Jump, Frog, Jump! by Robert Kalan

This is a build upon story. Older children will be able to follow along with the verse. In this story the frog is pursued by many predators who would like to eat him for lunch. How will he ever stay safe?

Materials

Flannel pieces/fly, fish, jumping frog, snake, turtle, basket, boy
Frogs numbered 1-10
Jump frog jump path/maze page
Frog cycle cards
Cornstarch packing noodles (ask your director to save all packing noodles that come with children’s materials and check to see if they are cornstarch based.
Small aquarium net or other small net like tool.
Tiddlywinks or poker chips

Vocabulary

Carnivore (one who eats meat or animals)

Before Reading the Story

Hold up a picture of a pond and ask the children if anyone knows what this is? Ask the children if any of them have ever been to visit a pond? Allow the children to share their pond experiences. What did you see at the pond? Did you hear any animal sounds? Tell them that your story today takes place at a pond. 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

As you read, put up the flannel board pieces so the children can recall the chorus lines of this story.

Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes. AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

After Reading the Story

Talk about the sequence of events. Why were the fish, the snake, and turtle chasing the frog? (They wanted to eat him). Tell the children that the fish, the snake, and the turtle were all carnivores because carnivores eat meat or animals. Ask them who else in the story was a carnivore? (the frog, he wanted to eat the fly. And the boys are carnivores too although I doubt they wanted to eat the frog).

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

Discovery

Bring in pictures of real frogs. Talk about the frog’s appearance. ( frogs have smooth skin, frogs have strong back legs so they can jump, A frog has big eyes that sit on top of his head, frogs have webbed feet to help them be better swimmers, frogs must live near water, a frog has a long sticky tongue to catch insects for lunch).

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

Make the frog cycle cards and encourage the children to put them into proper order.

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

Sing Mmm-ahh Went the Little Green Frog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwU3beZ9kcw

Mmm-ahhh went the little green frog one day

Mmm-ahh went the little green frog.

Mmm-ahh went the little green frog one day

And they all went went Mmm-ahh.

Language development/Speaking & Understanding; progresses in clarity of pronunciation and towards speaking in sentences of increasing length and grammatical complexity.

Make about 10 of the large frogs. Number them 1-10 and tape them to the floor touching front to back. Make a lily pad by cutting out a circle and tape it to the floor in front of the number one frog. Show the children how to do a standing long jump. Let them see how far they can jump on the frog measuring tape. Record their scores.

Mathematics/Patterns & measurement; shows progress in using standard and non-standard measures for length and area of objects.

Blocks

Ask the children to make a simple pond using the blocks. Then show them how to play tiddlywinks and flip the tiddlywink/chip into the pond. This takes practice to get the correct amount of pressure to fli[ the tiddlywink. (Put one tiddlywink/poker chip flat on the ground. Use the other to put pressure on the edge of the flattened one and pull back gently causing the flattened tiddlywink/poker chip to flip, hopefully 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. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Art

Show the children the cover of the book and how the turtle is hiding within the pond grass. Bring in cornstarch based packing noodles for the children to make 3 dimensional pond grass. Put out a bowl with a little water in it. Show the children how to dip the end of the noodle into the water (because it is a cornstarch base it will dissolve and the noodles will stick together). Show the children how to dip and stick their noodles together to make a 3 dimensional shape. When they are finished, let them dribble green paint over and it can be pond grass.

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

Give the children long thin pieces of paper that are cut out to resemble snakes. Let them use markers to decorate the snake. Encourage them to add a pattern like the snake in the book. (I have used unifix cubes to make patterns for the children to follow).

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; enhances abilities to recognize, duplicate, and extend patterns using a variety of materials.

Library and Writing

Make a copy of the Jump Frog Jump page. Cover it with contact paper and let the children use a washable marker to follow the frog’s path. When they are done they can wipe it off with a damp cloth for another child to use.

Literacy/Early Writing; experiments with a growing variety of writing tools and ,materials, such as pencils, crayons, and computer.

Sand and Water

Add any small pond animals that you might have to the water table. Put out Tupperware lids that the children can pretend are lily pads. Let them use a small aquarium net to try to catch the animals/fish. How many fish did you catch? How many frogs fit on the lilly pad?

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

Dramatic Play

Math and Manipulatives

Mark a frog pond onto the floor or use a hoolahoop. Mark a line about 5 feet from the pond. Give a child 5 beanbags to try to throw into the pond. (Tell the children that the beanbag is a pretend frog that must try to jump into the pond). How many ‘frogs’ made it into the pond? How many did not? For older children you can give them a piece of paper that they can graph their results (2 in and 3 out of the pond). Have the children take turns throwing the bean bags into the pond.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use language to compare numbers of objects with terms such as more, less, greater than, fewer, equal to. AND Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts.

Outdoor Play

Play leap frog with the children.

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 children go to the next activity sing or say; Tell the children to crouch down on their haunches and listen for when their name is called.

Jeepers creepers look at all those leapers.

Jeepers creepers look at ____jump.

(The child named jumps off and begin again with a different child)

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

Resources

May I Bring A Friend? By Beatrice Schenk De Regniers

A little boy is invited to tea with the king and queen. He does not want to come alone and asks if he may bring his friends. This fun story is told in rhyme.

Materials

Animal Graph (the graph pictures were copied from a 5 year olds art)
Large pitcher and several herbal tea bags such as peppermint or lemon
One sheet of yellow construction paper per child to make a giraffe

Vocabulary

Evaporate (vanish/disappear, as into the dry sand)
Zoo (a home where many wild animals live)

Introducing the Story

Ask the children if they have ever invited a friend over to their house for a meal or to play. Allow them a few minutes to talk about any experiences they might have had. If you do not get any responses, tell the children about a time you invited someone over for a meal. Steer the conversation towards friendship and how sharing time together is fun whether at school or at home.

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.

Reading the Story

On the pages where the boy says, “So I brought a friend”, pause and encourage the children to say it along with you. Then turn the page and see if the children can name the animal that the boy brought along.

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

After Reading the Story

Challenge the children to name all the animals that were in the story today. Ask them where all the animals might live? Ask if anyone has ever been to the zoo? Give the children a moment to talk about any zoo experiences that they have had. Make a graph of all the animals that were in the story today and ask each child which one is their favorite. Write their name under the animal picture and hang on the wall. Count the votes for each animal and write the number beside.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction and non-fiction books and poetry AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; Begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

Music and Movement

Sing your days of the week song with the children. If you do not have a song you sing, make up a chant and teach it to them.

Mon-day, Tues-day,

Wednes-day, Thurs-day, Fri-day.

Sat-ur-day, Sun-day

The days of the week

(clap out the syllables as you sing or chant)

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; shows growing ability to hear and discriminate separate syllables in words.

Put on some music and do animal walks. Jump like a kangaroo, lumber like an elephant, use your hands to pull you like a seal, jump around like a monkey, stand on one leg like a flamingo, gallop like a horse.

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

Discovery

Remind the children that on Sunday the King and Queen invited the boy to come for tea. Fill a large pitcher with water and add 4-6 herbal tea bags. Explain to the children that you are going to make sun-tea. Put the pitcher out, covered, somewhere where there is some sun and let the children watch as the tea infuses into the water changing the color. Give it an hour or two and then let the children sample.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; shows increased awareness and beginning understanding of changes in materials and cause-effect relationships.

Blocks

Add animals to the center today. Encourage the children to make cages/fences and sort the animals by like kinds.

Mathematics/Geometry & Operations; shows growth in matching, sorting, putting in series, and regrouping objects according to one or two attributes such as color, shape, or size.

Art

Tell the children that today you are going to make giraffes with long necks like the one that came for tea. Holding piece of construction paper the tall way, draw a line from top to bottom about 4 inches from the side. On the other part of the paper draw an oval. Let the children cut along the lines making a long strip and an oval. Show them how to attach the oval to the top of the strip, this is the giraffe’s head. Put out small plates of paint and show the children how to dip their finger and stamp up and down, up and down. These will become the spots of the giraffe. Have the children add a face with markers or paint.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer. AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multi-step directions.

Sand and Water

Ask the children if they can remember which animal in the story likes to swim in water most of the day (Seal). Tell the children they can be like the seals today and play in the water. Put out your favorite water table toys today and let the children enjoy playing in it.

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.

Library and Writing

On index cards, write the names of the children in your classroom, one per card. Encourage the children to find their name and their friends name and to practice writing them on their paper.

Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, to using, letter-like symbols, to copying or writing familiar words such as their own name.

Dramatic Play

Encourage the children to pretend to cook today. As they are playing, ask them, “May I bring a friend?” and allow another child who might be interested to join the play. Challenge them to think about what they need to do to make room for another child in the center. Do they need more chairs, plates, etc.? Let the center fill up with more children than are normally allowed to play. What do they need to do to accommodate any extra friends? Watch carefully if the center starts to get too crowded and encourage them to problem solve instead of fight. We only have 5 plates but there are 6 of you, what should we do? (When I have done this, I have had children volunteer to share a plate and chair and to also leave the center. I had one child suggest that she could eat out of a pan).

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; shows increasing abilities to use compromise and discussion in working, playing, and resolving conflicts with peers.

Math and Manipulatives

Use whatever classroom counters you might have. I use one-inch cubes to play. Ask the child to put 1-3 counters on the table. After they have done this, ask them to add one more. Then let the child count how many they have. Ask them to add one more and again count how many they have. Children who are able to count one more, you can ask them to add 2 more and when they get close to 10, ask them to take one away, now how many do you have?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increased abilities to combine, separate and name “how many” concrete objects.

Outdoor Play

Add some water to the sandbox today and let the children experiment using damp sand to make sand cakes. Watch their faces as the water evaporates into the dry sand. Explain to them that because the sand is dry, the water evaporates into it. Add more water and see what happens.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops increased ability to observe and discuss common properties, differences, and comparisons among objects and materials.

Transitions

If you line up to go anywhere, ask the children if they would like to call a friend to join them. When there is only one child left say, “Oh good, a friend for me” and let that child be in line with you.

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games or using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.

Dear Parents- Today we read a story about a boy and his friends. Ask your child who some of the boys friends were. Then ask them to tell you about who some of their friends are at school and what they enjoy doing together.

Resources

Raccoons and Ripe Corn, by Jim Arnosky

Materials

6 fresh ears of corn in the husk (sorry to make you go out and buy something extra)
5 paper plates
Several dish towels
Any small amount of leftover fruit from your breakfast or other food items
Raccoon masks
3 shoe boxes or empty toy bins

Vocabulary

Autumn (another name for fall time)
Corn silk (the hairs that grow at the top of the corncob)
Plump and ripe (fat and ready to eat)
Kits (raccoon children are called kits)
Feast (a special yummy dinner or meal)
Rows (lines)
Sneak (creep quietly so no one can hear)
Sunrise (just before the sun comes up in the sky and morning begins)
Nocturnal (animals that sleep during the day and come out at night)

Introducing the Story

Hold up the cover of the book and ask the children if anyone knows what kind of animal is on the cover. Ask the children to look carefully at the cover and if they can tell you anything about raccoons. Point out the leaves of the ground, what season do you think it is? Point out the stars in the sky, what time of day do you think it is? Point out the corn and read the title of the book. Ask the children why do you think the raccoons are in the corn garden?

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

Reading the Story

On the page where is says; “At night, a mother raccoon and her almost-grown kits sneak into the cornfield”, ask the children why they think the raccoons are sneaking into the corn?

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; grows in eagerness to learn about and discuss a growing range of topics, ideas, and tasks

After Reading the Story

Go back and do a second reading of the story but this time let the children tell the story as you turn the pages. You may have to lead the children through the story (what was falling down from the trees? What season does the story take place? Where does the story take place? What is happening to the silk of the corn? What does it mean when the silk turns brown? Continue letting the children tell the children with you using leading questions if necessary. What happened next? Who were the characters of the story? How do you think the farmer will feel when he finds his corn all laying on the ground? Why?

Music and Movement

Turn off the lights and play Raccoons Scat! On paper plates, write a letter on each that you are working with the children to recognize. Have the children form as large a circle large as possible in your space. Put the paper plates in the center. Tell the children that when you call their name, they are to pretend to be a raccoon and sneak into the center of the circle and find a letter that you name and pretend to be nibbling on it like a raccoon. Call 1-5 children at a time depending upon your group’s maturity. When all the raccoons are nibbling another child can pretend to be the farmer and yell, “raccoons scat!” The children crawl back quickly to the circle’s edge. Continue until everyone has a turn or the children grow tired of playing. Have each child wear a raccoon mask by coloring and stapling the provided copy to a sentence strip.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress in associating the names of letters with their shapes and sounds.

Discovery

Put the fresh ears of corn in the center today for the children to husk. Note the silk. Note how the kernels grow in rows.

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

Blocks

Encourage the children to make rows of blocks today. Can they make a pattern with their rows (tall, short, tall, short)? Can you make 3 rows? Can you make a long row and a short row?

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; enhances abilities to recognize, duplicate, and extend simple patterns using a variety of materials.

Art

Give each child a copy of the corn shape. Using stamp pads or tempera paint, show the children how to make kernels of corn by using their finger to print (up and down, up and down). Challenge them to put the kernels in rows like a real corncob. When they are finished, let them cut out green husk shapes to glue on the side of their corn print.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; enhances abilities to recognize, duplicate, and extend simple patterns using a variety of materials. Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Sand and Water

Tell the children that raccoons like to wash their food before eating it. Put any fruits or vegetables that you have in the dramatic play center into the table filled with water today. Let the children wash the fruits and vegetables and dry them with the dish towels.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth, and toileting.

Library and Writing

Bring in books or pictures of nocturnal animals for the children to look at and discuss.

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

Dramatic Play

Tell the children that raccoons are nocturnal which means they come out while people are normally sleeping. Encourage them to act out nighttime rituals today. You can add blankets or towels to be used for beds. Ask the children to tell you about some of their nighttime rituals and then encourage them to act them out. ( I brush my teeth in the sink, My big brother reads me books, I watch television, I put on my pajamas and jump on my bed).

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; progresses in understanding similarities and respecting differences among people such as genders, race, special needs, culture, language, and family structures.

Math and Manipulaties

Make a bean bag toss game by setting out shoe boxes or toy bins from a tape mark line on the floor. Place the boxes about a foot apart. Have the children take turns standing on the tapeline and throwing bean bags into the boxes/toy bins. I usually use 3 beanbags to start. The children can then tell you how many they got into the box and how many did not get into the box. As they tell you hold up you fingers and say, “yep that makes three”. (The child might say, “I got one bean bag into the box”, teacher holds up one finger on left hand. “I got two outside the box”, teacher holds up three fingers on right hand. Teacher says, “1-2-3, yep that makes three”. If a child miss counts, 2 in the box and 2 out of the box, have the child count again.

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

Outdoor Play

About an hour before the children go out to play, take your small amount of food scraps out to the playground and put it into a quiet area where you have seen ants in the past. When the children go out to play, draw them over to the food scraps. Have the ants found it yet? Have they begun to carry it back to their ant home? Did they choose one type of food over another? Encourage the children to observe the coming and going of the ants and to talk about what they are seeing.

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

Transitions

Tell the children that they are going to sneak to the next activity by tip toeing and being so quiet that no one will hear them. Send the children off using whispering voices.

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

Dear Parents- Today we read a book about raccoons who come out at night to feed. Take your child on an evening walk and see what creatures you might see, or hear, that are out and about after the sun sets.

Resources