I love preparing spring activities about oviparous animals (animals that lay eggs)! Hands-on activities using a variety of fillable eggs are especially fun for young children. Not only do I have hands-on activities using fillable eggs today, but I also have a new Montessori-inspired oviparous animal pack for our newsletter subscribers’ resource library!
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Montessori Shelves with Oviparous Animal Themed Activities
Montessori Shelves with Oviparous Animal Themed Activities
You’ll find Montessori-inspired oviparous animal numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
You could mix your oviparous animal themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special oviparous animal themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves at the beginning of our unit have a mixture of skill levels mainly from preschooler through early elementary. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.
Montessori Book Basket and Shelves with Oviparous Animal Themed Activities
Even though I have books on shelves, I keep the main Montessori-friendly books for our current theme in a book basket by the themed shelf. You’ll find a few of the books I’ve used here. I’ll publish an oviparous animal book post with more details at a later date.
Notice the framed vintage illustration of eggs. It’s a free public domain image (Oken Eggs – taf. 6 (1843) by Lorenz Oken (1779-1851), a collection of different eggs of different species of birds).
I’m excited about our new addition! I purchased a Li’l DAVINCI art frame that opens in the front for easily changing a free art masterpiece printable or vintage illustration to fit with the month’s theme. The frame can be switched from horizontal to vertical without changing the hanger, which is perfect!
Who Laid the Egg? Book with Oviparous Animals Song and Activity Using Mini Oviparous Animal Figures
Who Laid the Egg Book with Oviparous Animals Song and Activity Using Mini Oviparous Animal Figures
Free Printable: Oviparous Animals Song is no longer available, but the free “Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones” Song from The Mailbox could have verses added according to the animals you have.
Who Laid the Egg? is a fun early science book that is simple enough for toddlers and young preschoolers.
I used a variety of Safari Ltd. Good Luck Mini animals in a fillable Easter egg I had used previously. I had a chance to do this activity today with with my granddaughters, Zoey (6 years old) and Sophia (2 years old). They both loved it! We sang the “Oviparous Animals Song” and they took turns choosing two animals for the last verse each time we sang the song. We sang it many times!
I don’t keep the mini animals on the shelf, though, because they are a choking hazard. I only have them available for toddlers when they’re being directly supervised. Zoey can access them at any time.
Whose Egg? Book with Oviparous Animal Scavenger Hunt and Oviparous/Not Oviparous Animal Sort
Whose Egg? Book with Oviparous Animal Scavenger Hunt and Oviparous-Not Oviparous Animal Sort
Free Printable: All About Oviparous Animals – sorting and write the room by Katie’s Kinders at Teachers Pay Teachers
Whose Egg? A Lift-the-Flap Book is another fun, easy-to-understand introduction to oviparous animals for preschoolers.
The blue wooden egg is part of a lovely spring nesting egg set. I created a game where I place a Safari Ltd figure that’s an oviparous animal in the egg. I’ve hidden the matching oviparous animal card somewhere in the room. The child has to find the card and complete the layout if it hasn’t been completed previously.
Oviparous Animal Scavenger Hunt with Oviparous-Not Oviparous Animal Sort
Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg and Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones Books with Bird and Egg Matching and Oviparous Animal Booklet
Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg and Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones Books with Bird and Egg Matching and Oviparous Animal Booklet
Free Printable: Birds Eggs by Dagmar Sturges Brumovska at Teachers Pay Teachers. I recommend putting dots on the backs of the matching birds and eggs as a control of error.
Free Printable: Oviparous Vocabulary by The Organized Chaos of Instruction at Teachers Pay Teachers. I made the cards into a booklet. There’s a lot of great information here!
Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg is written for older preschoolers through early elementary. Zoey was instantly drawn to this book!
Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones has been around for many years and is a fun introduction to oviparous animals and animal classification written in rhyme.
Birdseed Writing Tray with E Sandpaper Letter and Cursive Letter Card
Birdseed Writing Tray with E Sandpaper Letter and Cursive Letter Card
Free Printables: Egg letter e for birdseed writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
You’ll see a variety of simple letter writing trays in my previous unit study posts. I often used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though. I’ve used birdseed in our writing tray for bird themes before, so I had it readily available!
I now use this lovely spelling/alphabet tray from FamilyTreeWW on Etsy. I love that it has a slot that fits sandpaper letters as well as any type of cardstock! Zoey is focusing on spelling a lot and needs more room for writing longer words. We’re also working on cursive. So I’m showing an example of how you can use the salt writing tray to focus on both manuscript and cursive writing.
If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.
ch and tch Phonogram Sort and I Have, Who Has ch and tch Game
ch and tch Phonogram Sort
Free Printables: “ch” chick phonogram card and “tch” hatch phonogram card (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
Free Printable: Digraph “ch” and Trigraph “tch” (Consonant Digraph “tch” word sort) by Crazy Kids Learning at Teachers Pay Teachers
Free Printable: Phonogram Word Wall Cards by The Resource Reading Fairy at Teachers Pay Teachers (For the spelling rule label “TCH is used only after a single vowel that does not say its name.”)
Free Printable: I Have, Who Has ch and tch Freebie by The Glitzy Teacher at Teachers Pay Teachers
Not all Montessorians focus on “tch.” I like the “tch” work for early elementary when kids are focusing more on spelling rules.
I have a post and video on how to introduce words starting with phonograms, even with very young children (although I don’t introduce phonograms to very young children except in a word like “shark” that can’t be explained as starting with /s/).
For our spelling work, we’ve been using a traditional small wooden manuscript movable alphabet, although we’re now working with the cursive wooden movable alphabet. There are a number of price ranges available. You can find more movable alphabet resources in my “Inexpensive and DIY Movable Alphabets” post.
Counting and Matching Wooden Eggs with Safari Ltd Mini Oviparous Animal Figures
Egg Number Tray with Wooden Eggs and Mini Oviparous Animals Paired with Matching Number Cards
Free Printable: Egg Number Cards 1-19 are available (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
We used a variety of Safari Ltd. Good Luck Mini animals that are oviparous in hollow wooden eggs. I love the wooden eggs, although be aware that you’ll probably have to sand them down a bit on the inner ring to get them to open and close easily.
Counting and Matching Wooden Eggs with Safari Ltd Mini Oviparous Animal Figures
My daughter, Christina, did the activity with Caleb, Christina’s 23-month-old son and 26-month-old Sophia (Caleb’s cousin). We just used 3 eggs today, although I’ll be adding more since Sophia and Caleb were very interested in working with the eggs and animals. We don’t keep the mini animals on the shelf, though, because they are a choking hazard. We only have them out for toddlers when the toddlers are directly supervised.
Life Cycle of a Butterfly Cards with Safari Ltd Life Cycle Figures
Life Cycle of a Butterfly Tray with Life Cycle Printables and Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle Figures from Safari Ltd
Free Printable: Definition Booklet for Life Cycle of a Butterfly from Liat’s Montessori (Note: Liat’s Montessori is no longer available, but there’s a free Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle by Teaching Stuff Place at TPT. I printed those out two to a page to fit better on our tray and punched holes to connect the pages with a binder ring. You can see my tray with the booklet here.)
I love the Safari Ltd. life cycle figures! We have most of the sets. With the monarch butterfly life cycle figures, I didn’t use the printable as a booklet. You can see how we used it below. I’ll be changing the life cycle materials to feature a variety of oviparous animals throughout our unit.
Life Cycle of a Butterfly Cards with Safari Ltd Life Cycle Figures
Free Montessori-Inspired Oviparous Animal Pack
Montessori-Inspired Oviparous Animal Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).
More Oviparous Animal Resources, Including Many Free Printables
- Montessori-Inspired Fun with Easter Eggs and Oviparous Animals
- Free Oviparous Animal Songs and Educational Videos
- Free Egg Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Oviparous Animal Cutting Strips
- Montessori-Inspired Fun with Easter Eggs and Oviparous Animals
- Montessori-Inspired Life Cycle Activities
- Free Easter Egg Printables and Montessori-Inspired Easter Egg Activities
- Check out my monthly themed posts for oviparous animals as the main theme. Many of them have been about oviparous animals.
Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!
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