Today, I’m going to share a lesson on the life cycle of a frog in a backyard pond. I mainly used the Montessori Approach for teaching this unit.
FROG LIFE CYCLE LESSON PLAN
Title: Life Cycle of a Frog
Objective: Students will be able to explore the life cycle of a frog.
Age Group: Preschool
Materials: Frog Life Cycle Safari Toob, life cycle cards (link below), Tadpole to Frog book
Have you heard of Safari toobs? You probably have seen it online or in a craft store. There are several kinds of toobs available, ranging from animals to landmarks. These toobs bring learning to life and engages the child in sensorial ways.
Next, I printed the life cycle cards from https://montessori123.com/pages/free-materials. I am so grateful for these free Montessori resources. The cards explain the terms and the process using real photographs of the life cycle. I love using this method to enrich the children’s vocabulary. The 3 part cards consist of a card with an object with its name, a card with a picture, and a small card with a label. For a 3 year old, a simple matching of the object and label card to the picture card is sufficient.
Procedure:
This is how I presented the 3 part cards to my son.
First, show the cards with the object and its name (cards in the top row in the picture below).
- “Today we’re going to review the life cycle of a frog. Show the picture with the eggs/frog spawn. “These are the eggs of a frog.” “Frogs lay eggs in moist places”
- Tadpole picture – “The eggs hatch into tadpoles. Baby frogs are called tadpoles and breathes through gills”
- Hind leg picture – “This is a tadpole with hind legs”
- Froglet picture – “The tadpole goes through metamorphosis and becomes a froglet. It also starts to develop lungs.”
- Frog picture – “It has become an adult frog.” “The frog is an amphibian; it lives in water and on land.”
Note: You can keep it simple by just pointing out the terminologies on the card or as elaborate as you want depending on the child.
- Next, the child, matches up the picture cards and then the labels. My son chose to do it vertically but usually it’s matched right next to the object & label card. You can review by asking the child to point to the froglet or the tadpole with hind legs etc.
These Montessori cards also include the definition cards and description cards (blank) which are great for Elementary children.
I keep these in a tray on a shelf where it’s easily accessible for the boys to work on anytime.
Conclusion: After explaining the life cycle, we read this simple, book, From Tadpole to Frog by Scholastic.
Here are some of the other books we read:
In the Pond by Anna Milbourne and Mat Russell
Frog and Toad
Frogs by Nic Bishop
