#2801. Life Cycle of a Frog

Science, level: Kindergarten
Posted Sun Jan 26 19:19:46 PST 2003 by Tonya Schulz (Trhar01@cs.com).
St. Rita, Louisville, KY
Materials Required: see materials
Activity Time: 40 minutes
Concepts Taught: change over time

Objective:
Students will work together to illustrate the life cycle of a frog.

Connection:
Students will be aware of change over time. (Kentucky Learning Goal 2.2 Students identify, analyze, and use patterns such as cycles and trends to understand past and present events and predict possible future events).

Context:
Prior to this lesson, students explored the life cycle of apples and pumpkins. They have worked in groups to illustrate the sequence of events that occur in these cycles. Therefore, they are familiar with working in groups to perform this sort of task. Last week, the children also worked with sequencing as they showed Clifford growing from a puppy to a full-grown dog. Furthermore, this lesson is being taught in an integrated mathematics and science unit on frogs.

Materials/Technology:
Dry-erase board and marker
4 pieces of white paper
Crayons
Pencils
"What Comes Next?" worksheet
The book, "From Tadpole to Frog" by Wendy Pfeffer

Procedures:
Review the sequence of my dog Jake's life along with my own life. Show the pictures, and have the children put them in the correct order. Have them explain why they go in this particular order.
Ask the children to recall what they learned about frogs yesterday. Tell the children that today we are going to discuss the life cycle of a frog.
Read, " From Tadpole to Frog" by Wendy Pfeffer.
After reading the story, discuss the sequence of events that must occur before a frog develops.
Tell students that first there are tiny eggs that cling together in the water. Begin to make a list on the dry-erase board (1. Tiny eggs are in the pond). Ask students what happens next. Prompt students when necessary, and continue to write the sequence of events on the dry-erase board (2. Tadpoles come out of the eggs and they swim in the pond, 3. The tadpole grows legs and lungs, 4. The tadpole changes into a frog).
After making the list of events that must occur before a frog develops, explain to the children that they are going to work in groups to illustrate one part of the cycle just as they did for the apple and pumpkin in a previous lesson.
Give each group a piece of white paper that is labeled with their particular part in the sequence/cycle.
Have children spread out in the room and use pencils and crayons to complete their pictures.
After the children have illustrated their part of the cycle, have the children return to their seats. Ask one member of each group to come to the front of the room. Have volunteers tell the order they should come in. Hang and display the finished sequence in the room.
Students will then complete the worksheet, "What Comes Next?" They will cut and paste the four pictures of the life cycle of a frog into the correct order.

Student Assessment:
Students will be assessed on their participation in the group activity based on teacher observation. They will also be assessed on the correctness of the worksheet they complete. If they have placed the pictures in the correct order they will receive a plus for skilled, and if they are not in the correct order they will receive a minus for need improvement.

Refinement-Lesson Extension/Follow-up:
Students will continue to learn about frogs. They will explore the eating habits of frogs, how they catch their food, and what they eat.