This week at Cart mill we have been reading the book “The teeny Weeny tadpole”. This got us discussing the life cycle of frogs.

The life cycle of frogs is a super interesting part of life. Our children have been so fascinated with the four different stages of the metamorphosis process.

We have been learning that the frog goes though four different stages of life. Starting with the female frog laying eggs. Once the egg hatches, the tadpole is born with a tail.  As the tadpole increases in size it begins to grow legs and arms and soon becomes a froglet. The last stage is when the froglet grows into and adult frog and no longer has a tail.

“This tadpoles has legs”

“mine has arms and legs it’s a froglet”

Though the small world play in our water tray the children have been exploring the different stages of life and the environment frogs live in. We started off by making the frogspawn which we added to the water with plants, pebbles, logs, flowers, frogs, tadpoles, froglets and other insects we would find living in and about a pond. The children have been so engaged in their play, discovering the tadpoles and froglets in the water. They have enjoyed comparing the different stages, putting them into order, building a habitat in and out of the water, lining up the frogs, creating frog family’s, splashing them into the water and most of all sharing their new found knowledge about the frogs life cycle.

We have also been very lucky to have a friend with a pond who has brought in some of their tadpoles for us to get a up close look. The tadpoles are around 5 weeks old and have started growing legs.

The children have been very curious about the tadpoles and have been asking lot of different questions.

“Where did they come from?”

“Are they real tadpoles?”

“When will they be frogs?”

Some of the children have also been busy coming up with some names.  So far we have Stormy, Bob, Keekey, Tommy, Boo-boo, Tingy, and Lady.

We hope the tadpoles come and visit again so so that we can see the change in them.🐸