A fun class at Easter, in the spring, when doing a chapter on farm animals, etc.

This class uses the song “I Know a Chicken” by Laurie Berkner.

You need enough shaky eggs that all the kids have them. You can make them with the kids if you have lots of time. You could do paper mache or fill anything even vaguely egg-shaped with something that rattles. I bought Easter egg decorations, removed the plug to hang them up by, filled rice in the hole, and sealed the hole with hot glue.

I begin the class by showing the chicken, chick and rooster, and telling the kids what they are called. My chick is a wind-up toy, so in small groups I will let kids wind it up and then place it down to see where it hops while all the kids call “Here chick, chick, chick!”. I then pretend to be a chicken and lay an egg, pulling one out from behind me. I show them it is a shaky egg.

When I hand out the eggs I ignore any requests for colors. Once everyone has one I tell the kids they can swap with me for a different color by saying “Swap red for blue?”. They can also try to swap with another child.

Then I show them that we can shake the egg fast or slow (I know it is slowly, but the song says slow, so I use this). I say and they shake what I say. In this way I add one at a time shake them fast, slow, up, down, up and down, in a circle.

Once they have this, I teach them the words to the song by having them repeat what I say. This works exceptionally well here, because the song is also set up with a repetition after each sentence as written here. The text is: “I know a chicken. And she laid an egg. I know a chicken. And she laid an egg. Oh my goodness. It’s a shaky egg!” Then the kids are told how to shake the egg.

I play the song, singing with Laurie and letting the kids repeat and shake their eggs. I have a fake microphone (broken one from a child’s toy) or you could make one, or use just about anything. The first time you sing into it, the kids know what it is supposed to be. Each time the kids are singing I hold it in front of a different child or children. Even though they know it isn’t real, they love it!