Spring is an exciting time in our Kindergarten classroom. We have more sunny days so we can spend more time outside, but most importantly we can explore all the new life that has begun to grow. Every year we learn about butterflies and watch caterpillars grow and change into beautiful butterflies. This year I added a new animal for the kindergartners to learn about: frogs! I was lucky enough to find some tadpoles in a pond at my grandparents. I brought them to the classroom and the kids have loved watching them grow and change. They are incredibly excited and check on them every morning when they come to school. I loving listening to their “oohs” and “awes” as they watch the frog life cycle unfold.
This excitement was great and I wanted to find a way to use their excitement as a learning activity. I created a journal where we could draw and write our observations as our tadpoles changed to frogs. This is a great tool for helping students experience, document, and understand the life cycle of a frog.
Books About The Frog Life Cycle
In addition to observing the life cycle, we read several books about frogs, tadpoles, and their life cycles. I love the national geographic books because they have wonderful pictures that really engage the students. Here are a few books that we read:
National Geographic Readers: Tadpole to Frog by Shira Evans
National Geographic Readers: Frogs! By Elizabeth Carney
National Geographic Kids Explore My World: Frogs By Marfe Ferguson Delano
Frog Investigation
We had a lot of fun observing, reading, and learning about our tadpoles as they became frogs. I didn’t want our learning to end, so we did an investigation to discover what kind of frogs our tadpoles had changed into. I printed off lots of pictures and information about frogs that are native to our area (I went to our state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife website to find this information). We worked together to research and determine which kind of frog we had and decided that our frogs were the Pacific Treefrog. A great discussion followed, where students defended why they thought our frogs were Pacific Treefrogs. It was amazing to see their little minds work!
After we had determined what kind of frog we had, we wrote about them. We had been learning about informational writing and this was a perfect opportunity to practice what we’ve been learning. We wrote these All About Frogs books.
This booklet can be used for any animal, not just frogs. I’m planning to use this booklet for writing about butterflies as well. This booklet includes a page for each of the following:
- Cover Page
- Body
- Habitat
- Life Cycle
- Food
- Predators
- Fun Facts
You can find this free All About _______ Book template on my Teachers Pay Teachers store or by clicking the picture below.
This was such a fun and exciting learning opportunity for the Kindergartners. I hope to be able to provide my students with this amazing learning experience next year too!