This very upbeat song is a wonderful tool for teaching counting to your youngest singers - forwards and backwards! The "egg" theme is neat for tying it into Easter celebrations, if you wish, but it can be used any time.

The recording for this song is delightful - full of happy sounds and energetic percussion. You can even hear the enthusiasm in our youngsters when they sang it. They especially got a kick out of the yelling (spoken) part. (How often are kids actually allowed to yell in school?!)

Let students sing along with the recording while counting their own eggs. You could bring in some hard-boiled eggs or some plastic ones. (Save the hard-boiled ones for lunch, or dye them for Easter!) Or you could let them draw their own eggs, or use ours (from page 55) to speckle, color, cut out (optional), and count. Let them write numbers on the eggs, if you like. First, copy the reproducible page on paper or cardstock. One page per artist is fine, unless you want them to share. Use the eggs as visual aids while singing and/or listening to "Speckled Eggs."

The ability to reinforce concepts children are learning is a big advantage of music, as every music teacher knows. Since the subject of counting (math) is cross curricular, do be sure to let the classroom teacher know you have this gem at your disposal! She will thank you. And so will her little counting experts.