141Oviparous Animals Spring Theme 3: Oviparous Animals Exploring Outside Take a walk to look for oviparous animals. Oviparous animals develop in an egg and hatch outside their mother’s body. Prior to your hike, show children pictures of birds, snakes, fish, turtles, insects, and lizards, to name a few oviparous animals. Point out that bird nests will probably be easiest to spot in spring because many deciduous trees lost their leaves in the fall and only young buds are on the trees now, leaving bird nests exposed. Tell children they can also look for nests of other types of oviparous creatures, such as bees or spiders. If you are able to spot a nest, ask open-ended questions about it. Questions that point out nests’ characteristics and that develop children’s language skills might include these: Why do you think many birds build nests in trees? Where else would a safe place be to build a nest? How are nests like our homes? How many eggs fit in a nest? What else do you notice? While you’re focusing on nests, be sure to refer to the Winter’s Groundhogs, Shadows, and Burrows theme (page 100) and dis- cuss the topic of shelter. Role Play Outside While outdoors, explain to the children that they get to curl up and pretend to be animals inside of their eggs. Ask them to coil up tiny and to say the kind of animal they are. Begin by saying, “Let me see what you look like inside your egg.” While they pretend to be oviparous babies in their eggshells, children should use “I” statements when answering your questions. Ask open-ended questions to help them to get into their roles and to develop their higher-level thinking skills: Celebrate Nature_4th pages.indd 141 2/18/11 6:24:49 PM