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Name: Jane
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Question:
How does a bird lay an egg? (This is one of many questions posed by my first grade class.)


Replies:
I will try to explain this to a first grader.

Birds have to fly to get food and to run away from their enemies. Only the females lay eggs. Female birds can not carry heavy eggs in their bodies for the weight would keep the bird from flying. When she is ready to lay her eggs, she makes them very fast. Her body builds the soft parts of the egg. Her body rolls the soft parts down a tube. This tube makes the hard shell around the soft parts. The hard shell is completed just as she lays the egg in the nest. The hard egg is pushed out of her body for the tube can stretch.

I hope this is adequate. I know the sentences are too complex for a first grader.

Steve Sample


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