At the beginning of 1st grade, I asked my kiddos what kinds of exciting things they wanted to learn & this was what they came up with: gymnastics, piano, mice (as in experiments with them), Hebrew, horses, tadpoles & frogs, maps, typing, dragonflies and aerodynamics. And so, ladies and gentlemen, without further adieu... our Frog Adventures!

New Pet... or A Prince in Disguise? We found this little guy in the backyard. How cute is he?! Not cute enough to kiss, though... ;)

I set up our classroom alcove with frog lifecycle toys and some books on Reptiles and Amphibians. I really love all of the Peterson guides. We have a bird one, too. They're excellent and my kids really like looking through their full-colored pictures. The kiddos chose one amphibian to learn about in the book, drew about it, and wrote a bit and then presented their report to the class.

Every time I come up with a new lesson theme idea, I do a quick search on Educents for freebies. These came up and they were a lot of fun! They were very cute, perfect for 1st grade (though they'd work for any of the lower elementary grades) and you can't beat free! You can get the Frog Fact here.

And you can get the Frog Life Cycle coloring and tracing pages here. They were the perfect addition to our frog and amphibians theme! Let me know if you decide to try this in your homeschool!