“The Golden Egg” Review and Activity

by Haley Bono

Spring is in the air, and Easter is right around the corner, so The Golden Egg Book, By Margaret Wise Brown, is the perfect book choice to review. This book is an old classic with different editions over time, but the cute story remains the same. The story is about a bunny who finds an egg. The bunny wears himself out trying to open the egg and falls asleep. Of course, the egg hatches while the bunny is asleep and reveals a duckling. Eventually, the duckling is able to wake the bunny, and the two become friends.

This is a sweet book with a theme of friendship and is an excellent option for spring or Easter. However, you can also take a scientific spin with this book. Many different animals lay eggs, and as you read this book, you can ask your child what animal they think laid the egg, maybe a chicken, a duck, or even a snake. Ask them what they think about the guesses that the bunny made. Do elephants lay eggs? Or mice? How about bunnies? You might find you get some funny answers, and open the door for some learning about animals that lay eggs.

This is a popular book, and can most likely be purchased at your local books store, especially during this spring and Easter season. However, you can also click here to purchase the book on amazon. There is also a fun YouTube read-aloud done of this book if you click here. This is a great option if you don’t own the book, but still want to share it with your little ones.

With this activity, you can make it all about Easter, or you can add a little science to it. Both variations will be given in the instructions. If you want to make this activity more educational, then I recommend sharing a video about “egg candling” with your little ones. This is a method where light (often a candle or flashlight) is used to see inside an unhatched egg. This allows eggs to be monitored to see if they are fertilized or rather, to see if an animal is growing. This method is often used with chicken eggs. There are several YouTube videos on “candling” but I like this one here because it is short, and kind of cool that the person is only using the flashlight on their phone.

Supplies:

Free tracing template and flashlight template (there will be a free download at the end of the post), black and yellow permanent markers, scissors, black paper (or other dark colored paper), plastic sheet protector (you can also use a large clear Ziploc bag).

Directions:

1. Cut out the egg shape from the tracing template, and trace it on your plastic sheet protector (or your Ziploc bag). Younger kids may need help with this step.
2. Next cut out the baby chick shape, and trace that inside the egg shape you just traced. Younger kids may need help with this step.
3. Color and add detail to the baby chick.
4. Cut out the flashlight.
5. Slip the black paper into the plastic sheet protector/Ziploc bag. Depending on the size, the black paper may need to be trimmed
6. Now you can slip the flashlight between the plastic and the black paper, this will give the illusion that you are shining a light on the egg to see what is inside, kind of like candling.

Different Variations:

• If you are working with older kids, you can skip cutting out the chick, and just let them draw their own animals in the egg. You can encourage them to draw only an animal that would hatch from an egg, or you can let them just have fun, and draw whatever animal they would like.
• If you want to make this more Easter-oriented, you can skip all the science-type stuff, and play “What’s in my Easter egg?” Instead of drawing animals, have the kids draw different Easter objects or symbols in their eggs such as candy. Then you can use the flashlight to find all the different things they drew in their eggs.