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 draw a pond animal of their choice using a black ink pen to make the outline. They use a glue brush (inexpensive dollar store brush) to spread glue inside the outline and sprinkle on some colored art sand. They use their fingertips to pinch the sand and sprinkle it on, then shake 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 in the group has a set of buttons. While listening to the story, they eliminate the buttons that do not belong to Toad (for example, a button with two holes, or a square button). At the end, we find 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 dot markers. As an alternative, you can have children draw an "X" over the frog/turtle/duck if stamps or bingo dot markers are not available.

Turtle Game
Printable

Frog Game
Printable

Duck Game
Printable

Frog Jump

[Math]
Frogs can jump ten times their length. We lay ten frog cutouts end-to-end to see how far a frog can jump. Then, we compare our jumping distance to the frog's.

Froggy Slap

[Math]
The children work in two teams, each team with a froggy fly swatter. They count dots on a game card, find the number on a lily pad, and swat the fly. The first team member that slaps the fly swatter on the correct fly earns a point for the team. Froggy fly swatters are bought at Big Lots. Lily pads are made with green craft foam sheets, with the bugs drawn on with a Sharpie.

Frog Patterns

[Math]
We use frog counters to make AB, AABB, and ABC patterns.

Turtle Bingo

[Literacy or Math]
Use plastic turtle counters to cover the letter/number/shape on the bingo cards. We use these to play alphabet bingo, number bingo, shape bingo, or rhyming bingo.

How Many Turtles Fit?

[Math]
Children use felt "logs" of various lengths, line the turtle manipulatives across the log, and count how many fit on the log.

Gus the Alligator

[Literacy, Science]
We watch a National Geographic video called "Gus the Alligator", and discuss what we learn about alligators. We make a 4-page book about alligators:
Alligators eat ___.
Alligators live ___.
Alligators have ___.
Alligators can ___.
The blanks are filled in with the children's dictation (a fact about alligators they learned from the video), and the children draw a picture to illustrate.

Fish Tumble

[Math]
Children toss foam fish (numbered 1-9) into the pond (blue felt), and arrange them in numerical order. The foam fish were bought in a package at a craft store. (If these are not available in a package, you can make these by cutting a simple fish shape from craft foam.)

Beginning Sounds

[Literacy]
Children match a small toy pond animal to it's beginning letter (which is written on a plastic egg), and place 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 are put in plastic eggs. Children choose an egg from a basket without knowing what is inside. At each child's turn, they open the egg and place it on the floor graph. We count each group of animals and determine which had the most, least, and same.

Object Graphs

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

Aquarium Field Trip

[Science]
During a field trip to the aquarium, children look for animals on the checklist and mark 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)

Turtles in the Sensory Table

[Sensory Table]
Children used water with river rocks, aquarium grass, and plastic turtles for creative play.

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?"