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:
- Eggs for egg toss
- Cooking supplies for omelets
- Resurrection Story Eggs from Oriental Trading
- Egg Splat Balls from Oriental Trading
- Horton Hatches the Egg, Dr. Seuss
- Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss
- Yellow card stock for scripture words
- Rotten egg
- Kids bring their own egg drop entries
Opening:
- Describe what an egg looks, feels, and smells like (have a rotten egg for comparison).
- Have the group generate a list of as many animals as they can think of that lay eggs.
- 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.
- Share the resurrection story using Resurrection Story Eggs: each egg has a symbol in it that helps explain the resurrection.
- 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”:
- Place a whole raw egg in a container, no larger than 12″x12″.
- 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.
- When Janet did this with her group, one of the kids packed their egg in Twinkies in a Tupperware container and it worked!
- 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.
- The goal is for the egg to remain unbroken when dropped from 20 feet on a sidewalk (not from the church steeple!).
- No hard boiled eggs, please.
- Participants should be prepared to tell what’s in their container and why it should work.
- Adults are encouraged to make one, too.
Activity #2: Scripture Memory
- Write each word from the chosen memory verse on a different egg-shaped piece of yellow card stock.
- You might make more than one set.
- Participants put the words in correct order and see who is the fastest.
Activity #3: Cooking
- Invite a young adult who loves to cook to lead a cooking class making omelets.
- Whether social distancing in the same kitchen or via zoom, this could be a good time!
- Encourage parents to support younger participants with tasks that require cutting or cracking eggs.
- Teach older kids and adults how to crack an egg with one hand.
Activity #4: Egg Toss
- Start with just the Littles: they pick a partner and stand facing each other in a line
- Toss the gg.
- Take 1 step backwards.
- Keep tossing the egg, then stepping backwards.
- Players are “out” when their egg breaks.
- Then, each child picks an adult partner and play again.
- This may be best shared outside! (Which is great for distancing!)
Closing:
- Review the Bible story using the egg-shaped cards (in order).
- When participants are able to recite the scripture from memory they get an Egg Splat Ball (or similar egg-related surprise).
- 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.
- https://cac.org/the-cosmic-egg-weekly-summary-2021-01-30/
- https://cac.org/the-three-domes-2021-01-24/
- Relate this imagery to personal lives and how these ideas impact people, right now.
- Consider: What do we learn from the egg?
- Review the resurrection story using the eggs. See if Little can tell it.
- Teenagers share their cooking experience.
- Share the scripture together.
- End in prayer.
Thanks, Janet, for sharing!!! If you’ve got a Great Idea, we’d love to share it with others!