The Frog Prince and Jump Frog Jump ( mini unit)

As promised, we did a mini theme unit on Frogs. We were not able to do it last Monday because we had extended family over so the boys asked to do it on Saturday. Can you imagine that? I must have been dreaming...!

My boys like frogs as most boys do. I am glad we were able to include Frogs after our F is for Fish week (two week study).

Before we read our book. We found some interesting information about frogs to the boys. Frogs are ancient (meaning they have been around for millions of years). For 190 million years, the ancestors of modern frogs have roamed (if not ruled) the earth, looking much the same as they do today.My oldest son was impressed that there was a prehistoric frog called Ichthyostega.

Ichthyostega, prehistoric predecessor to the modern frog, lived 370 million years ago during the Devonian Period. Sometimes referred to as "the first four-legged fish," skeletal remains of this earliest known amphibian was first discovered in East Greenland.

We wanted to include a good story book to go with our Frog day and I found two books that were perfect. We read "The Frog Prince" by Eric Blair and "Jump Frog Jump" by Robert Kalan

The Frog Prince Book Summary:
The Frog Prince is a fairy tale, and the best known version is that of the Brothers Grimm. In the tale, a spoiled princess reluctantly befriends a frog, who magically transforms into a handsome prince triggered by the princess kissing the frog. In other early versions the frog turns into a prince when he is allowed to spend the night on the princess's pillow.

Jump Frog Jump Book Summary:
A frog tries to catch a fly, but finds himself on the other end of the food chain. As each new danger appears, the frog is left with one option: jump, frog, jump! The frog's final escape, however, requires the help of a boy.

Motor Skills
I made a Frog Lacing Card for "Turtle" Lacing cards work well for developing fine motor skills. I printed mine at KinderPrintables. They have available to print in color or if you prefer in black and white. I printed mine in black and white and colored it with crayon, cut it and glued it to card stock to make it sturdy. I used my hole paper puncher to make the holes and we used yarn to thread ours with.


I went to the Dollar tree sometime ago and saw a toy Frog pack of six frogs and I found a Frog container with a net and tweezers for pretend play (each for one dollar) I spent two dollars a piece for each of the boys so they can have a fun toy to use with our theme. (you can see one of them below.)


Knowing that I would make a game to go with our theme, I did! I made two games! I am always trying to find multi uses for toys and object in the home. This one is a Frog Match game (for Reading).

This activity is designed to be used with the plastic frogs I found at Dollar Tree (called "Rain forest Creatures...they come with 6, 9 or 10 in a pack). Ours came with six. To make it, I cut out green lily pads out of construction paper . Children read the simple descriptions (color words) on the lily pads to match the frogs to the correct lily pads. You can make the activity more exciting by adding tongs or tweezers to pick up the frogs and magnifying glasses to examine them carefully. (see photos below)

I made a Math counting game.
I found the printables at the Newport Mesa Unified School District. Listed in their page for Math Ideas, I found the directions for a Jump Frog Jump game. The PDF files can be found on the lower right corners of the page. Ours is alittle different but the idea is the same. For dice I used a printable for a cube template from Mommy Nature.

Materials:
2 Frog counters
Die with numbers 1-3 or cube printable.
One 12 x 18 paper
download the 'Flies' and 'Jump Frog' PDF files here. (scroll to bottom right of page)

How to play:
Have your Children work in a pairs or p,lay along with your child. Each person chooses a frog counter or toy frog. They take turns rolling the die, and jumping their frog along the fly path,
until they reach the end.

I had planned for a Paper plate Frog puppet craft but the boys were not interested. Some days I just have be content they wanted to do this much on a Saturday. Oh well, at least we did plenty of crafts during the week for our T is for Train theme (two week study).