Autumn Frog and Leaf Litter

Fallen leaves provide shelter for a multitude of animals including earthworms, pillbugs, and millipedes. These animals provide food for frogs, toads, and other small animals. As winter draws near, the leaf litter becomes a warm blanket which helps these small animals to survive the cold.

Consider leaving a leaves on a portion of your lawn to increase the fauna of your yard. The frogs and other small animals will thank you and reward you with more wildlife sitings in the coming year.

Photo Credit: Portrait of Toad
on Flickr, Creative Commons.

Mixing frog green for Painting Frogs

Green Frog Paint
Color the Frog Green


Set out lots of yellow and some blue and let the kids mix the colors to make various shades of green.

Photo Credit: Frog Watercolor
on Flickr, Creative Commons.

Large paper covered in shades of green can be cut into frog or vegetation shapes to create bulletin boards, collages or other froggy art projects.

Cat-o-nine-tails in the Frog Pond

Today we look at cat-o-nine tales. Growing up in Vermont, Cat-o-nine-tails grew in swampy areas along the roads, in the setbacks of ponds and in low lying damp areas. I remember picking them with my mother and feeling the roughness of their brown blossoms. When we picked them in the late fall they would fall apart in clouds of fluff to disperse in the wind looking for another damp spot to sprout and grow new plants.

Cattails For Anne
Tuck, Ann
Buy at AllPosters.com

When we walked down to the frog pond in summer we would notice the Redwinged Blackbirds sitting on the Cat-o-nine-tails. The Cat-o-nine-tails stuck up a bit higher than the rest of the vegetation proving a perch for the blackbirds while they searched for insects to devour.
My sister and I loved to have sword fights with the Cat-o-nine-tails. Their stiff stems held up quite well and there were always more when the ones we were using broke.

How sad I felt one day when I heard than an invasive species, Purple Loosestrife is taking over the Cat-o-nine-tail’s habitat. Though Purple Loosestrifeis a beautiful plant, I would feel that the world was a poorer place if Cat-o-nine-tails no longer existed.

More recently I discovered what fun it can be to use a Cat-o-nine-tail as a pointer for word walls. They are a delightful addition to our Frog Unit Study. The children love to hold the Cat-o-nine-tail and point to words that we are reading about frogs and their habitat.

Using frogs to enhance learning...

Looking around my house I discovered that we had many different frog shaped objects that could be used to inspire children to work on language arts and math skills while playing games. Often these games are so much fun that the children may not even realize that they are working on these skills. Recently I was given a pair of froggy salt and pepper shakers. What could we do with them?

I posed this question to the children and soon we were out in the driveway creating a frog pond with lily pad place markers. We drew them with sidewalk chalk and used the salt and pepper shakers for place holders.

Learn more about this game on my Frog Unit Study.

How to create frog green paint. Mix, swirl and paint a frog...

Photo Credit: Frog Watercolor
on Flickr, Creative Commons.

Whether you want just straight green or you want to mix up your own there's enough paint here to paint hundreds, maybe even thousands frogs.

Set out lots of yellow and some blue and let the kids mix the colors to make various shades of green.

Large paper covered in shades of green can be cut into frog or vegetation shapes to create bulletin boards, collages or other froggy art projects.



For more Froggy Art Ideas be sure to check out Frog Art: Art Projects for the Frog Unit Study

Frog Lifecycle Games

Spring is a wonderful time to learn about the life cycle of frogs.

1) You can print, color and laminate the Frog Racing Life Cycle Game.

2) The Life Cycle of Frogs in French

Description

Frog lifecycle.jpg English: . Before hatching Newly hatched larvæ hanging on to water-weed With external gills External gills are covered over and are absorbed Limbless larva about a month old with internal gills Tadpole with hind-legs, about two months old With the fore-limbs emerging With all four legs free A young frog, about three months old, showing the almost complete absorption of the tail and the change of the tadpole mouth into a frog mouth. Français : . Avant l'éclosion Larves juste après l'éclosion s'accrochant à des algues Avec des branchies extérieures Les branchies extérieures sont recouvertes et sont absorbées Larves sans membres d'environ un moi avec des branchies internes Têtard avec jambes arrières, d'environ deux mois Avec les jambes avant qui paraissent Avec les quatre jambes libres Une jeune grenouille d'environ trois mois, montrant une absorption presque totale de la queue ainsi que le changement de la gueule de têtard en celle de grenouille.

To create this Frog in French game, Make cards

Photo Credit: Frog Life Cycle
on Wikipedia Commons.

Florida's Pig Frogs were saved by Save The Frogs!

Because of Save The Frogs, Florida's Pig Frogs
are no longer on the menu at San Francisco's Restaurant Gary Danko. This a major victory for SAVE THE FROGS! and for worldwide amphibian conservation efforts as this is a well-know place in culinary circle and it is expected that more and more restaurants around the world will follow their lead.



The 3rd Annual Save The Frogs Day will be on Friday April 29th, 2011.