Poems

Mary Had a Little Frog
(tune: Mary had a little lamb)

Mary had a little frog, little frog, little frog
Mary had a little frog, its skin was green as grass
And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went
And everywhere that Mary went,
The frog would jump and splash!

Little Tadpole
(tune: I'm a Little Teapot)

Little tadpole, little tadpole
Lost his tail, lost his tail
Now he has two legs,
Now he has four legs,
Look a frog, Look a frog!

Tiny Tim
(to the tune of Miss Suzy had a baby)

I had a little frog.
His name was Tiny Tim.
I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water.
He ate up all the soap.
He tried to eat the bathtub
Now there's bubbles in his throat!

FIVE LITTLE FROGS by Cynthia Cappetta

Five little frogs sitting by a lake
The first was scared away by a snake.
The next one decided to take a swim.
The third one followed him right in.
The fourth little frog took a great big leap
So the last little frog just went to sleep!

Literature

Literacy Activities

*These spelling/vocabulary cards are designed to be used with the small white letter tiles available at Walmart.

click here to download file

*Fredrick the French Frog: Fredrick is a frog puppet I have. He has a french accent and he is a chef. He loves to cook. He thinks he is super smart, but he makes a lot of mistakes.

Fredrick has a restraunt called the Fly Stop Shop. The kids helped him design dishes for his menu. (examples: fly soup, beetle stew, mouse burgers, etc.) They drew and then labeled the dish. You could take the activity a step further and have them write the recipe.

I used these menus to create a bulletin board. The caption was Food Fit For A Frog!

*Lily pad sight word game: cut lily pads out of green paper. Write a sight word on each lily pad and lay them on the floor. We put ours on the carpet (the pond). Kids stand around the perimeter of the "pond" and toss a stuffed frog onto a lily pad. If they read the word correctly they score a point for the kids (or their team if you don't mind competition). If they can't read the word they get help from their classmates to stretch it out. Teacher gets a point anytime someone shouts out a word for someone else without letting them attempt it first.

* Contraction Frogs- write contractions on lily pad cut outs. Write the words needed for the contraction on two frogs. Kids pair up a lilypad with the two frogs that form that contraction. Example: lilypad says "can't" and the two frogs say can and not.

* Laminate frog name plates. Have kids use dry erase or wet erase markers to practice tracing or writing sight words, spelling words or vocabulary words. You can download frog name plates from www.thevirtualvine.com/frogs.html.

* Compound word frog game: visit http://www.thevirtualvine.com/frogs.html to download a compound word matching game.

Math Activities

*Make frog counters by spray painting lima beans green and adding black dots for eyes. Use these for addition and subtraction problems.

*Make toads by spray painting lima beans brown and adding black dots for eyes. Use them with the lima bean frogs to create patterns.

*Write numbers on large lily pad cut outs. Kids can sequence them in numeric order. They can also be used as a numberline and kids can hop the addition or subtraction problems. Or you can toss two frogs onto the lily pads and kids add the two numbers.

* Read Frog and Toad: The Lost Button-
--play "Guess my button" set out 8-10 buttons. Have kids guess an attribute such as "does your button have 2 holes?" With each question you eliminate certain buttons until the kids can guess your button. After playing as a group, kids can pair up and play with a partner or a small group.

--Sort buttons by attributes. Make a class chart of all the ways to sort buttons.

Science and Social Studies Connections

* Create life cycle posters of the life cycle of a frog.

* Create a Venn diagram that compares frogs and toads

* Set up an aquarium and watch a tadpole grow to be a frog.

* Use Frog and Toad are Friends to discuss the characteristics of a friend. Make an anchor chart for the classroom.

* Fantastic Froggy Facts. Give each child a sentence strip and have them write one fact they have learned about frogs. After they write their fact have them draw a picture to accompany their froggy fact. Hang them around the room. Or use them in a center. Kids pair up facts and pictures.

Just For Fun

* Froggie Floats-- place a scoop of green ice cream in a cup. Pour sprite over the ice cream. Use mini marshmallows to create eyes on the green scoop head. Put an m&m on each marshmallow for eyeballs. Make a mouth from pull and peel twizzlers.

*Frog Dominos to download

Decorationg/Bulletin Board Ideas

* First Grade is a Hoppening Place

* Leaping into Learning

* Learning by Leaps and Bounds

* Hoppy Helpers (job board) Write jobs on lily pads. Put velcro pieces on the lily pads. Write student names on frog cut outs. Velcro frogs to lily pads to assign class jobs.

* Welcome to Our Pad- Write kids names on frogs and put on door or bulletin board.

* I'm so hoppy you're in my class

Links

The Virtual Vine Frog and Toad Page

Great Center Activities

Arnold Lobel Unit

Kidzone Frog Page