Once Upon a Book: In The Small, Small Pond

In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming

Bible Verse

I didn't choose a specific verse for this one. Instead, we chose to talk about the Plague of Frogs that God sent to punish Pharoah when Moses was trying to free the Israelites from Egyptian captivity. These can be found in Exodus 7-12. One of our children's Bibles (The Beginner's Bible: Timeless Children's Stories) features the plague stories written on a preschool level.

Math

Prep: I cut out simple lily pad shapes (they looked like a green Pac-man) and labeled them 1-10. I also purchased a few packs of plastic frogs at the Dollar Tree. We used these to work on several math skills.

~ Counting Frogs on Lily Pads: Jonah counted out the correct number of frogs and placed them on the lily pads.

~ Frog Sort: Jonah sorted the frogs by color and placed each "frog family" on a lily pad.

~ Lily Pad Number Line: I mixed up the numbers and asked Jonah to place the lily pads on the floor in the correct order 1-10. We used a frog to count on the number line various ways.

 

I asked Jonah to make the frog "jump 2 times"  and we did some beginning skip counting. I pulled the numbers out of the line that he "skipped" (the odd numbers) and Jonah yelled out the number that he landed on. Once the odd numbers were out of the way, I had Jonah practice counting by 2's on the even numbers. We also started at 10 and counted backwards.

 

Language

~ Frog Jump ABC's: Much like Look, Jump, Letter Stomp, I wrote the ABC's with sidewalk chalk on the driveway and had Jonah pretend he was a frog. For added difficulty, I wrote random letters nearby so Jonah had to think about which letter was next.

Music

In the book there are a lot of words describing how the pond animals move. We played one of our favorite songs, Animal Action from the Greg & Steve CD "Kids in Motion". (If you want fun music for tots, Greg & Steve CD's are some of our favorites!)This got Jonah moving and thinking about how animals move. We talked about other animals from the book and acted out their movements.

Kids in Motion by Greg & Steve

We also sang "Five Little Speckled Frogs" alot! We used the plastic frogs to act out the song.

Five Little Speckled Frogs
FIVE little speckled frogs,
sat on a speckled log,
eating the most delicious bugs,
Yum! Yum!
One jumped into a pool,
where it was nice and cool,
Now there are FOUR green speckled frogs.
(Repeat and change the numbers appropriately)

I found this video on YouTube and we watched it a few times. Jonah enjoyed the animation. (As always, use caution when using YouTube with children and preview videos first!)

Snack

Instead of making "Ants on a Log", we made "Frogs on a Log". Same thing, different name. I had Jonah count out FIVE frogs (raisins) for his logs. To make "Frogs on a Log", take celery sticks and spread peanut butter in the concave. Place raisins on top of the peanut butter. Enjoy!

photo credit: Mitchell Bartlett via Flickr

Once Upon A Book ~ The Icky Sticky Frog

 The Icky Sticky Frog by Dawn Bentley

Summary and Bible Verse:  OK . . . time out for the Bible verse.  I was puzzled as to what verse to give to you in order to use The Icky Sticky Frog in such a way as to draw your child nearer the living truth in the Bible.  The Icky Sticky Frog is a simple book that shows the reality of the food chain that the Lord created.  However . . . discussing the food chain with a 2- or 3-year old would be a bit of a stretch.  A 4-year old would just begin to understand this concept.  But as I searched Scripture, the Lord led me to Scripture I have been studying in my own personal quiet times!   Turn to Matthew 6 . . . the great Sermon on the Mount. 

• Give us today our daily bread.  Matthew 6:11 – just as the frog waits for his food, so we can be content with what the Lord has graciously given us.  We don’t HAVE to have dessert with every meal.
• Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6: 19-21 – though the frog obviously is lacking in possessions  (unless you count lily pads), I did find myself wondering . . . does he only think about food?  Like my children often do?  Wondering if there is a bigger and better snack?  Additionally, this verse opens up a great opportunity to talk about how what we spend most of our time doing, reveals what is most important to us . . . what our treasure truly is.
• Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?  Matthew 6: 25-27 – remember that old song, “Don’t worry, be happy!”  Well, don’t worry . . . spend time with your child talking to God about things they are worried about.
• Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”  (Exodus 8:9) – if prayer can make frogs disappear than it can take sin away too!

Allow the rest of this post to be a dose of reality.  (Perhaps that is why I chose to focus on Scripture instead!)  When you read someone’s blog, filled with happy children doing marvelous activities well beyond their age . . . don’t you just wonder . . . wish . . . hope that you could do that in your home?  But alas you know it will fail?

Allow me -- little ‘ol Totally Tots writer -- who is supposed to have beautiful children who LOVE to read books and accomplish coordinating activities, give you a peak into my occasional reality.

I had a Tot who didn’t want to cooperate with The Icky Sticky Frog!  I’m going to blame it on the fact that we have been potty training. 

Counting Frogs

Supplies:

• frog notepad or frog printable from File Folder Fun
• dark marker
• scissors if you are using Valerie’s printable
• frogs (we used a toob of frogs)

Directions

• Decide what you are going to count to with your Tot.  We had 12 frogs so . . . we counted to 12.  As I wrote the number on the frog, I handed it to Gabe.

• My primary goal (s) in this activity was to have him repeat the number as I handed it to him and for him to begin to recognize the number. 
• After I had handed all of the numbers to him, his job was to place a “real” frog onto each piece of frog paper.  Simple.

If you have older children, involve them in Tot School by having them place the frogs in numerical order.  I ended up making over 30 frogs my eldest to count.

How Many Frogs on the Lily Pad?

Supplies

• frog stickers (or make your own)
• green construction paper with a lily pad drawn on it

Directions

• Increase those fine motor skills!  Most children *heart* stickers!  Give your child some frog stickers and see how many frogs can fit on one lily pad. 

• If they aren’t interested, try to have an older child entice them . . .

• Or better yet, take away the distracting {vacation} toys.

• You can expand this sticker activity to include graphing frogs and creating math problems.

  

 

Jumping

And if you know someone who happens to have a collection of frogs . . .

Then, have your Tot try out his/her jumping skills!  Pretend to be a frog and hop over other frogs or lily pads!

 

 Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!

Mommy Made Printables ~ Pond

We are excited to share some Pond printables for you to use with your tots as you explore together!

Pond Preschool Pack {from Homeschool Creations}

 

Pond Tot Book {from 1+1+1=1}

 

Tt is for Turtle {from Confessions of a Homeschooler}

Pond Activity Pack {from Confessions of a Homeschooler}

Frogs or Turtles Grid Game {from Mama Jenn}

 

Pond Printables {from 2 Teaching Mommies}

You can visit my Pond Theme pin board on Pinterest to see even more pond ideas I have found online!

Do you have any free POND printables YOU have created {and share}? If so, leave a link to your blog post in the comments below!

Once Upon a Book ~ Turtle Splash

Turtle Splash

by Cathryn Falwell

Summary: Enjoy a countdown at the pond as the ten turtles splash into the water one by one to settle in for the night!

Bible Verse: Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him Psalm 37:7a NASB

Literacy: We identified “t” for turtle and used the Turtle Magnet page from COAH along with our puff ball magnets!

Sorting: The boys had fun with the Turtle Size Sort from COAH!

Pattern Blocks: We used our Pattern Blocks along with the turtle pattern from PreKinders.

Game: The boys LOVED using the Turtle Grid Game along with our Education Cubes. We used the turtle counting insert cards in our cubes. They rolled the cube, counted the turtles on the cube and then covered the same number of turtles on their grid using their puff ball magnets. This is a fun way to work on counting and 1 to 1 correspondence!

Math: We made a few bottle top turtle stamps and created our own number cards! The boys rolled the Education Cubes, counted the turtles and then stamped the corresponding number of turtles. I labeled each of the cards with the correct number to complete our number cards.

Fine Motor: Then I punched holes in the turtle number cards we created and the boys added the appropriate number of links to each of the cards.

Patterning: The boys enjoyed stamping so much that I created a few stamped pattern cards for them to complete using two different shades of green ink.

Art: The boys loved coloring their Turtle Dot Puzzle. They colored each of the shapes with a dot in it to reveal the “hidden” turtle!

Craft: Create a fun bottle top turtle to play with!

Song/Finger Play: My Little Turtle (from Preschool Express)

This is my little turtle. (Make fist)
He lives alone in a shell.
He likes his little home.
He thinks it's really swell.

He pokes out his head (Poke out thumb)
When he wants to eat.
Then he pulls it back in. (Hide thumb in fist)
When he wants to sleep.

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!