Although the whole frog life cycle may be a bit sophisticated for very young preschoolers , they are definitely old enough to understand that a tadpole turns into a frog. This is an easy and adaptable activity, if you need a frog activity to follow up click here for a cute frog puppet!
- Gather your materials. You will need some green paint, a paper plate, some red paper, a googly eye and some streamers (paper cut in strips would work well too). If you want you can also use some sparkles- this seems to be the only thing my son wants to do at art time lately!
- Start by painting your paper plate, we are using a sponge but a brush, or even finger painting would work.
- While your child paints cut some streamers into 6-8 inch pieces. I cut 4 but ended up only using 3.
- When they are finished painting let the paper plate dry.
- Hand them the streamers and have them paint them , we used roller paints on each.
- Add glitter if you want.
- Let the streamers dry.
- While everything is drying, cut some lips, I made a heart and cut off the bottom.
- Now when things require drying time you run the risk of loosing your little artists, my son happily said “mama you glue!” so I did. He was just as proud of his project in the end , but you can also put it aside and complete it when the mood strikes!
- Add the glue for the streamers.
- Add the streamers- I added 4 , but took one off. Also this picture shows them all spread out, I ended up grouping them together to make one tail.
- Add the lips
- Add the eye and let dry!
Song
Five green and speckled frogs
sat on a speckled log
eating the most delicious bugs
yum yum !
One jumped into the pool
where it was nice and cool
now there are 4 green speckled frogs
ribbit ribbit!
Keep going until no frogs left!
Books!
“From Tadpole to Frog” by Wendy Pfeffer is another gem from the “Let’s- Read-And-Find-Out” series. It goes into great detail without offering too much for young readers. When I was reading it to my 2 year old, I skipped some pages, it’s a little long for him still but 3-5 year olds are perfect age for this non fiction book. The illustrations are interesting and kept my wiggly man into the book when the text went above his head.
What a great post!! I did something similar a few weeks ago with my son…but I sure didn’t have all of those resources, might try it again over the summer with all of the activities!!!
We’re going to do that right now.
Mike
http://somethingaboutparenting.typepad.com
Twitter: AboutParenting
Very cool! I’m trying to include more “science-related” activities for my 2 year old. This is fun!
Thanks!
Tanya – those read and find out books are great for 2 year olds, you have to edit it some so they aren’t over loaded but they are great. I used to hoard them for my classroom.
Thanks for the book tip, Allie. I wonder if they are available through Scholastic book orders. I’m about to make a big order so will have to check and see now!
This is adorable-I just love it. Thanks.
Googly-eyes plus glue equals fun craft for my 2 year old. He saw pack of “eyes” that I picked up at the dollar store (btw, is $1 too much for a pack of googly eyes? Sometimes I wonder if the Dollar Store is the best place for some craft items) and he begged me to open them up for him. He’ll have a blast with this.
A dollar is AWESOME !
I am always leary of discounted things, I’d just make sure he doesn’t put things in his mouth.
Love watching you sing that song – you really get into the mood! Listening to your ‘yum yum’ makes the bugs seem tasty to me too!
Hi!
I posted about this on my blog!
Thanks for sharing!
Yazdıklarımı anlamama oranın yuksek 🙂 ama super mımıkler ve super bır sarkı 🙂 tebrıkler..
Yay! A friend is giving us some tadpoles in a few weeks, and we’ll do a unit on frogs and toads, so this is perfect for us! Thanks for sharing – and btw, I love the video of the song. I’d never heard it before.
I would love to include this one in “The Bookworm’s Bookbag”, as well! So darn cute!
.-= Tara´s last blog ..Over the Top Mornings =-.