variety in the sizes of the eggs, and how, for the most part, that size of the egg depended on the size of the adult, the larger adults having the larger eggs, for example. We also talked about the difference between precocial birds, or birds that can run and feed themselves shortly after hatching and altricial birds or birds that are helpless, blind and usually naked after hatching. The precocial birds tend to lay larger eggs because they develop more in the egg.

The salmon egg is 1/4 inch round; the parakeet measures about 3/4 inch long and a little less than 1/2 inch wide at it's widest point; the quail is 1 1/2 inches long and 1 inch wide; the turkey is 3 1/4 inches long and 2 inches wide; the emu egg is 5 1/ inches long and 4 inches wide. All width measurements are at its widest point.

Once they painted them, we used them to play a few games. One was cut out and the names of them were put on the back and they could be used like flashcards. The other game was a matching game, matching cut-out ones to one on the page. This was to help them learn to pay attention to details more than it was important for them to know what any kind of egg looked like.

Source: 

GEMS: Eggs Eggs Everywhere