Easter eggs-periments to try with kids

MONTICELLO, Mo. – Make coloring Easter eggs with the children and grandchildren fun and educational, says Katie Hogan, University of Missouri Extension 4-H youth program assistant.

Eggs-periment with embryology lessons as you dip and dye this year. In addition to science skills, children learn color recognition, painting and cutting skills while helping decorate eggs. Count and sort as you go and talk about how eggs from various birds vary in size.

It’s also a good time to work on cooking skills. Scrambled eggs are an easy introduction to cooking for young children. Read “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss. Color scrambled eggs with green food coloring and serve with ham.

Here are a couple of suggested experiments from Hogan:

-Fill two glasses with water. Stir 1/4 cup salt in one glass. Put a raw egg in its shell in each glass. One floats; one sinks.

-Fill a bowl with water. Place a fresh egg and an older egg in the water. The fresh egg sinks and the older egg floats.

-Spin an uncooked and a hard-cooked egg on the table. The uncooked egg will wobble and the hard-cooked egg will spin smoothly.

-Soak an egg in a glass filled with cola for 30-60 minutes. Remove the egg from the cola and try brushing it with a toothbrush. Are there any similarities between the egg and your teeth?

-Place an egg in a glass and add enough vinegar to cover the egg. Leave for one day. Then use a spoon to lift the egg out of the vinegar and gently rub the shell with your fingers. The shell dissolves because the calcium in the eggshell reacts to the acid in the vinegar. The membrane of the egg does not react to the vinegar.

Here are some other facts to share with your youngsters:

-A hen lays one egg per day on average.

-Brown and white eggs have the same nutritional value. Generally, brown-feathered chickens lay brown eggs while white eggs come from white-feathered chickens.

The Adair County MU Extension Center website has many learning activities and videos on embryology at extension.missouri.edu/adair/schoolenrichment.aspx.