Pre-K Pond Animals Theme Unit

~ Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for learning about pond animals: frogs, turtles, fish. ~

Books

Rhymes

Turtle Fingerplay

This is my turtle.
(Make fist, extend thumb)
He lives in a shell.
(Hide thumb in fist)
He likes his home very well.
He pokes his head out when he wants to eat.
(Extend thumb)
And pulls it back when he wants to sleep.

Frog Fingerplay

Croak said the frog,
(Make croaking sound)
With his golden eyes.
(Fists up to eyes)
Sitting on a lily pad,
Catching flies.
(Grab air with hand)
I have a sticky tongue,
(With index finger make darting motion)
It's a FAST as can be.
I catch the mosquitoes, 1-2-3.

Songs

Amazon.com Widgets

A Little Duck song, by Mrs. Jones
The Alligator Chomp, by Jack Hartmann on the "Math All Around Me" CD

Activities

Turtle Crawl

[Large Motor]
Children crawl like a turtle with a "shell" (foam mat or carpet) on their backs, trying not to lose the shell.

Frog Hop

Large Motor
Children move from one point to another, hopping like a frog.

Hatch, Hatch, Little Egg

Large Motor
Several pond animals come from eggs. In this movement game, children curl up into a ball and pretend to be an egg. One child is tapped on the shoulder, and pretends to hatch and act like an animal they choose. That student taps the next child who hatches, then taps the next child, etc.

Sand Art

[Art]
Children drew a pond animal of their choice using a black ink pen to make the outline. They used a glue brush (inexpensive dollar store brush) to spread glue inside the outline and sprinkle on some colored art sand. They used their fingertips to pinch the sand and sprinkle it on, then shook the excess sand onto a paper plate.

The Lost Button

Literacy, Visual Discrimination
We read the story "The Lost Button" from Frog and Toad Are Friends, by Arnold Lobel. Each child had a set of buttons. While listening to the story, they eliminated the buttons that do not belong to Toad (for example, a button with two holes, or a square button). At the end, we found out which one belongs to Toad.

Story Retelling

[Literacy]
Choose a Pond-themed book that you would consider good literature (good characters, plot, beginning, middle, end, etc.) Show the book to the children and tell them to think about what happened in the story, and the people (characters) and places they saw in the story. Think about what each character said. Give each child a piece of paper and ask them to draw something they remember from the story. Remind them that this should not be a picture of their cat or their friends, but only pictures of things from the book. After each child has illustrated the story, have them retell the story in their own words. Either record each child with a voice recorder or write their dictation on the page.

Pond Animals Stamping Game

[Math, Literacy]
Write a letter or numeral on each frog/turtle/duck, and make a copy for each child. Children will draw a number or letter card from a stack (or roll a die), find that letter/numeral on their mat, and stamp it out. You can use rubber stamps or bingo daubers. As an alternative, you can have children draw an "X" over the frog/turtle/duck if stamps or bingo daubers are not available.

Turtle Game
Printable

Frog Game
Printable

Duck Game
Printable

Frog Jump

Math
Frogs can jump ten times their length. We laid ten frog cutouts end to end to see how far a frog can jump. Then, we compared our jumping distance to the frog's.

Froggy Slap

Math
The children worked in two teams, each team with a froggy fly swatter. They counted dots on a game card, found the number on a lily pad, and swatted the fly. The first team member that slapped the fly swatter on the correct fly earned a point for the team. Froggy fly swatters were bought at Big Lots. Lily pads were made with green craft foam sheets, with the bugs drawn on with a Sharpie.

Frog Patterns

Math
We used frog counters to make AB, AABB, and ABC patterns.

Lily-Pad Snack

Cooking
Ingredients for One:
1 spoonful soft cream cheese
blue food coloring
1/2 English muffin
3 cucumber slices
1 Gummy Frog
Tint soft cream cheese with blue food coloring. Peel and slice cucumbers into very thin rounds. Cut a wedge from each cucumber slice. Spread cream cheese on muffin. Place cucumbers and one gummy frog on the "pond".

Alphabet Sound Bingo

Literacy
We used turtle counters to cover the letters. The sounds of the letters were called, and children found the letter on the bingo card.

How Many Turtles Fit?

Math
Children used felt "logs" of various lengths, lined the turtle manipulatives across the log, and counted how many fit on the log.

Duck Grid Game

Math
Children rolled the die, identified the numeral, and counted out that amount of counters (chips, flat marbles, pennies, etc.) to put on the grid. The object of the game was to cover all of the ducks with a counter. Children can play alone or with other players.

Duck Feather Experiment

Science
Children coated one "feather" (cloth or felt cut in a feather shape) with Crisco and left the other uncoated. We dropped water on the uncoated feather and observed what happened, then did the same with the coated feather. We talked about why the water did not soak into one of the feathers, and how ducks coat their feathers with a waxy oil to help them swim. The book Ducks Don't Get Wet, by Augusta Goldin is a good book to read before doing this activity.
[Source: Science Made Simple, The Mailbox]

Alligator Skin

Art
Children made shades and tints of green paint by adding black, white, or brown paint to the green. Each child stirred a cup of paint, then all shared the colors. We added art sand to the paint as texture for the alligator's rough skin.

Gus the Alligator

Literacy, Science
We watched a National Geographic video called "Gus the Alligator", and discussed what we learned about alligators. We made a 4-page book about alligators:
Alligators eat ___.
Alligators live ___.
Alligators have ___.
Alligators can ___.
The blanks were filled in with the children's dictation (a fact about alligators they learned from the video), and the children drew a picture to illustrate.

Fish Tumble

Math
Children tossed foam fish (numbered 1-9) into the pond (blue felt), and arranged them in numerical order. The foam fish were bought in a package at a craft store.

Beginning Sounds

Literacy
Children matched a small toy pond animal to it's beginning letter (which is written on a plastic egg), and put the animal inside the egg. (F for frog and fish, T for turtle, D for duck, S for snake, A for Alligator, etc.)

Frog Grid Game

[Math]
To play a grid game, children roll a game die, identify the numeral and count out that amount of manipulatives. Each manipulative is placed over one picture in the grid. Children play until the whole grid is full. This grid game uses plastic frogs. Mine are from Big Lots. Plastic frogs can usually be found in dollar stores. You can also find the Safari Brand "Toobs" with small frogs from toy stores and hobby stores.

Frog Grid Game
10 Spaces

Frog Grid Game
20 Spaces

Counters: Plastic Frogs

Floor Graph

Math
Pond animals, such as frogs, flies and turtles were put in plastic eggs. Children chose an egg from a basket without knowing what was inside. At each child's turn, they opened the egg and placed it on the floor graph. We counted each group of animals and determined which had the most, least, and same.

Object Graphs

Math
Ice cube trays make great graphs that can be used with manipulatives. Children graphed two kinds pond animal manipulatives in the two columns of an ice cube tray. They counted each column and determined more/less/same. For example, 5 turtles and 3 frogs.

Aquarium Field Trip

Science
During a field trip to the aquarium, children looked for animals on the checklist and marked them off as they found them. The pictures can be marked with a crayon or a sticker dot.
Aquarium Checklist Printable

For the Science Center

Science
Live tadpoles
Live frog
Live turtle
(sometimes these can be borrowed from a student)

United Streaming Videos

Technology
"In the Small, Small Pond"
World of Nature: Beavers: Builders or Destroyers?"
"Angus and the Ducks"
"The Ugly Duckling"
"Frog, Where Are You?"