S.O.L. Train: Moments That Count in the Classroom: Paper Plate Frog: A Kids Make-It-Your-Own Craft

Well hello there!

Spring is the time of year when we learn about plants and animals. You may be in the process of learning about life cycles of animals. For Fun Friday, we've decided to share this little gem with you. This paper plate frog kid craft is just perfect as an addition to any unit on animal life cycles. It has a writing component and provides lots of room for individual creativity. There's even a FREE download in this post to use in your classroom! We apologize for the limited number of pictures. Pam got really excited doing this activity with her students and didn't take as many as usual. Let's get started:

Materials:

Paper plate frog printout
Green construction paper(optional)
Cardstock(optional)
Writing paper
Crayons, colored pencils, or other coloring medium
Scissors
Glue
Dinner size paper plates

Step 1:

Talk about the frog life cycle. You may even want to read your students our Life Cycles book to familiarize themselves with the various life stages of a frog. This book is awesome because it includes a piggy back song to help students learn about butterfly and frog life cycles. It is part of our May Daily Concept Builders™ Book Bundle.

The first thing Pam's students do is cut their black and white copies out after Pam has read and sung the words from her book that is in color.

Then they highlight the words from our May calendar each day that are about the life cycle of the butterfly and frog.

They love to pull their books from their baskets and read and sing together.

Then Pam's students answer the questions that are in the back of their books.

Pam also wanted to share some of the great writing her students are doing using the words from our May Word of the Day calendar.

The students also have a sight word each day to go along with their calendar word so that is why the students also highlighted "own."

Pam loves the way her kids think! She said that this little guy put a x on the butterfly because he doesn't own a butterfly. He owns a cat:)

Here is the calendar if y'all want to check it out.

Once you've discussed the life cycle of a frog, distribute the paper plates and printout to your students. Have them color the paper plate, feet, and mouth the color they would like for their frogs. Green or brown is acceptable. Pam's class colored the pieces, but you can also create stencils out of cardstock and have students trace onto construction paper.

Step 2:

Allow your students to decorate the eyes and mouth however they please. Some of Pam's girls decided to add eyelashes to their eyes. Some colored the eyes. Some mouths had lipstick. Other students drew tongues. This is a great opportunity for students to explore their individual style.

Step 3:

Pam copied the "head" on green tagboard. Y'all could also just have students color the head green, and cut it out, or trace it. Have them cut it out and glue to the top of the paper plate.

Step 4:

Have your students cut out the eyes and mouth and glue them to the head and body. Diagram below:

The arrow is pointing to the head that was printed on green tagboard.

Step 5:

Here again you have a choice. Students can cut out the feet, then cut along the dotted lines to make toes, or choose not to cut the toes. If you want to get really fancy, you can add tissue paper in between the toes to make webbing. The sky is the limit! Once they've cut out the feet, have them glue to either side of the paper plate. Diagram below:

Step 6:

As always, the final step is writing about our frogs! Some students chose to include the life cycle, while some wrote about their individual frogs. Others even gave names to their frogs. You can decide which is the best course for your kiddos based on skill level. Pam's students illustrated their writing as well. If you're studying habitat, have your students draw the frog's habitat. Below we have the adorable final product!

We hope you enjoyed this really fun paper plate frog kid craft. Pam's students had a blast and as you can see, each frog is still unique. This is a great opportunity to reflect what you've been learning in your Science unit, or allow students to unleash their imaginations! Comment below with your experiences. Did your students enjoy this? Would you like to see more of these printout writing activities? How about questions or concerns? We are wide open so feel free to share!