The Naked Egg Experiment

I cannot believe it's Friday already! This week flew by!

We continued our study of eggs with a super cool experiment called The Naked Egg Experiment. Here's how it worked. Since we wanted to find out what is inside an egg, we needed to take the shell off so we could see inside. We didn't want to break the egg though. I let the kids try get the shell off using their hands, but none of them were successful. (Imagine that! :) ) Then I explained to them that if we put the egg in a jar full of vinegar for a couple of days, the vinegar would eat the shell off the egg and we'd be left with just the insides. We filled up our jars and put an egg in each one. The kids watched them for two days, and we were finally able to take the eggs out and play with them yesterday.

 (I tried to get a good picture of this process, but my hands were covered in egg goo and the kids were so excited it was hard to find an opening to take a picture. This is the best I could do.)

After being in vinegar for two days, here were some of the things the kids noticed about them:

• They were squishy.
• They were larger than a normal egg.
• They could see the yolk moving around inside.
• They bounced.
• When they finally broke, there was some kind of sack around the yolk so the kids could pick it up with their hands.

The kids were amazed at this experiment! They were all so engaged and asked many questions about what might happen next. A few of them hung out in the discovery center (where the eggs were) watching them for a good chunk of interest area time on Tuesday and Wednesday. They noticed all kinds of things about the eggs, like the cracks forming in the shell, and the bubbles that completely covered them. The room was full of a bunch of little scientists.

I've been spending a good chunk of time this week working on individual goals with each child. Some of the goals are in areas where an extra push is needed and some of the goals are in areas of strengths. Since we are getting closer to the end of the year, I want to make sure the kiddos are ready for what kindergarten and k-prep have to offer. I work on these goals mainly through various games and in interest areas. For example, for some of my kiddos, my goal is to help them start using inventive spelling. To do this, I find the children in the art center and offer them paper and markers. As they draw, I help them find the sounds in words to describe their pictures and write them down. For kiddos who have goals in numbers and counting, I have created a few games that ask them to identify numbers and count out quantities. There are other goals too - these are just a few examples.

Here's a picture example:

I feel this individual time together is really helping the children improve! In the last week, I have seen a ton of growth in quite a few children! If you would like to know what I'm working with your child on, let me know and I can give you some ideas for how you can help at home.

We'll be continuing our egg study next week by answering the questions the kiddos came up with yesterday! We'll also be doing a few more fun things with eggs (dyeing eggs and eating eggs).

I posted a schedule for spring conferences (April 17-29) on the alley door. Please sign up for a time that fits your schedule! There was also some information about important dates that will be coming up in the newsletter. Please put these on your calendar!

Have a great weekend!