Introduction

Frogs, like many living things, go through a lot of changes to get from an egg to a full grown frog. But unlike most animals, frogs go through a change called, metamorphosis.In this activity, you will learn what metamorphosis is and illustrate your own frog cycle in Kidspiration.

Tasks

Your task will be to place pictures of the stages in a frog's life in Kidspiration. Under each picture you will write the age of the frog. (You will have a hand out to help you with this. )

Top

Female frogs lay their eggs in water. Can you believe that they can lay over 4,000 eggs at one time? Why so many? Because most of them will be eaten by fish or other animals. Only a handful (10-20) will make to adulthood.

After just 10 days, the frogs begin to hatch. They will have gills, like fish, instead of lungs that breathe air like people, or dogs.

After 21 days the tadpole has grown and will hold onto a weed in the water. He has a long tail and hides in the weeds. He breathes with gills like a fish and swims using his tail.

After 5 weeks of growing the tadpole begins to change. It starts to grow his hind (back) legs.

After 11 weeks we see a frog. He has lungs to breathe with, legs big enough for hopping and now he does not have a tail. Frogs will mostly live on land. They eat insects, catching them with their long, sticky tongue. They also eat small fish and worms. In cold weather they will dig down into the mud and hibernate (sleep very deeply) through the winter.

Top

Great Job! You are now an expert on the life cycle of frogs. After you print it out, present it to your class.

Standards

Language Arts	INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY	THE LIVING WORLD
Writing 2.10      The student will maintain manuscript and begin to make the transition to cursive. 2.11      The student will write stories, letters, and simple explanations. a)      Generate ideas before writing. b)      Organize writing to include a beginning, middle, and end. c)      Revise writing for clarity.	C/T5.2    The student will develop basic technology skills.           *  Develop a basic technology vocabulary that includes              cursor, software, memory, disk drive, hard drive, and CD-              ROM.           *  Select and use technology appropriate to tasks.           *  Develop basic keyboarding skills.           *  Operate peripheral devices.           *  Apply technologies to strategies for problem solving and              critical thinking.   C/T5.3    The student will process, store, retrieve, and transmit           electronic information.           *  Use local and wide-area networks and modem-delivered              services to access information from electronic              databases.         SAMPLE   Top	Life Processes 2.4        The student will investigate and understand that plants and animals undergo a series of orderly changes in their life cycles. Key concepts include a)      some animals (frogs and butterflies) undergo distinct stages during their lives, while others generally resemble their parents; and flowering plants undergo many changes, from the formation of the flower to the development of the fruit.