This is a great book written by Wendy Pfeffer and illustrated by Holy Keller (HarperCollins Publishers 1994). It is a concept picture book made for children grades k-2 with a readability lexile of ages 4-8.The books tells the story of frog pond and the life cycle of a bullfrog. The first page introduces frog pond in the winter. It asks, "where are the frogs?" The children can see that the frogs are hiding under the bottom of the pond. They are hibernating. As the seasons change, the frogs come up, hug each other and lay eggs. We then follow along as the eggs change into tadpoles and grow. At one point, the tadpoles look a lot like leaves that have fallen and lay on top of the water. The children can try to figure out which ones are leaves and which are tadpoles. The tadpoles spend a winter in hibernation and then turn into frogs the following spring.
This book has great pictures that bring to life the story. Most children are interested in nature and animals that change and grow. This book exposes children to the life cycle of a frog and shows them how it takes place in their environment through the seasons.
Literary Elements:
Onomatopoeia - The frogs "ba ra rooom."
The story uses repetition for effect: "They do not eat. They do not move. They do not sleep."
The author asks the reader a question to involve the child, "Where are the frogs now?"
Mini-lesson:
This story teaches a great science lesson. After reading and discussing, we could do some research on frogs and maybe create an interactive way to share it. We could do something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7l1itPMWc4. We could split into groups and work on finding some interesting information about frogs. Here is a blog about frogs: http://allaboutfrogsdotorg.blogspot.com/. Each group could share an interesting fact or information about a particular type of frog with the class.
The process-based plot of the text is really important as students start to notices cycles in the world (seasons, a plant growing, etc).
ReplyDeleteThe cross learning of science is valuable in the text also. Anytime you can get more knowledge out than what is on the surface is smart teaching and benefits the students.
I really like books that exoplain the life cycles of living creatures. I too think its important for students to know where living things come from conception till the end.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you could do a real life experiment in the classroom by planting a flower or plant and watching it go through its own life cycle. As the students notice different changes they could take pictures, draw, write, and end up writing their own book.
ReplyDeleteI like how you included so many different content areas in this one lesson. Nice job!