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Year of the Frog
Frog Activities, Outings and Crafts for Toddlers and Preschoolers
By Beth Hering
What better way to celebrate springtime than to leap into some toddler-friendly activities in honor of National Frog Month. Here are some ideas to get everyone hopping as the weather warms up, plus plenty of fun ways to entertain young frog lovers when April showers keep them indoors.
Outside Fun
- Many frogs can jump as far as 10 times their body length. Ask your child if he thinks he could do that. Measure the child's height, and then put a rock at a distance that is 10 times that measurement. Let your little frog make his greatest attempts to jump to the marker. (Chances are you'll both come away with a new appreciation of just how far frogs can jump.)
- See how many leaps it takes to play a game of leap frog across the whole backyard. Or divide into teams and race to be the first group of frogs to leap frog past the finish line.
- Put new twists on classic backyard games. "Duck, Duck, Goose" can become "Frog, Frog, Toad," with a player who is tagged sent to the "lily pad" in the center of the circle. Instead of "Monkey in the Middle," try "Froggy in the Middle." One player is a hungry frog in the middle who tries to capture his "lunch" as two players on opposite sides throw a beanbag or ball over his head.
Inside Fun
- Go frog hunting on the Internet. See pictures of real frogs and compare the sounds each make at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology's Animal Diversity Web (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/topics/frogCalls.html). Print out pictures of frogs to color from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (www.pca.state.mn.us/kids/frogscolor.html) and Frogland (http://allaboutfrogs.org/funstuff/colorme.html). Check out the Houston Zoo's "all frogs all the time" mini-site at www.houstonzoo.org.