When I taught in Missouri, we hatched eggs each spring. It was a great way to bring the wild kingdom (AKA: the barnyard) into our classroom. We taught lessons about the life cycle of a chicken while we stared at our incubator, willing the eggs to hatch with the collective brain power of 22 young children!! I’m not going to lie—each year, it was a nail-biter. But we did not have many disasters. Thank goodness!
In this post, I’ll walk you through some of my favorite oviparous animals activities for kindergarten. These lessons are hands-on, easy to prep, and full of rich vocabulary that helps young learners grow their understanding of life cycles. Whether you’re looking for engaging read-alouds, anchor charts, or science centers, I’ve got you covered.. You will find the free oviparous animal file towards the end of this blog post.
What Are Oviparous Animals? A Kindergarten-Friendly Explanation
Oviparous animals are animals that lay eggs, and their babies hatch from these eggs after some time. Examples include birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and fish. Explaining it simply helps our students connect and understand easily.
Why Teaching Oviparous Animals Is Perfect for Early Learners
Teaching about oviparous animals is great because it’s hands-on and visual. Kindergarten students learn best through experiences they can touch and see. This topic provides many opportunities for observation and active learning, which is perfect at this age.
How This Topic Builds Vocabulary, Science Knowledge, and Curiosity
This topic introduces important vocabulary like “hatch,” “egg,” and “life cycle.” It helps children become better observers and naturally curious learners, setting them up for success in science.
I have quite a few favorite books but these two are filled with oviparous animal facts are Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones by Ruth Heller and An Egg Is Quiet by Dianna Aston. These books have beautiful pictures and simple explanations, perfect for kindergarten.
We loved Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones so much that we included it in our Engaging Readers Interactive Read-Aloud Lessons!
An interactive read-aloud is when the teacher reads the book aloud to their class. The teacher does all of the decoding. During this time, the students do the thinking work. They strengthen their listening comprehension skills. While reading, the teacher will pause to ask questions, get their predictions, and let students share their thoughts in an interactive way. This helps them build comprehension and think more deeply about the text.
Students turn to their comprehension partner to discuss the text. This also strengthens their oral language skills. Honestly, it’s one of the best ways I’ve found to help them grow into strong readers who get what they’re reading!
Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones by Ruth Heller is one of my favorite nonfiction picture books to use with little learners when we’re learning about animals and life cycles. It helps kids realize that chickens aren’t the only animals that lay eggs—there’s a whole range of animals, like reptiles, fish, insects, and even mammals like the platypus! The book uses fun rhymes and bright illustrations to share cool facts in a way that really grabs the kids’ attention. It’s great for sparking their curiosity and getting them excited about science. Plus, it’s a perfect starting point for some awesome classroom discussions!
When we talk about reading comprehension, schema is basically the knowledge and experiences our kids already have in their minds before they even open a book. Think of it like a mental filing cabinet filled with what they’ve seen, heard, or experienced before. We help kids activate their schema by asking questions like, “What do you already know about apples and apple trees?” This helps them connect their own experiences to the story we’re about to read.
The neat thing about schema is that it isn’t fixed—it grows and changes every time kids read or learn something new. Each experience adds to their schema, making it richer and more detailed. The more they know, the easier it is for them to make connections, draw conclusions, and really dig into what they’re reading.
Honestly, schema is like the secret sauce of comprehension. When kids use their schema, they understand texts better and can enjoy reading on a whole new level.
Here is our completed schema chart on animals that lay eggs.
Once students have completed the oviparous animal chart together, they then do some writing on their own. Some will use the chart for support, others will respond independently.
The box on top tells what these students already knew about animals that lay eggs. The bottom box shows us their new learning.
Students write about what they know and what they learned.
We also worked together to complete an oviparous animal concept sort where we sorted oviparous and viviparous animals.
Then the students completed their own oviparous and viviparous animal sort.
Discussing the author’s purpose in informational texts means helping students think about why the author wrote the book—was it to teach, inform, or explain something? Doing this encourages kids to think critically about what they’re reading, understand the text’s message, and become stronger, more thoughtful readers.
Stating an opinion about a text means students share their thoughts about what they’ve heard read aloud. This strategy encourages them to think deeper, use evidence from the text to support their ideas, and boosts their confidence in expressing themselves, all key steps toward becoming skilled, independent readers.
After a week of learning about oviparous animals, students were ready to write about their new knowledge. Students included a variety of oviparous animals facts in their own book.
Each week we select two tier vocabulary words to explore closer. Each vocabulary word is defined and used in a variety of ways.
Often times we include the following in our vocabulary lessons:
A week would not be complete without creating a little oviparous animal craft. This is a fun activity to include after reading, Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg by Mia Posada ,
You can find all of the activities I mentioned above (plus lessons for four other books by clicking:
One of our favorite poems of the year is the Oviparous poem! We sing it over and over! In the grocery story… at the dry cleaners!
You can find this Oviparous Poem by clicking:
And if you want the recorded song and video you can find it:
We used these oviparous animals themed sentence practice pages for our morning work. This is a great chance to work on handwriting skills and the students love them! Because students are not asked to compose the sentence, they can put their writing energy into forming the letters correctly.
These hands-on math operations activities all have an egg-themed touch to them!
The cover math skills like:
Here is a great resource you may want to add to your egg thematic unit! It provides a look at the life cycle of the platypus!
Here are a few free files that I have updated for you!
One is a class book we made and the other is an emergent reader. You can add your name to box below and the download link will be sent to your email address.
Teaching oviparous animals in kindergarten doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right mix of stories, crafts, and hands-on activities, kids can easily grasp the concept while having fun.
These hands-on ideas keep them curious and engaged, which is exactly what you want at this age.
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My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
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