Chicken's Aren't The Only Ones - by Ruth Heller

(Support the author by purchasing this book here.)

This delightful book teaches about all the different animals who lay eggs, from chickens to rays, to the platypus. The author uses fun rhymes, interesting facts, and beautiful illustrations to engage the readers. 

Often used within the education setting, this book complements science units on life sciences. It can promote skills in classification, sorting, same and different, attributes, and general knowledge. This book is written with simple rhyming prose, yet includes rich vocabulary for cross-curriculum instruction. Check out the book on YouTube here. 

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Here are some great activities to use with the book, "Chicken's Aren't The Only Ones" by Ruth Heller. 

Before you Read: 

Make a list together of all the animals your can think of who lay eggs. (There may be many birds!)

Or do a K-W-L Chart on Eggs (Know, Want to know, and Learned, more info on KWL strategy here)

Read Aloud

Here are some Comprehension Questions form the story. Stop and ask along the way or at the end of the story. (Open in powerpoint for distance learning and use circles as tokens to mark answers.)

Vocabulary: 

Consider vocabulary before you reread the story. Here are some more challenging words from the story. 

Here are two styles of vocabulary cards to match within the story or display on a word wall. 

Practice oviparous animal vocabulary with this board game. (open in Powerpoint for telepractice)

Play Memory-Matching by printing and cutting out 2 sets of egg-shaped cards. 

Sort by Categories: consider the categories of animals that lay eggs and discuss. (Are dinosaurs reptiles? Is a ray a fish? Is a spider an insect?)  

Or sort the animals into the categories

Expanded Activities based on story vocabulary or concepts

Make Puppets or lacing cards using animals from the story. 

Place cards in a pile. Draw a card and put together plastic eggs to match the picture on the card. 

Match the animal to it's word.