Frogs/Pond

We try to do a generic pond/swamp story time, but there are so many books that feature frogs, that's pretty much what it turns into. Remember when everyone was crazy about frogs back in the day?  Partially due to those Peace Frogs shirts. Was it just a thing then?

Frog in a Bog by Karma Wilson. I won't get into this too much, since I talked about it in my favorite authors/illustrators post. This is a good counting book to use, though as I'll mention later on, I also do 5 Little Speckled Frogs as a fingerplay, so it's not necessary to have a counting book.

Froggie Went A-Courting by Marjorie Priceman. Yes, this is like the old song, but now it's set in NYC! I have to admit, I'm not as familiar with the old one, so I'm not sure if there's a bigoted aunt with machinations to break the couple up, only to have them backfire on her.  If there aren't, well this one has it.  Sometimes I have to kinda lead the children through inferring what happened, even though it does say "Though cat ate rat, there's no denial, Aunt Rat at last made someone smile", I think I sing it too fast for them to catch. Yes, another singing book.  Because if I didn't sing this book, I think it might be a little long for my kids to listen to.  This way though? They love it.

Green Wilma by Tedd Arnold. Wilma wakes up a frog one morning.  All sorts of crazy things happen at home and at school that day. She sees a fly during story time and starts chasing it through the school and out to Miller's pond. She catches it, lands in the water, and then wakes up to realize she was dreaming.  The book ends with the best line "Then she recalled the words they teach to every little frog, 'That when you dream, be careful that you don't fall off the log'".

Big Frog Can't Fit In by Mo Willems.  OMG! How could I forget this book in my last post?! Maybe subconsciously I was saving it just for this.  This is a really cute pop-up book about a frog that is too big to fit in the book. She is really sad, and then her friends get together and make the book bigger.  It's really short, but you know what? Sometimes you need something really short and attention-grabbing to help break things up.  This book is perfect for that.

The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner. This book is my piece de resistance of this theme. I'd seen my predecessor do this just through storytelling - no book, so I'd gotten tips on how to do it right. It's fine to just read the book as is. There are great pop-ups and illustrations that help tell the story.  However, to really do it justice, you gotta also BE the wide-mouthed frog. So while you read what the frog says, you have to try to open up your mouth as wide as possible, and when the gator comes says it eats wide-mouthed frogs, you have to try to make your mouth as small as possible too. Apparently there is a song/musical version of this story that some of my daycares use, and they want to do that, but I tell stories my way.

Other good stories:

Jump Frog Jump by Robert Kalan. We use this for our baby story time and have the parents pick the babies up whenever we say "Jump, frog, jump!". You could have kids jump during that part.

Stick by Steve Breen. A little frog goes on an adventure while trying to eat a dragonfly.

I Don't Want to Be a Frog by Dev Petty. A little frog declares he doesn't want to be a frog. He goes on to list all these animals he wants to be, and his parents gives reasons why he can't be that. Then he realizes why it's a good idea to be a frog.

Five Little Speckled Frogs

I love this fingerplay, but man, it seems like EVERYONE has a slightly different version of it.  Here's the one that I do.

5 little speckled frogs, 

sitting on a hollow log, 

eating some most delicious bugs (yum, yum), 

1 jumped into the pool,

where it was nice and cool, 

now there are 4 little speckled frogs (glub, glub)

and then you countdown and so on.

The variation? Green and speckled frogs. Speckled log. Eating their most delicious lunch (munch, munch). I'm sure there are more, those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  However you do it, it's right!  Sometimes I ask the daycares ahead of time what version they do, sometimes I just plow ahead with my own and the kids sing their own words anyway.