THE MAGIC OF CHILDREN'S PLAY!'

KEEPING TADPOLES AND FROGS IN PRESCHOOL

10 12 11'

Written by Karen

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Every year we provide our children with the opportunity to observe at first hand, the life cycle of the frog.  Vicky, a staff member at our preschool, has a pond on her property that becomes teaming with tadpoles every spring.  So, she scoops out an ice-cream container of these wiggly little fellows, and brings them in for us to raise.

This is an experience that I would recommend to all teachers out there to give a try.  The children absolutely LOVE it!

The excitement shown as each stage of development is reached is just wonderful!  

“Karen, Karen… come and look, one has his back legs!”  

“They’ve got their legs, they’ve got their legs!”  

“Look, look!  A frog!”

If you don’t have access to tadpoles, or even if you do, but just want information on how to care for your tadpoles, check out this site:  AMPHIBIAN RESEARCH CENTRE.  You will find PDF’s on how to care for tadpoles and frogs on this site and you can also order a “Tadpole Kit” for your centre. The ARC is located in Werribee (Melbourne, Australia) and you do have to pick the kits up yourself.

There are some very important rules to remember:

  • Don’t clean the tank, rocks or gravel with anything BUT water and a paper towel.
  • Don’t spray or use chemicals anywhere near the tank.
  • Clean the tank water out once a week.
  • Don’t over feed (if the water goes milky, you are over feeding! Clean immediately!).

Tadpoles don’t eat fish food!  They are herbivores!  The simplest source of food is frozen pieces of lettuce leaves (the iceberg variety).  When you freeze lettuce, the cells in the leaves burst, so when it is placed in the tank and defrosts, the leaves becomes limp and slimy in texture.  Tadpoles love it!

Now this is a healthy looking tadpole!

It can take a little while for the back legs to appear…

… and then the front legs…

… but the tail is absorbed very rapidly, almost over-night!

Then, you should have a happy, healthy, frog.

If you would like to keep your frog for a bit longer, you will need to check out the ARC site again, to read up on caring for your frog.  You will need to make some changes to the tank habitat and organize some food for your little fellow.  He is now a carnivore and likes to eat ‘live insects’!  You can order frog food from here.  We are hoping to receive a delivery of one day old crickets tomorrow!  1,500 of them actually!

I believe if we want to raise children to have a love and respect for the natural environment, we have to allow them opportunities to connect with it, and experience it first hand.  To directly observe it’s wonders unfold.

You cannot grow to ‘love’ something that you have never had a relationship with.

So, go on, give it a go, your children will love it!

You can read more about opportunities to introduce animals into the preschool environment by clicking on “Animals in Preschool” located in the right sidebar. 🙂

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Animals In Preschool, Springtime Play

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HATCHING CHICKENS

10 10 11'

Written by Karen

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Every year in springtime, we organize for “The Living Eggs’ company to deliver a batch of fertilized chicken eggs to our preschool.  The incubation time for chicken eggs is 21 days, an awfully long time for preschool children to wait, and a lot of work for staff.  This company, deliver the eggs with just 2-3 days of incubation remaining.  They provide the eggs, incubator and ‘nursery’ tub for the hatched chickens, set it all up, and return in two weeks to take it all away.  Perfect!

So, all that was left for us to do was watch…  and wait!

Soon enough, some cracks started to appear… and if you listened really closely, you could hear the faint ‘cheeping’ of the baby chicks.

We had to put an ‘egg timer’ (how appropriate!) on the incubator as the children were eager to keep a close watch on the eggs in the hope of spotting some action.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait for long!  Our first seven little chicks were keen to break out into the world within minutes of each other.  They were followed the next day by two more.  Sadly, but true to nature, one little egg did not hatch.

Within the first week, we gave the chickens time to settle in to their new home, grow, and become a little more robust. So the children spent lots of time observing their funny antics through the perspex window.

Then in the second week, we let the chickens out to play.  The children were remarkably gentle and nurturing.

And here is beautiful drawing of one of our chicks, by Kate.

If you are interested in viewing some more spring ideas, click on “Springtime Play” under Categories in the column to the right of this page.

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Animals In Preschool, Springtime Play

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TADPOLES AND FROGS!

10 06 11'

Written by Karen

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Every spring, we are fortunate enough to be able to collect tadpoles from a pond on one of our staff members properties.   The children are able to observe them grow and go through their metamorphosis, a concept much better understood if observed first hand.  Once all of our tadpoles have turned into little frogs, we discuss the importance of returning them to their pond with the children.  Then we bid them farewell, and Vicky takes them back home.   At the moment our froglets are residing with me, as currently, we are on term break.  So the children will be very pleased to see their progress when they return to preschool.  I will present a post about our REAL tadpoles/frogs when they have completed  their metamorphosis.

But in the mean time, I have this idea for you!    While we are keeping track of our tadpoles, we also incubate and hatch chicken eggs (yet another post to follow, I am going to be busy!).  One day I was trying to explain to a small group of children the difference between a chicken egg and a frog’s egg.  I suggested that the frog’s egg was “jelly-like”, which seemed to result in a few puzzled facial expressions from the children.  Reflecting on this later, I had a bit of a brain wave.  “Aqua Gems”, perfect!  While not quite to scale, they do give a good representation of what frogs eggs may feel and look like.  So, I set up two of these little tubs.

Well, I can’t begin to tell you how popular they were!  Each tub contained:  some aqua gems, ‘blue’ water, tadpoles at various stages of their cycle, a young frog, an adult frog, a lily pad and a duck!  The duck was added to the tub so that we could instigate some discussion about predators and the dangers facing tadpoles in their journey towards maturity.

By the end of each day, the aqua gems had turned to mush.  As you can probably imagine, it is very tempting to squish them!  Much like popping bubble wrap, once you start, you can’t stop!

If you look to the top of this picture, you may notice a booklet on the table where the children are playing.  I often make up such booklets from pictures I find on “Google Images”.  This one has large photo’s depicting the various stages of the frog life cycle.  I laminate the pages and then comb-bind them.  This means, you can have them lying around near water and they can just be wiped down later on.  Too easy!  It also means you can get exactly what you want, without having to seek out and pay lots of dollars for a similar reference.

Stay tuned, and I will update you on the REAL THING soon! 🙂

Category:

Sensory Play, Springtime Play

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Spring Fever!

10 04 11'

Written by Karen

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Mid morning I went for a long walk, on what was a sensational spring day in Melbourne (Australia).  As I ambled along, my mind was pondering upon the many ideas that swim around in my brain regarding possible ‘posts’.  I decided that today, sharing this post was a real must do!  Having lived in Queensland for a few years during my 30’s, where there is essentially only two possible variations in weather, ‘hot and humid’ (great for holidays) and ‘pleasantly warm’, I eventually returned home with a much greater appreciation of Melbourne’s seasons.  I am not really a teacher who develops a ‘thematic’ curriculum, definitely preferring the curriculum to ’emerge’ from the children’s personal interests.  But I do find that most children, through their naturally inquisitive and curious dispositions, never fail to notice and become enthralled by, the changes occurring in the environment as the climate moves through it’s seasonal cycles.

To celebrate the beginning of spring with our children, we provided them with a lovely collection of spring items on a sensory table.  Most of the items shown here, were very cheaply purchased at ‘$2 dollar’ shops, or collected straight from the environment.

I loved the way the children used the natural blocks as little platforms to create decorative statements.  I am not really sure what thoughts lay behind the designs, as I didn’t observe the children engaging in very much narrative as they played.  Occasionally I overheard some humming, singing or what seemed to be, sweet little bug or butterfly-like sounds. I suppose I could have questioned them about their play, but when children are totally immersed in activity, I do feel reluctant to break their thoughts by intruding on their space and time.

And this final photograph is a ‘story’ I found sitting on the back of a book lying on a nearby table.  Precious. Watch out little blue butterfly!

If you would like to visit some more spring time play ideas, feel free to follow this link:  Seasons Come, Seasons Go:  Blossom Pie!

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Springtime Play

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