Frogs across the curriculum

A Math Learning Center Publicationby Donna Burk & Allyn Snider illustrated by Tyson Smith Bridges Breakout Units Bugs Across the Curriculum Crossing the Pond: A Probability Game Explorin

Across the Curriculum

Excerpts From Bridges in Mathematics

©2001, The Math Learning Center

A Math Learning Center Publication

by Donna Burk & Allyn Snider

illustrated by Tyson Smith

Bridges Breakout Units

Bugs Across the Curriculum

Crossing the Pond: A Probability Game

Exploring Money: Adding, Counting, Sorting and Patterning

Exploring Time: Hours, Minutes and Paper Clocks

Frogs Across the Curriculum

Geometry: Pattern Blocks, Polydrons and Paper Quilts (Grade 1)

Geometry: Shapes, Symmetry, Area and Number (Grade 2)

Math Buckets: Sorting and Patterning

Math with a Sock: Probability and Fractions

My Little Farm: Money, Place Value and Mapping

Penguins: Measuring, Sorting, Computation and More

Sea Creatures Across the Curriculum

P0201

Copyright © 2001 by The Math Learning Center, PO Box 12929, Salem, Oregon 97309.Tel 800-575–8130 All rights reserved

The Math Learning Center grants permission to classroom teachers to reproduce

blackline masters in appropriate quantities for their classroom use

This project was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation Opinions expressedare those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation

Prepared for publication on Macintosh Desktop Publishing system

Science, Literacy, Art, Social Studies & Math Activities 1What Do You Know? What Do You Wonder? 1Eggs, Tadpoles & Frogs: Live Observation 2Eyes-On Experiences: Picture Walks 3Eyes-On Experiences: Creating a Frog Pictorial 4Minds-On Experiences: Songs, Poems & Books 4Did You Ever See a Frog? A Song About Frogs 5

Good Books About Frogs & Toads 8

Frog & Toad Eyes: Creating A Growing Pattern Chart 9

Counting by 2’s Chart: Mystery Numbers 11Frog & Toad Problems With the Counting By 2’s Chart 12

Making the Patchwork Quilt Blocks 13

Blackline Masters

Counting by 2’s mystery numbers sheet 1 17Counting by 2’s mystery numbers sheet 2 18

Frogs Across the Curriculum

These integrated activities are intended to enhance your use of the bucket offrogs, and may also be used as part of a larger unit on insects Manipulativesand materials included in the breakout are listed below

H Frog poems and songs*

*also included in Economy Breakout

Frogs & Toads Across the Curriculum

INTEGRATED THEMES

Science, Literacy, Art, Social Studies & Math Activities

What Do You Know? What Do You Wonder?

As you introduce this new theme, it’s important to acknowledge children’s

previous experiences You might open your study of frogs and toads by

ask-ing students what they already know about these animals As the discussion

unfolds, questions may arise, which you can record, along with the

informa-tion children share, in simple chart form An alternative to this opening is to

begin with a more focused set of questions: Where do frogs live? What do

they eat? How do they have babies? and so on Here again, you can record

children’s ideas in chart form

What do you know? What do you wonder?

They have long back legs.

They can jump

They have big eyes.

They eat bugs and slugs.

They have big mouths.

They like water.

Some are in the pond at

the park.

Questions about frogs and toads?

Where do they live?

What do they eat?

How do they have babies?

What do they do in the winter?

Do they all look alike?

Frogs and Toads

Do they have noses?

Do they have ears?

How can they breathe underwater?

How do they have babies?

or

Children’s answers to our questions often generate new paths of inquiry As

these come up, we turn them into “question bubbles.” Displayed on the wall,

these questions provide a focus for further research We often review them

Overview

The study of frogs and toads is a

fasci-nating topic, and you might make it an

integral part of your curriculum sometime

during the spring Following is a

collec-tion of ideas we’ve used in our own

classrooms to extend learning about

frogs into the rest of our program These

ideas bring science, literacy, math, and

art together in a variety of projects Plan

to incorporate these ideas into other

parts of your day over 2 or 3 weeks

before we read a new book, watch a video, look at pictures, take a field trip,

or bring in live specimens This helps youngsters listen and watch for mation that will provide answers and confirm or correct the informationthey’ve already volunteered (For this reason, we record at the beginning ofthe study any student misinformation as well as things we know to be trueabout frogs and toads.)

infor-Once you’ve taken time for children to share what they already know and tobegin to generate some questions, you’re ready to start gathering information

Eggs, Tadpoles & Frogs Live Observation

You might consider gathering a few tadpoles and setting up a classroom rarium with pond water and plants You’ll need fish food, lettuce, and a rock forthem to climb as they begin to develop into frogs (Be careful not to get bullfrog

ter-tadpoles—they take a very long time to turn into frogs.) Be sure to return the

new froglets as soon as possible to the area where they were captured

To support this live-observation, you might also run copies of the phosis poem (see Blacklines 11–16) to turn into a wall chart, a big book or a

Metamor-“circle of life” display, in which the words and drawings shown below aremounted on butcher paper (folded lengthwise) and formed into a cylinder

Blackline I 2.20

METAMORPHOSIS

Written by Donna Burk

Art by Tyson Smith

© 2000, The Math Learning Center

Little tadpoles wriggling out of jelly,

Use their tails to swim around

to fill their little bellies.

They develop lungs

and grow hind legs,

Eyes-On Experiences Picture Walks

We like to set up picture walks in our classrooms These provide children with

opportunities to learn about a particular topic by studying illustrations and

photographs To set up a picture walk, we lay out a large photograph or two at

each table and set up clotheslines of pictures tied across a couple areas of the

room We’ve been able to find some calendars that feature large, beautifully

colored photos of frogs (We usually wait until after the new year to find

some on sale, and have been able to build up intriguing photo collections

over a couple of years.) We’ve also scanned pictures from books and set out

the books themselves

It’s exciting to start the day with the picture walk ready for viewing If we’veposted some of the students’ questions, we review them before we launch thepicture walk Then we send children out in small groups or pairs to study thepictures carefully Our challenge to youngsters is to gather information withtheir eyes We let them know that if they’re very attentive to detail, theymight find out more about what frogs eat, where they live, how they behave,how they make their special sounds, how their feet differ, and what their ba-bies look like We start with a formal rotation, but as interest wanes, we en-courage everyone to be sure they’ve seen every picture To wrap things up,

we conduct a discussion about things they learned

H black yarn

A pictorial is a labeled diagram Creating one can introduce more informationabout frogs or to encourage children to collect facts from other sources Afteryou prepare the drawing on butcher paper and post it where everyone caneasily see it, there are several ways to handle the labeling process:

• Show-and-tell about each of the parts you’ll be labeling and ask for students’help spelling the words

• Print labels and ask for students’ help in figuring out where each of themshould be placed (In this case, you may want to string yarn from the label tothe proper body part If the work is posted low enough, children like mixing

up the labels and then using push pins to set everything back in place.)

• Post the drawing and ask children to look at your collection of books over acouple of days to find information about frog bodies that would produce in-teresting labels This display is particularly charming and engaging whenchildren print some or all of the labels themselves

Minds-On Experiences Songs, Poems & Books

Songs, poems, and books (fiction and nonfiction) add another dimension toany study There have been many excellent books about frogs and toads pub-lished for young children over the past two decades The best of them are

simply written and beautifully illustrated with full-color photos We’ve included

a list of our current favorites on page 8 You may find some of these in your

school library or in the public library, along with others we haven’t listed

The most recent publications can also be ordered through Web booksellers

Did You Ever See a Frog? A Song About Frogs

Having lived through the frustration of not being able to find (or afford) good

factual books for our students, we’ve also included a frog song

Did you ever see a frog, a frog, a frog,

Did you ever see a frog with long

Did You Ever See a Frog?

(to the tune of “Did You Ever See a Lassie?”)

You’ll find this song printed on 11″ × 17″ sheets, which can either be bound to

make a big book, or backed on construction or butcher paper to make a wall

chart Did You Ever See a Frog? packs a lot of data into a small package, and

is easy to come back to several days in a row It does triple duty in our

class-rooms, setting foundations for children to approach some of the math lessons

with greater depth and investment, teaching science content and research

skills, and providing yet another source of literacy learning

Guided Writing

Once you’ve launched any sort of animal study, you’ll find that children

of-ten report some relevant news If your community is in an area that has a

pond or creek nearby, children may be able to find tadpoles or spot a frog or

two on a family outing If you occasionally write class news after children

have shared an experience, guide them in synthesizing the information into

short articles, one or two a week

3/20 Class News

If your mom ordad takes you tothe pond at thepark, you can findeggs in the water

There are tinytadpoles too

3/21 Class News

Dan found a toad

in his grandma’sgarden He held it

It was slipperyand gooey

Interactive Writing

Once your study is well underway, encourage children to express some of thenew things they’re learning about frogs and toads If your class has found someinteresting information about frogs or answered some of their own questions,you might conduct a bit of interactive writing In this sort of lesson the groupand the teacher help with the ideas and spelling as students (and the teacher)take turns writing the words This works particularly well when children are ex-cited about the topic and the amount of writing is held to a sentence or two Besure to post these short pieces beside questions that have been answered ornext to the pictures or books from which the information has been drawn

Independent Writing

You’re probably noticing that more independent writing is emerging fromyour students A word bank is often helpful in supporting these efforts Suchbanks are most effective when the words are brainstormed with the children

We ask for their help in spelling

What are they doing?

croaking hibernating catching bugs leaping swimming sitting

in a garden under a rock

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Pocket Chart Poetry

You’ll need

H Ambush!, Eggs, and Hibernation

pocket chart poems (Blacklines

1–10, run on cardstock and cut apart)

H pocket chart

Many young children delight in simple poems We’ve included blacklines to

help you produce three poems, and we certainly encourage you to create

oth-ers If you can find or draw pictures to match, all the better Once children

are familiar with these poems, they love mixing the words up, one line at a

time, reading it the mixed-up way, and then trying to fix it.

Hibernation Winter frog, Chilly frog,

pass before you It’s time for you

wake,

to sleep.

mud in

Months will

In our classrooms, we display one poem at a time for several days, getting all

the learning mileage out of it that we can As interest fades, we replace it with

another The possibilities for teaching beginning reading strategies with these

po-ems are endless as children search for words that rhyme or words that start or

end with a particular letter or cluster, or locate words the teacher names

Words to Other Pocket Chart Poems

Ambush!

Wet and slimy,

Dry or warty,

“Bug detector” eyes,

Wide mouth opens,

Long tongue flashes,

Watch out flies!

EggsSpring frog,Noisy frog,Make a special sound

Find your mate,Eggs she’ll lay,Thousands, oh, so round

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Good Books About Frogs & Toads

• Back, Christine and Barrie Watts Tadpole and Frog Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Stopwatch Books, Silver Burdette Company, 1986

• Brown, Ruth Toad New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc., 1996.

• Chinery, Michael Life Story, Frog Mahwah, NJ: Troll Associates, 1991.

• Gibbons, Gail Frogs New York, NY: Holiday House, 1993.

• Heller, Ruth How to Hide a Meadow Frog & Other Amphibians New York,

NY: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, 1995

• Henwood, Chris Keeping Minibeasts, Frogs London and New York, NY:

Watts Books, 1988

• Lane, Margaret The Frog New York, NY: Puffin Pied Piper Books, 1981.

• Parker, Steve Frogs and Toads London, England: Oxford University Press, 1992.

• Pfeffer, Wendy From Tadpole to Frog New York, NY: Harper Collins

Pub-lishers, 1994

• Soutter-Perrot Toad Italy: American Education Publishing, 1993.

• Robinson, Fay Fantastic Frogs New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc., 1999.

• Wallace, Karen Tale of a Tadpole New York, NY: DK Publishing, Inc., 1998.

Counting By 2’s Chart

INTEGRATED THEMES

Frog & Toad Eyes Creating A Growing Pattern Chart

Creating a chart (see page 11) provides children with opportunities to revisit

what they’ve learned during your frog study, while enabling you to pose new

challenges This particular growing pattern chart begins with making a

con-struction paper frog or a toad, and usually takes 3 or 4 days (sometimes longer)

to complete Once the chart is finished, you can use it to pose additional math

problems over a period of several weeks

Making the Frogs & Toads

You’ll need

H 6″ × 6″ white squares (1 per child)

H 5″ × 5″ brown and green squares

(cut 20 of each)

H 2″ × 2″ white squares (2 per child)

H 1″ × 1″ black squares (2 per child)

H pencils, crayons, scissors, and glue

for children to share

H two 5′ lengths of 3′ wide butcher

paper (Place the 2 lengths side by

side and glue them together to form

a sheet 5′ long and about 6′ wide.)

Gather children into a circle where they can watch as you work, and show

them how to use the green or brown paper, in combination with the small

black and white squares, to create a simple paper frog or toad When finished,

each frog or toad should be glued to a 6″ square of white construction paper

Teacher I’ll need to start by drawing an outline of a frog’s body on my

paper If I did not know what shape a frog is, how could I find out?

Children Look in a book Look at the pictures on the wall.

Ask someone to help.

Teacher Then I need to cut my frog out and use the white and black

paper to make eyes and eyeballs, like this:

Teacher Now I’ll glue the eyes on and use a black crayon to make the

frog’s mouth like this:

Teacher The last thing I’m going to do is glue my frog to a square of

white paper like this and put my name on the back.

You’ll need 15, 21, 28, or 36 frogs in order to complete a triangular ment so you may need to ask a few students to make an extra

arrange-Assembling the Triangular Arrangement

Once the frogs are finished and dried, gather your students into the sion area and call on children to assemble the frogs, one row at a time into atriangular arrangement As each row is complete, ask children how many frogsare in the row How many will be in the next row? How many eyes are in therow? How many eyes will be in the next row? How are they figuring it out?

discus-Creating Number Labels for the Chart

Solicit children’s help to label each row How many frogs are in each row?How many eyes?

What Do Children Notice About the Chart?

Another day, after the chart is assembled, ask children what they notice andrecord their observations on talking bubbles (These can either be written onthe spot or typed in large print and glued onto the chart for another day.)Come back to these a third day to read each observation aloud and ask stu-dents to determine where the child who volunteered the comment saw thatinformation

Writing Numbers and Counting by 2’s

Write the counting numbers across the bottom of the chart to 20 and havechildren help you circle the counting by 2’s numbers Be sure to help themrelate this counting pattern to the frogs’ eyes on the chart

Frog and Toad Eyes

It’s like a half sandwich when your grandma cuts

it in triangles.

Up and down, it’s shrinking

by 1 every time.

The frogs go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, but the eyes go 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and keep on going and going.

There are

42 eyes altogether.

If you look at the rows, it has 2 more eyes every time.

If you look at the rows, it has 1 more frog each time.

There are 21 altogether.

Counting by 2’s Chart Mystery Numbers

You’ll need

H Counting by 2’s: mystery numbers

sheets 1–2 (Blacklines 17–18, run a

copy of each sheet and glue them

side by side to the Frog & Toad

Eyes chart.)

First, ask children what they notice about the number sheets you’ve glued to

the Frog & Toad Eyes chart Once they’ve made some observations, point to

various boxes on the sheets and ask what number would go into a particular

blank square

Frog & Toad Problems With the Counting By 2’s Chart

After the Frog & Toad Eyes chart has been up for a time, gather your studentsaround it and pose some problems such as the ones below

There were 3 frogs sitting on a log How many “bug detector” eyeswere searching for food?

There were 10 “bug detector” eyes searching for the slightest ment How many toads?

move-If we made some more frogs and toads and used them to create other row on our chart, how many frogs and toads would there be

an-in that row? How many eyes would they have? How do you know?

Another Frog Project

INTEGRATED THEMES

A Double Irish Chain Frog Quilt

Making a class quilt is always fun, and the wonder of watching it all come

to-gether as the product of community effort is exciting We’ve chosen the

Double Irish Chain pattern for this quilt because of the many mathematical

observations children can make as they study the finished quilt Plan on 3 or

4 days from start to finish for this project and then display the quilt for

every-one to enjoy If it’s your turn to decorate the office or the library, a quilt or a

growing number pattern chart will let visitors know how many ways your

children are experiencing mathematics

Making the Patchwork Quilt Blocks

Each student will need

H Double Irish Chain quilt block

(Blackline 19, run a class set)

H 4 squares 11⁄2″ × 11⁄2″ black

Note If you set the colored squares

out in baskets or trays at each table, children can count the squares they need as they’re ready for each color.

Make extra squares in case a group

runs out of one or more of the colors.

Gather your students into a circle or a “U” in the discussion area where all of

them can see your copy of the quilt block Show them the key at the bottom

of the sheet and explain that everyone will need to use the same colors as

shown in the key so that this quilt will be their best one yet Have them help

you count how many white squares you’ll need Place drops of glue in the

corners of all the white squares on the quilt block sheet and quickly attach

the construction paper squares to the paper Repeat the process with the black,

and then the green squares Hang your finished quilt block where everyone

can see it and then send children out to begin their own work As students

are finishing, have them check to be sure all their paper squares have been

glued in the correct places and are securely attached to the paper Ask

young-sters to put their names on their papers and set them in a specific location to

dry You’ll need to write children’s names directly on their blocks afterthey’ve dried and then trim away the margins with a paper cutter Save theseuntil the Setting Blocks are finished and trimmed as well.

Making the Frog Setting BlocksEach child will need

H Frog Setting Block (Blackline 20)

H 4 squares 11⁄2″ × 11⁄2″ black tion paper

construc-The next day, gather children to your discussion circle and show them a copy

of the setting block sheet Explain that they’ll need to draw and brightly color

a picture of a frog in the center of the setting block and then glue four blacksquares into the corners As you discuss the task, take a look at some of thesimpler illustrations and photographs of frogs you have on hand Ask chil-dren to use these to help in making pictures of frogs or toads that are accu-rate in shape and color Once they understand the task, send them out towork When their setting blocks are finished, have students put their names

on the sheets and set them aside to dry Once dry, you’ll need to writechildren’s names directly on their setting blocks and trim the blocks with apaper cutter so they’ll be ready to assemble tomorrow

an ABAB pattern and will need an odd number of blocks in each row and an

odd number of rows The 4 corners will also need to be the same If you don’t

have the correct number of blocks to create a quilt as described above, you

might consider making one large quilt and a smaller one or two to give as gifts

to someone special

Quilt Observations

Once the quilt is assembled and glued, ask children what they notice and

record their observations in large print Post their comments beside the quilt

to create an impressive display

It’s another pattern too: quilt block,frog, quilt block, frog, quilt block

If you count the quilt blocks

and the frogs there are 49

It’s a pattern: 3 frogs, 4 frogs, 3

frogs, 4 frogs, 3 frogs, 4 frogs

There are

24 frogs

There are lots of diagonal lines

It makes some big X’s with 5 quiltblocks and 4 frogs going around

If you count the frogs’ eyes there are 48.

There are 25quilt blocks

Ambush! Wet and slimy, Dr

detector” eyes, Wide mouth opens,

Long tongue flashes, Watch out flies!