Life Cycle of a Frog

One of my classrooms has been learning about the life cycles recently.  They're learning about caterpillars and butterflies, eggs and chicks, and tadpoles and frogs.  So, when I found this adorable clip art from Kari Bolt on TPT, I knew I had to create something for them!

By the way, they actually have a real tadpole in their classroom!

Tadpole

I decided to create a simple book outlining the Life Cycle of a Frog.  This is a full-color 6 page (full pages) book that describes the sequence of a Frog's Life Cycle:

Here's what the title page looks like:

So the kids would be able to have something to take home and share what they are learning with their families, I also created a mini-booklet.  This mini-booklet is identical to the large one, but on half-pages and in black and white.  This makes it easier for you to photocopy!  Also, I set up the pages so that you could make one cut, staple, and go (no sorting the pages!):

Cut w/ my handy-dandy paper slicer!

Finished mini-booklet

Here's a sample page from the mini-booklet:

You can download this freebie HERE.  Please leave me a comment or feedback if you do!  Do you teach life cycles with your students?  What's your favorite life cycle to teach?

Book of the Week: Big Wide Mouthed Frog

Did you catch my Articulation Frogs Craftivity posted earlier this week?  (If not, you can find it HERE).

Well, in keeping with the frog theme, my book of the week this week is "The Big Wide-Mouthed Frog" by Ana Martin Larranaga.

 

In this story, the Big Wide-Mouthed Frog hops off to see the world.  He meets different creatures (a kangaroo, a koala, a possum, an emu, and a crocodile).  He asks the same question to each animal he meets:  "Who are you and what do you eat?"  In the end, he meets a crocodile who, coincidentally, eats big wide-mouthed frogs and the frog quickly hops away.

I made some quick sequencing cards to accompany the book (graphics from Graphics Factory).  You can use just the animals to sequence the story, or use the animals and food for a matching task.  I tend to have my little guys make sentences (e.g., "Kangaroos eat grass"). You can download a copy of the sequencing cards HERE.

To accompany this book, I often do an activity that I posted about a few months ago (HERE).  Essentially, I place different colored shapes inside a hula hoop (you could also use language or articulation cards) and give each student 1-2 hopping frogs (the kind you press down on and they "jump").  The students either make the frogs jump into the "pond" or toss them into the "pond," depending on motor skills.  

Then they need to tell me a sentence about what happened:

• My frog landed on a blue rectangle
• My frogs hopped on a red circle and orange triangle
• The red frog landed on the blue rectangle and the green frog landed on the orange triangle.
• I got "robot" (articulation card)

What's your favorite frog-themed book/activity?

First Freebie!

Updated 7/20/2013

While the little guy is sleeping, I figured I'd post my first freebie.  This is an association game that I created to go with a frog/pond theme.  You can play it simply as a memory game.  In my preschool classrooms, I tend to do one inclusion group per week.  I typically do a story and extension activity with all of the children in the class.  For the in-class lessons, I separate the frogs into two piles (with one member of each set in each pile).  I hold on to one of the piles, and hand out the rest of the frogs to the students in the class.  I then tell the students what object is on my card and ask who has the matching frog.  You can use the activity to target sentence structure ("My frog is holding a ___"), providing explanations ("A fork and a spoon go together because you use them to eat"), and categorization (tools, sporting equipment, utensils, etc.).  Hope you enjoy it!

You can grab a copy HERE.

Please leave me a comment if you download :)