How to Use The Good Egg with Your Class

Egg or human, student or teacher, if we demand perfection of ourselves and others all the time, then we will eventually start to crack under the pressure!

That’s why Beth S. Prince, a kindergarten teacher from Hearst Elementary in Washington, DC, believes it’s so important to remind students that it’s okay to make mistakes—and that friends can make mistakes and still be our friends.

What better way to do that than by reading The Good Egg both at the beginning and middle of the school year? Watch Beth’s Scholastic Book Clubs–exclusive teacher review video to see how The Good Egg can serve as a reminder to treat others and ourselves with grace. The story also provides ample ideas for projects to do with the whole class:

• Tracking Story Elements: The Good Egg experiences a lot of emotional growth over the course of the story. Ask students to draw how the Good Egg feels at the beginning, middle, and end of the book.

• S.T.E.M.: For in-person math, you can use a carton of numbered eggs to practice basic addition and subtraction. Or for science, you can discuss the different types of eggs found in nature.

• Decorating Eggs: Practice getting creative by encouraging students to make an egg version of themselves on an egg-shaped piece of paper. You can stick the finished drawings on your bulletin board, or keep them in an egg carton to remind students that we’re all in this together.

How will you use The Good Egg with your students? We’d love to hear from you! If you’re able, please share on Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #ScholasticBookClubs.

Plus if you liked Beth’s idea for tracking the Good Egg’s emotions, be sure to check out the free downloadable activity in Cooked Up from a Book.

If you’re looking for companion ideas for the other books in this series, watch a PreK teacher’s Book Talk review video on The Bad Seed (a previous Book of the Week) for inspiration.