What Can We Learn from an Egg?

This Great Egg Idea is shared nearly verbatim from Janet Holler, Christian Ed Coordinator of Congregational Church of Excelsior, MN.

This is a Four-Station, Intergenerational Faith Formation event, chock-full of egg-related activities and learning!

You will need:

Opening:

  1. Describe what an egg looks, feels, and smells like (have a rotten egg for comparison).
  2. Have the group generate a list of as many animals as they can think of that lay eggs.
  3. You might read Horton Hatches the Egg or Green Eggs and Ham, letting kids come up with the rhyming word at the end of each verse.
  4. Share the resurrection story using Resurrection Story Eggs: each egg has a symbol in it that helps explain the resurrection.
  5. Introduce the resurrection story from your favorite gospel to memorize. Read through it at least once (for future reference).

Activity #1: Egg Drop

Share instructions ahead of time for the “Eggceedingly Eggcellent Eggceptionally Eggciting Eggsclusive Egg Drop Eggs-hibit and Eggsperiment”:

  1. Place a whole raw egg in a container, no larger than 12″x12″.
  2. Using any materials desired (plastic, wood, metal, rubber, etc.), create a parachute, glider or wing system to support the egg (in its container), enabling it to be dropped from a height.
  3. When Janet did this with her group, one of the kids packed their egg in Twinkies in a Tupperware container and it worked!
  4. Chute/Glider/Wing systems may emerge from the container as it falls as long as they are within the 12″x12″ measurement at the outset.
  5. The goal is for the egg to remain unbroken when dropped from 20 feet on a sidewalk (not from the church steeple!).
  6. No hard boiled eggs, please.
  7. Participants should be prepared to tell what’s in their container and why it should work.
  8. Adults are encouraged to make one, too.

Activity #2: Scripture Memory

  1. Write each word from the chosen memory verse on a different egg-shaped piece of yellow card stock.
  2. You might make more than one set.
  3. Participants put the words in correct order and see who is the fastest.

Activity #3: Cooking

  1. Invite a young adult who loves to cook to lead a cooking class making omelets.
  2. Whether social distancing in the same kitchen or via zoom, this could be a good time!
  3. Encourage parents to support younger participants with tasks that require cutting or cracking eggs.
  4. Teach older kids and adults how to crack an egg with one hand.

Activity #4: Egg Toss

  1. Start with just the Littles: they pick a partner and stand facing each other in a line
  2. Toss the gg.
  3. Take 1 step backwards.
  4. Keep tossing the egg, then stepping backwards.
  5. Players are “out” when their egg breaks.
  6. Then, each child picks an adult partner and play again.
  7. This may be best shared outside! (Which is great for distancing!)

Closing:

  1. Review the Bible story using the egg-shaped cards (in order).
  2. When participants are able to recite the scripture from memory they get an Egg Splat Ball (or similar egg-related surprise).
  3. Discuss the parts of an egg as a religious symbol. These two helpful links (from Richard Rohr) were provided by Emily Meyer of The Ministry Lab.
    1. https://cac.org/the-cosmic-egg-weekly-summary-2021-01-30/
    2. https://cac.org/the-three-domes-2021-01-24/
  4. Relate this imagery to personal lives and how these ideas impact people, right now.
  5. Consider: What do we learn from the egg?
  6. Review the resurrection story using the eggs. See if Little can tell it.
  7. Teenagers share their cooking experience.
  8. Share the scripture together.
  9. End in prayer.

Thanks, Janet, for sharing!!! If you’ve got a Great Idea, we’d love to share it with others!