by James Johnson

Created on: April 12, 2010

"Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail." Whoa, hold up!  Bunnies aren't the only thing that hop, they are not even the most common hopper in most places.  What about frogs, they go hopping everywhere, even on bunny trails!  frogs are smaller and, while not as warm and fuzzy, certainly in many cases much brighter in color.   Every little preschooler will tell you about frogs, there are even Pokemon frog characters!  Unlike rabbits, frogs are also becoming rarer and having environmental problems, so frog education needs to be increased.  A good way to do that with preschoolers is through the use of crafts.  There are a few frog craft ideas for preschoolers.

One thing to do is to have the class make pictures and paintings of frogs, and there are a lot of frogs from which to choose.  There are frogs in literature (Mr. Frog and Mr. Toad, The Jumping Frog of Calveras County), brightly colored poison arrow fogs, and the common toad or bullfrog.  Preschoolers will find all of them fascinating to draw.  to further frog awareness, put the drawings on a bulletin board!

There is also three dimensional art, sculpting.  This can be done using clay and the children's imagination or even papermache. Just give the class a basic design and then let them go with clay or paper, and after the things dry put on some paint.  They will make some interesting paper weights or coffee table ornaments.

Then there is origami, an excellent craft idea for preschool age children. Origami is cheap and teaches the students how to follow instruction as well as be creative. Children as young as 3 can make origami frogs. Here is one excellent website, Wikihow, with detailed instructions and photographs. To be a bit more innovative, you can either get the children to use multicolored paper or color the paper before they start folding, then see what color the frog becomes!

Frog craft ideas for preschoolers, they may seem difficult, but they aren't and the children will have a lot of fun doing them.  Doing frog crafts will also not only teach art and motor, but about a small creature that is really quite interesting and unfortunately having troubles with civilization.  Try these frog craft ideas and get the children to laugh and learn about frogs!

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