I created a worksheet for this activity which you can download and print HERE. The object of this activity is to predict whether or not Humpty Dumpty (hard boiled egg) will crack when dropped off the wall surrounded in different materials (feathers, cotton balls, etc). It is also a great activity for helping kids memorize the Humpty Dumpty Nursery Rhyme.
Now I had my son feel all of the materials in the bags and we discussed if they were soft or hard, heavy or light, etc.
Then he made his prediction on the worksheet of whether the egg would crack when dropped in the different bags. To make his prediction he colored either the smooth egg or cracked egg in the correct column.
Now comes the fun part! Put the eggs into the bags and as you repeat the nursery rhyme, have your child drop a bag from the table when Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall. Repeat with every bag. After dropping all of the bags, remove the eggs and record the results on the worksheet.
We were definitely surprised with our results. I thought for sure the bubble wrapped egg would have survived the fall, but it cracked. Maybe I should have put a couple more layers around it.
I thought the egg on the foam pad would survive also, but it cracked. I even made sure my son dropped it straight down so the foam remained underneath the egg.
The most surprising was the egg that was surrounded by beans. It stayed perfectly intact. I guess the beans absorbed the fall. Such a happy little egg! 🙂
You might also enjoy these crafts & activities:
- Static Electricity Butterfly Experiment
- Slime Monsters
- Making Lemon Trees with Lemon Scented Playdough
- Coffee Beans Space Sensory Bin
- Digging for Worms Sensory Dough
I LOVE this! It sounds so fun! I'll have to remember this for our nursery rhyme unit. Thanks for sharing!
What a fantastic idea!! You are so awesome Rachel 🙂 My kids would love this idea, thanks so much for sharing the worksheet too. Oh and Hello!! Your blog looks awesome!! I love the new look of it.
This is awesome! It also brought back memories. In high school physics we had to design something to hold our egg in hopes of the egg surviving the drop from the top of the football bleachers. Great project!!!
How high did you drop the eggs from?
thanks!
@vida Vida, We dropped the eggs from our kitchen table. It's just a standard height table, not the taller type.
This is an AWESOME idea. My son loves when we do science in preschool, but I always have a hard time coming up with something to match our themes. Thank you so much!
This was so great! Did it today with my 8 and 5 year old. We used cooked bow tie noodles, dried lentils, cotton balls, popcorn kernels and uncooked rice. My 2 year old loved us all saying the Humpty Dumpty rhyme too!
We LOVE doing this in our kids’ science class, which is for age 3 – 6. But I think it’s also a great Sunday school activity or good for lots of other settings where you have kids of multiple ages. It’s easy enough for a three year old to do, but even a 12 year old can build, test, re-build, and test some more! We use tester eggs for our initial tests … if you put a bouncy ball inside a plastic egg and drop it, it’s about as resilient / fragile as a real egg, and you can test over and over again. See our other kids’ science activities at https://inventorsoftomorrow.com/2017/04/18/egg-science-2/