Hyla (Peep) Crucifer, the story of the spring peeper frog, by Carol Cornelius

This is a fiction book that talks of the Hyla frog, one that you might see near your home in the spring. It gives information about frogs that you can easily share with the children.

Materials

frog outlines
Pictures of several animals using camouflage to hide.
10 flies
Paper plates
Frog head
Tiddlywinks or poker chips
Green playdough and two googly eyes per child

Vocabulary

Drifted (to float)
Gills (as lungs are to people, gills are to fish)
Camouflage (a way that animals can hide from other animals by blending into their environment/their surroundings).

Before Reading the Story

Cut out 1 inch squares from different colors of paper. Cut out 2 per child. Hide these about the room placing the colored square upon an object that is the same color. When the children gather for rug tell them that you just learned a really big word that you want to teach them. Tell them the word is “camouflage” and ask if anyone thinks they might know what it means? Bring in some pictures of animals that are camouflaged and show them to the children. Show the children several of the one inch squares that you cut out. Tell them that you have hidden the squares around the room and they are camouflaged. Remember that camouflaged means that they are hiding on a color just like them. Let the children know that they are each to go and find one camouflaged square and bring it back to the rug. As they bring them back, ask them what color they found and where they found it.

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks and activities.

Reading the Story

As you read, remind the children that a Hyla Peeper frog is really only about an inch long. Show them how small an inch is. Ask them why they think the illustrator drew the frog so big? (So we could see him good)

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & problem-Solving; grows in recognizing and solving problems through active exploration, including trial and error, and interactions and discussions with peers and adults.

After Reading the Story

Go back through the pages and ask the children to tell you what they remember about the Hyla frog and his life. Use the book as a guide. Write down the children’s responses and hang it on the wall with several of the children’s writing experiences.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Discovery

In the story, the tadpole used to breathe under the water like a fish but as he got older he started to breath through his lungs. Have the children put their hands on their chest and breathe in and out, then feel their lungs fill up with air.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and respect for their bodies and the environment.

Music and movement;

Sing Peep Peep Went the Little Green Frog https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=EbM70ouxrc8&list=RDAMVMEbM70ouxrc8

Peep, peep went the little green frog one day

Peep, peep went the little green frog.

Peep. Peep went the little green frog one day

And his eyes went peep, peep too.

Do 5 Little Speckled Frogs. Have the children hold up 5 fingers and then do the actions with the poem. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=HhVi4IQRMtY&list=RDAMVMHhVi4IQRMtY

5 Little speckled frogs, sitting on a speckled log

Eating the most delicious bugs, yum, yum

One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool

Then there were 4 more speckled frogs

Glub, glub.

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities, including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances.

Put a bunch of paper plates all over the floor. Turn on some lively music and let the children become frogs and jump from leaf/plate to leaf (or lily pads).

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; shows increasing levels of proficiency, control, and balance in walking, slimbing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, marching, and galloping.

Blocks

Have the children make a small pond with the blocks. Give them tidily winks or poker chips and show them how to pop them to make them jump (take one and scrape across the edge of another that is lying on a flat surface. It will jump! Can you get them to jump into the pond?

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Art

Give the children green play dough and googly eyes. Show them how to roll a ball of playdough to make the frog’s’ body. Give them googly eyes and encourage them to add legs and design to their bodies (I have given the children a straw to make ‘dots’ on the frog and a pencil to make ‘stripes’).

Creative Arts/Art; progresses in abilities to create drawings, paintings, models, and other art creations that are more detailed, creative, or realistic.

Library and Writing

The hyla frog has an X on its back. Give each child a copy of the page with the 6 frogs on it and ask them to draw an X on each frogs back.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress in associating the names of letters with their shape and sound. AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

Sand and Water

Water play, pouring and scooping.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads and using scissors.

Dramatic Play

Have the children cut out the frog head and make a mask/hat out of it by attaching it to a sentence strip around their head. The children can wear their frog heads as they hop and jump about the classroom to music.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads and using scissors.

Math and Manipulatives

Play Flies for Lunch. Cut out a set of flies per child and spread them out on the table. Write the numbers 1-5 on the fly backs. Give each child a piece of contact paper 1 inch by 6 inches. Show them how to flap their “sticky tongue” down on the table and pick up a fly. Call out numbers and see if they can catch the correct fly.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

Outdoor Play

Have the children take turns getting into a crouching position and doing a frog leap. Make a starting line and then mark the ground where they jump. See who is the jumpiest frog. Try having the children do standing long jumps and running broad jumps also.

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; shows increasing levels of proficiency, control, and balance in walking, climbing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, marching, and galloping.

Transitions

As the children move to the next activity have them do different kinds of hops or jumps. Can you hop on one foot to line up? Find a partner and jump to line up. Hop in a circle and then line up. Jump backwards to line up.

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; shows increasing levels of proficiency, control, and balance in walking, climbing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, marching, and galloping.

Resources

write numbers on the backs of flies to use in manipulatives.

Give each child a page of 6 frogs to practice making the letter X on the backs

These frogs all camouflage into their pond environments

Mama Built a Little Nest, by Jennifer Ward

This book explores the many different kinds of nests that birds build.

Materials

Bird feeder with bird seed

Bird nest in a ziplock bag

Picture of three birds from the story.

2 toilet paper tubes per child

assorted stickers or assorted colored tape

tongs or clothes pins that pinch open and close

24 pack of paper or plastic cups

bag of colored feather

Pipe cleaners cut into a variety of sizes to represent worms

Vocabulary

Ornithology (the study of birds)
Sturdy (strong)
Cavity Nest (built by woodpeckers, a hole in a tree. Kind of like a cavity in your tooth, a hole in your tooth)
Craggy (rocky rough cliff edge)
Burrow ( a hole in the ground used for a home)
Talons (the eagles claws or nails)

Before Reading the Story

Hold up cover of book and read title. Guess what story about. Ask the children what they think the big green ball is for? Ask children to share any knowledge they have about bird nests. (how are they built, what is a nest used for, where do you find nests). As the children talk about what they know about nests and birds, write their responses on a large piece of paper to pin to the wall. Make a KWL chart with the children. K=what we know about the subject, W= what we want to know about the subject, L= what we learned after reading/investigating about the subject.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and ability to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Reading the Story

Stop and talk about the different birds, especially those that live in your area. When you get to the 2^nd to last page (robins outside the window) ask the children what the author means when she says that they have a nest of their very own?

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, anad poems.

After Reading the Story

Ask the children to share with you some of the facts that they learned about nests. On a third piece of paper write their responses. Hang on the wall with the other two sheets.

Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes. AND Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and ability to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Discovery

Tape the picture of the three different birds to the wall. Have a discussion with the children how they are alike and how they are different.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; begins to make comparisons between several objects based on a single attribute.

If you are lucky enough to have a bird nest you can bring in to share with the children . Put it in a ziplock bag so that it does not get torn apart or if there are any small bugs in the nest, they do not get into your classroom.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather informations, investigate materials, observe processes and relationships.

Add a bird identification book and a birdfeeder where the children can easily view it.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather informations, investigate materials, observe processes and relationships. AND Literacy/ Print Awareness & Concepts; develops growing understanding of different functions of forms of print such as signs, letters, newspapers, lists, messages, and menus.

Tape two toilet paper tubes together to make binoculars. Punch two holes in of the ends to add string to go around neck. Give the children stickers or bits of colored tape to decorate their binoculars.

Music and Movement

Put together the Rockin Robin Booklet and sing along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-OteAgvINc

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction and non-fiction books, and poetry.

Sing and act out the movements to The Bird Song. Sing it to the tune of Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.

This is the way we scratch for worms, scratch for worms, scratch for worms.
This is the way we scratch for worms so early in the morning.

This is the way we peck our food, peck our food, peck our food.
This is the way we peck our food so early in the morning.

This is the way we sit on our eggs, sit on our eggs, sit on our eggs.
This is the way we sit on our eggs so early in the morning.

This is the way we flap our wings, flap our wings, flap our wings.
This is the way we flap our wings so early in the morning.

This is the way we fly away, fly away

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities, including listening, swinging, finger plays, games, and performances.

Do the finger play Two Little Blackbirds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjv5Jwgsn7I

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Blocks

Add the cups to the center today. Show the children how to stack them upside down one on top of the edge of two to make a pyramid. Or to stack them bottom to top to bottom to top. Both of these building activities take patience and good hand-eye coordination.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Art

Make nests with playdough (Pinch pot). Can the children roll small balls to be the eggs?

Creative Arts/Art; progresses in abilities to create drawings, paintings, models, and other art creations that are more detailed, creative, or realistic. AND Physical Health & Development;Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, hammer.

If your school has a petty fund, make bagel bird feeders.

To make one bird feeder, you will need:
1 day old bagel, lard, birdseed, string or ribbon for hanging

Spread the lard on the bagel.
Roll the bagel in the birdseed. (Or you may place the bagel in a gallon sized zipper bag that contains birdseed; shake the bag to coat the bagel.)
Tie ribbon or string through the hole of the bagel to hang the bagel. One of the good things about this bird feeder is that the birds can eat the whole thing!

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

Sand and Water

In the sensory table add mud, bits of play dough, twigs, grasses, bits of yarn, thread, small pebbles, etc.. Explain to the children that today they are going to be birds and challenge them to build a nest. Give each child a pair of tweezers or tongs and explain that birds can only use their beaks (tweezers) and feet (hands) to build their nest.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Library and Writing

Add bird identification book to center. Encourage the children to learn the name of one or two familiar birds to your area.

Dramatic Play

Encourage the children to pretend to be birds. Bring in several boxes big enough for the children to be able to sit in. To your center add; pipe cleaner worms, plastic Easter eggs, beaks made from sentence strips.

Creative Arts/ Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Math and Manipulatives

Ahead of time, take pieces of pipecleaner and bend into worms. Think of size and /or colors that the children can sort by. Use tongs or tweezers to practice fine motor skills and pretend that you’re a bird gathering food with its beak! For older children you might try using colored feathers.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, hammer. AND Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; shows increasing ability to match, sort, put in a series, and regroup objects according to one or two attributes such as shape or size.

Outdoor Play

If you are lucky enough to have pine trees that drop their needles ,or do this activity in the fall when the leaves are dropping, have the children rake needles/leaves into a pile and then use to make a bird nest with them being the birds.

Creative Arts/ Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations. AND Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Transitions

Ahead of time cut out and hide egg shapes around the classroom. Let the children go on an egg hunt. Have the children count how many eggs they found within the allotted time.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; shows growing capacity to maintain concentration over time on a task, question, set of directions or interactions, despite distractions and interruptions.

Resources

Splash!, By Ann Jonas

This book offers a fun way to add and subtract objects one to ten

Materials

10 objects when dropped into water will make a small splash (small blocks, crayons,
Several sponges
10 paper plates with a number written on it 1-10
Stickers of pond animals or a bingo dauber

Vocabulary

Pond (a small body of water with different animals and plants that live in or beside it).
Habitat (environments or homes where different animals live)

Before Reading the Story

Talk about habitats (environments or homes where different kinds of animals live). Ask the children if they know who lives in a forest environment? A jungle environment? A desert environment? A pond environment? Tell them that today’s story is about animals that live in a pond environment. Introduce the story.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Reading the Story

Stop and count how many are in the pond on each page.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increasing ability to count in sequence to 10 and beyond.

After Reading the Story

Who can remember what happened to the dog in the story? Why do you think the cat was mad?

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story. AND Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs questions; and for other varied purposes.

Discovery

If you are fortunate to have a pond nearby, collect a large container (clean mayonnaise jar) of the water. Try to get some of the mud, scum, and any water insects. Put this into the center with magnifying glasses so the children can observe and talk about their observations. Encourage the children to draw their observations on paper. Dictate any observations/discussions that take place.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts.

Music and Movement

Play in the pond on the bank. Mark off an area large enough for all the children to be able to comfortably jump inside of. Use the edge of a carpet or chalk/tape to make a ‘pond’. Have all the children stand on the outside of the pond. Explain that they are on the bank (where the land meets the water). Tell them that when you say, “In the pond” everyone is to jump inside the area. Practice a couple of times saying “In the pond” or “On the bank”. The children jump accordingly. After they have gotten good, speed up your calling or call on the bank two times in a row, etc.. This is a listening game, can they follow the directions?

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

Teach the children the song, Swimming swimming in the swimming hole. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c15F0h0fyoo. Make motions to go with the song.

There’s a little white duck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y57RWhz76y8

Here is My Turtle…Finger play
Here is my turtle, ( Form fist and extend thumb.)
He lives in a shell. (Put thumb inside fist.)
He like his home
Very well. (Nod head) He pokes his head out (Pop out thumb.)
When he wants to eat. (Circle thumb around.)
And pulls it back in
When he wants to sleep. (Put thumb back inside fist)

1,2,3,4,5, (Hold up fingers as you count) I caught a fish alive (point to self) 6,7,8,9,10 (hold up fingers as you count) Then I threw him back again. (pretend to throw) What made you let him go? (shrug shoulders) Because he bit my finger so! (make a scowl face) Which finger did he bite? The little pinky on the right. (hold up right pinkie and kiss it)

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; chooses to participate in a variety of tasks and activities AND Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities, including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances.

Blocks

Tell the children that they can pretend to be frogs jumping from lily pad to lily pad today. Have them use the blocks to make a pond that goes around the edge of the center. Spread the paper plates marked 1-10 within the pond. Show the children how to jump from 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc. to 10. Mix the plates up in the center and begin again.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

Art

Paint with watercolors today.

Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Sand and Water

Fill the table with water and give the children objects that they can drop in. As they drop the items ask them to count for you. How many did you drop? Now drop one more, how many are in the water now?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Add items that will make a splash sound such as; watering can, water wheel and squirt bottles to the water table today. Can the children find any other items in the classroom that will make a splashing sound? Which one sounds louder? Why do you think that?

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Library and Writing

Help the children make a number chart today. Going down the left side of a piece of paper write the numbers 1-10. Give the children stickers to put the appropriate number beside each number. If you do not have stickers, use a bingo dauber or something similar.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Dramatic Play

Encourage the children to set the table for four, three, or two. Do they understand how many plates they need? Can they add all the utensils that are needed for setting a table? Do they know where to put the plate, cup, spoon, etc?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use language to compare numbers of objects with terms such as more, less, greater than, fewer, equal to.

Math and Manipulatives

Trace and cut out ten turtles. Color them green and number them one through ten. Cut out spots for on the turtle’s back and color them brown. Have the children add correct number of spots to turtles back.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Outdoor Play

Fill a bucket up with water and give the children sponges to throw at a target such as a large piece of cardboard or a hula hoop hung on the fence.

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; demonstrates increasing abilities to coordinate movements in throwing, catching, kicking, bouncing balls, and using a slide and swing.

Mud play. Have the children dig a hole in the ground and then add water. Let the children continue to make the hole bigger adding more water. After the hole is a good size, let them make mud pies!

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; participates actively in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise that enhance physical fitness. AND Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

Transitions

On a dry-erase board or a chalkboard write/draw 3 letters, 3 numbers, 3 shapes, and 3 words. Ask a child to come up and use a dry erase marker to circle a number, a letter, or a word. Continue giving each child a turn to circle a letter, a number, a shape, or a word. Were they able to tell which one was what?

Literacy/Print Awareness & Concepts; recognizes a word as a unit of print, or awareness that letters are grouped to form words, and that words are separated by spaces. AND Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; knows that letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named.