Meg's Eggs by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski and published by Penguin is a fantastic book containing bright simple pictures and nice big writing. Meg is a witch and the story is about her trying to make some eggs for supper but then the eggs hatch, dinosaurs come out and and wreak havoc. It is a lovely book to read and look through as the pictures are so bright and colourful.
Activities
Dinosaur ice eggs
Paint a character from the book
Make a dinosaur egg
Name a dinosaur competition
Egg and spoon race
Egg and spoon obstacle course
Dinosaur stomp
Dinosaur stomp guess
Introduce new words
Draw a dinosaur
Splatter painting
Eggs different ways
Paint an egg
Family supper
Indoor
The first activity could be to make some dinosaur ice eggs. Get a small dinosaur (or other small toy) and put it in a balloon. Blow the balloon up a bit to stretch it and then fill it with water. If you want a coloured egg add a couple of drops of food colouring to the water. Tie the balloon and then put it in the freezer. When it is frozen cut the balloon off and you should have a dinosaur in an egg. If it is a hot day then your child/children could take it outside and play with it but if not put it on a baking tray and let them have a play around with it. Eventually their egg will hatch/melt and they will have a baby dinosaur to look after. Another activity to could be to paint one of the characters from the book. They could choose Meg, Mog, Owl or one of the dinosaurs. Another fun activity could be to make an egg with a dinosaur in it. You could use sand, playdough or tissue paper to build an egg around a little toy dinosaur (or other small toy) and then your child/children can pretend that it is hatching. You could talk about other animals that lay eggs and list how many different dinosaurs that you could think of. You could turn this into a bit of a competition and see who can name the most in a small time frame (e.g. 3 mins).
Outdoor
A fun activity could be to have an egg and spoon race. If you don't want to use eggs or haven't got any available you could use the ice eggs when they have frozen or some large stones from the ground. If your child/children are too good at carrying their egg and spoon then you could add some obstacles in like something to jump over or something to crawl under. You could just use a broom to jump over or an old blanket/towel to crawl under. Another activity could be to pretend to be one of the dinosaurs and stomp around the garden or outside space. You could guess what dinosaur they are trying to be. You could also talk about the different things that the dinosaurs eat and teach your child/children the words carnivore, herbivore and omnivore. A final outdoor activity could be to take a large roll of paper and then draw the dinosaurs on it. If it is sunny then they could cheat and follow the outline of the shadow of the dinosaur if they put the paper and dinosaur in the right place. They could then splatter paint them. Splatter paintings a god activity to do outside as the rain cleans up the mess for you and it stops your walls and everything else inside being splattered.
Food/Cooking
As the book is about eggs you could cook eggs different ways and get your child/children to taste them and describe what they are like. They could help you by cracking the eggs and by whisking or stirring the ones that need it. Another fun activity could be to hard boil some eggs and then when they have cooled your child/children can paint them. Don't eat them though, they are just decorative. A final activity (not egg related) could be to plan a supper as a family and then eat it and read the book. You could talk about how your days have been and what parts of the story you all liked and disliked.
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