Frog Craft for Kids
We were out by a creek last week looking for fun rocks with the kids and happened on a lot of spawning toads. The noise was deafening, and we enjoyed finding some giant tadpoles from last year skulking around the new egg strands being laid this spring. I’ve always loved finding tadpoles, and seeing them transform. At the end of summer each year we get an onslaught of tiny pinkie sized froglets hopping through my parents lawn heading for the lake down the hill.
I thought it would be fun to have a frog activity to do with my kids, and came up with a cute tongue-lolling froggie whose mouth pops open when you squeeze him on the sides.
I’m posting short directions on how to make the craft here, and you can also find video directions on my Youtube channel.
Supplies
You’ll need minimal supplies for this craft:
A printout of the frog found here. (Scroll past books to see it.)
Scissors
Glue stick
Optional- green pencil/marker
Directions
To start, cut out all the pieces for the frog from the paper. Do not cut dotted lines inside the frog squares.
Cut the four black lines inside the frog squares.
Flip the paper over and fold on all the dotted lines towards the inside.
Apply glue to all four corners.
Glue the cube together.
Add glue to the flaps, fold them in and glue down.
Optional: Color the backside of the eyes green to match the printed color.
Glue eyes to the back of the head.
Glue the frog to the base where the feet are.
Flip the pink tongue pieces over so white side is facing up, and put a bit of glue on one end. Glue the ends together in a L- shape / a 90 degree angle.
Flip the ends back and forth folding them into an accordion.
Glue the ends down so it doesn’t unravel. You can gently untwist the accordion to make it stretch longer.
Add glue to the bottom of the accordion, and glue it to the middle back of the frog-cube. (See where pencil is pointing)
To make the fly for your frog, rumple up the black rectangle of paper trying to keep most of the white side folded into the middle so only black is showing. Squeeze it to a tight wad.
Carefully glue the wings on. Once the glue has dried, fold the wings up to make a fly.
You can close the top and gently squeeze the sides of the frog to make the mouth pop open.
Enjoy feeding your hungry frog! If you want to expand on the activity, look up what frogs eat and make more food for it. You could also take green construction paper and cut a lily pad out for it, or create a habitat for it in a box. You can add learning as little or much as you want. Science for frog habitats, math for how many bugs it eats, or ask you kids to give their frog a name and write a short story for it.
If you have ideas on what would make this into a fun learning unit, leave them in the comments below.
Happy learning!
P.S. Here is a link for the frog download again if you missed it.
