Frog Pond Life Cycle Model 

Materials:  non-waxed paper plates, crayons (no shades of blue), small sponges, watered down blue tempera paint, small containers to hold the paint, small “flippy frogs” – 1 per child

Pass out the crayons and the plates.

Explain that frogs begin their life in the water and that baby frogs come from eggs.  The eggs are laid in a group.

Animals that begin their life in the water and then live on land are called amphibians.

Baby frogs are called tadpoles.  They don’t look like their parents.

Ask the children to take a dark crayon and draw frog eggs in the water.

Then have them draw three tadpoles.  Give one frog hind legs. Then give one frog hind and front legs.

Talk about the things that a tadpole would need to survive in its habitat.

Tadpoles eat plants.  They are vegetarians.  The children will need to draw some plants. 

As a tadpole gets older, it will begin to prey on insects, worms, and even small fish.

Ask the children to use their crayons to make a log for the adult frog to sit on to warm itself in the sun.  Amphibians are ectotherms.  Their body temperature is the same as the outside air. 

Then have them draw some bugs in the water.  Adult frogs catch insects with their sticky tongue.

Help the children dip the ends of the small sponges into the paint and paint over their “pond."  (The sponge needs to be only slightly damp with the paint.)

These will dry quickly.

Give each child a frog and let them see if they can get it into their “pond."

Head Start Child Outcomes Framework – develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts

Early Learning Science Guidelines – the adult observes nature and discusses the life cycles of animals; the child describes or represents a series of events in the correct sequence

Fontenelle Nature Association

Science in the Early Years – Natural Science Programming for the Very Young

kmuphy@fontnenelleforest.org