145Oviparous Animals Reading • Provide oviparous animal books for children to explore. Nonfic- tion books will depict the oviparous animals’ natural attributes. Fiction books that include oviparous animals will be enjoyable as well. Some books you can feature include Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones by Ruth Heller and Rechenka’s Eggs by Patricia Polacco. • Include the language arts activity’s A —— Is an Oviparous Animal. predictable book in the reading center for children to revisit when they wish. Writing • Include sentence strips about oviparous animals. Be sure to make the strips predictable. Repetition helps children develop their early reading skills. Each sentence strip should name a dif- ferent oviparous animal. For instance, one strip might read, “A fish hatches from an egg.” Be sure to include a picture of a fish next to the word fish. Also insert a picture of an egg at the end of the sentence. Including pictures for children with emergent reading skills allows them to feel successful as readers. The next sentence strip may read, “A bird hatches from an egg.” Again, include a bird’s picture after the word bird. Create many of these strips so the children can view and copy these sentences. Highlight the word egg in a different color for easy recogni- tion. Highlight the oviparous animal’s name in another color to increase children’s awareness and vocabulary. Here are some more example strips: A fish hatches from an egg. A bird hatches from an egg. A snake hatches from an egg. A lizard hatches from an egg. Allow the children to independently write and create at this literacy station. A child dictates from the sentence strips in the writing center and shows it when she is done. Celebrate Nature_4th pages.indd 145 2/18/11 6:24:52 PM