Ribbit Ribbit: The Pre-school Minnows Create Origami Frogs!

Project Title: Origami Frogs

Description: Teach students about frogs and their habitats.

Author: Mary Hager

Grade level or Target Age Range: Preschool

Vocabulary: frogs, origami.

Materials: Large construction paper (white), regular construction paper (green, pink, yellow), crayons, scissors, paper flies, and frog sound videos.

Anticipatory set:

Fun facts about frogs! We started by discussing the life cycle of a frog.

What do frogs eat? Flies! They have a special tongue that helps them catch their food (the kids loved this part and everyone rolled the end of their frog’s tongue).

We also discussed lily pads, the flowers that grow on them, and how frog float on them.

Lastly, we discussed the frog’s habitat!

Demo/Directions:

  • Pre-fold green pieces of paper into origami frogs so that younger students can easily find the creases in the paper while following directions.
  • Demonstrate how to fold an origami frog step by step with the students.
  •  Talk about a frog’s habitat and what we should include.  Have students draw water, lily pad, and any other details on white paper.
  •  Fold a pink piece of paper 4 times and have the students cut zigzags on one side of the square.  When they open the square they will find a pink lily! Once the lily is complete, glue it on top of the lily pad.
  •  Next I asked the students what sound a frog makes and they happily began to ribbit! To their surprise, I showed them a few videos of frog calls, which all sounded different! Someone even said that one sounded like a musical instrument. ( Frog sound 1Frog sound 2Frog sound 3)
  • To complete the project, we made rainmakers. Some frogs live in the rain forest and need lots of water.
    1. To make a rainmaker, every student was given a paper towel roll that was closed at one end with paper and tape.
    2. Next they each added a curled pipe cleaner inside the paper towel roll so that it would catch whatever goes inside.
    3. Then everyone put lots of rice inside and we closed the other end.
    4.  The kids loved this part because they were given the chance to dance around the room with their rainmakers!“Transforming Lives Through Art”

Ribbit,

Mary Hager