Do you know the difference between frogs and toads? After watching the video, try to identify the amphibians below.
Click here to view full screen.
In general frogs have a longer body and legs made for jumping, while toads are squatter and hop or walk. The skin of a frog is smooth and moist, but a toad’s skin is bumpy and drier than a frog’s. Toads have poison glands behind their eyes (note the photo above), so their eyes are not as bulbous as a frog’s eyes. Frogs live close to water because they breathe through their moist skin, while a toad uses its lungs, and can therefore live further from water. Frogs also tend to be brighter in color. Both frogs and toads lay their eggs in water, but frogs lay them in clusters and toads in strings. Click here to see the eggs we had in lab. Amphibians go through metamorphosis during their life cycle.
This decomposing frog, gifted by a student, illustrates the length of a frog’s legs.
Click here to view full screen.
Click here and here to go to preschool labs that focused on frogs.
Jaba and Yoda, White’s tree frogs, were always a favorite of my young scientists. Photos of Jaba follow; click here to see Yoda.
The song, Five Little Speckled Frogs, is a fun song to introduce the concepts of more, less and subtraction. Click here to view full screen.
No better combination than art in a natural setting! I came upon this artist on my last visit to Chattahoochee Nature Center.
At the Naples Botanical Gardens, sculptor Patrick Daugherty and his team of collaborative volunteers created Stickwork with 30,000 pounds of willow saplings.
Because I desire to be a lifelong learner, I am studying how to improve my photography skills. A Run Wild My Child blog post (for which I am an ambassador) shared helpful suggestions for taking better pictures of your kids outside with your phone.
Recently, I completed a class, Basics of Nature Photography, at Chattahoochee Nature Center with Eric Bowles. I am reviewing previous photos and practicing the following composition lessons I learned:
In your imagination, divide your photo into a 3×3 grid. The focus of your photo should be where two lines intersect (Rule of Thirds) or generally off center:
Look for S cand C curves to engage the viewer and create motion but try not to let the curves move off directly into a corner of your photo.
Attempt to capture an animal looking toward you.
If you capture an animal in profile, leave space in front of the animal in the direction it is moving.
Use the rule of thirds and place the horizon line in the lower third or the upper third of the composition depending upon where you want the viewer to focus. Don’t place a horizon line behind someone’s head and it should be straight.
Explore framing your subject.
Shoot your photo from different perspectives. Try shooting up or down on your subject.
Diagonal lines can draw your eye to the subject or create movement.
One more hint: If you have people in your photo, don’t cut the subjects off at joints – knees, wrists, and ankles for example. I am sharing nature photos on my Instagram account. I hope you’ll take a minute to check it out! (@pbright2)
Blog posts often seem to write themselves as this one did. In a previous post, I explained that bald cypress and dawn redwood trees are very similar and distinguishing between these conifers can be challenging, especially when they are young. Click here to go to that post. One way to identify bald cypress trees are to locate knees or woody projections that grow up from the roots. I recently saw these knees (pneumatophores) in several different locations in Georgia and Florida. Why do you think the bald cypress grows knees? (Look below the photos.)
Since bald cypresses often grow in swampy areas, scientists think the purpose of the knees is to transport air to drowned roots underground, as well as to provide structural support. Knees are sent up when a tree is about ten years old, but if a tree is in a lawn, it may not produce knees at all.
Before you visit the beach, learn about seagulls. If you are an educator, seabirds are a great addition to an ocean unit too.
A Few facts about Seagulls:
Click here to view full screen.
Many beach visitors can attest that seagulls are aggressive when it comes to finding food which is the theme of the next two videos.
Click here to view full screen.
Click here to view full screen.
Not everyone is a fan of seagulls! Sailors believe they are good luck, but others call them rats of the ocean. Use this difference of opinion as an opportunity to write the pros and cons of seagulls inhabiting an area.
Craft a simple paper plate seagull. After studying the body parts (shape, size, and color), task children to draw, cut out, and attach the gull’s legs, bill, and eyes. How can you design the bill to open and its feet to appear as if the gull is standing?
Why do we see fog more often during spring and fall months and over or near bodies of water?
Can you identify the different types of fog?
Fog is condensation, not water vapor. Water vapor cannot be seen. When you walk through fog, you are moving through a cloud. One of my favorite investigations is to make a cloud in a bubble. Click here for more information.
This informational book is filled with captivating photographs of fog.
Use Carl Sandburg’s short poem, Fog, to explain metaphors, a literary device.
A weather poem by Aileen Fisher to teach descriptive words and rhythm.
I Like it When It’s Mizzly
I like it when it’s mizzly
and just a little drizzly
so everything looks far away
and make-believe and frizzly.
I like it when it’s foggy
and sounding very froggy.
I even like it when it rains
on streets and weepy windowpanes
and catkins in the poplar tree
and me.
If you are visiting a pond or studying pond life, be sure to include lily pads as part of your investigation. This aquatic plant thrives in full-sun and grows in still shallow water or at the edge of a deeper body of fresh water. I snapped these photos at Western Lake in Watercolor, Florida.
The rounded notched lily pad leaf has a waxy coating and repels water. Stomas, openings in the leaves, help the leaves float and exchange gases. Lily pads appear to be freely floating, but they are attached to a stem that extends down to where it is rooted at the bottom of a lake or pond. These perennials reproduce by producing root-like stems called rhizomes.
Many water lilies open from early morning to mid-afternoon, but others bloom at night. Blooms last three to five days.
Sometimes thought to be invasive, the leaves provide food and shelter for aquatic life and shade which lowers water temperature and reduces algae growth.
Seeing these animals, reminded me of The Little White Duck, a traditional children’s song.
Claude Monet, a French impressionist, is known for numerous large paintings of his lily ponds.
Another story to connect art, reading, and science:
The giant water lily can be found at the St. Louis Botanical Gardens.
I was surprised to discover water lilies in Montana!
Add plastic lily pads and pond animals (such as these) to your child’s pool, bathtub or in a water table for hours of fun!
With spring here and Easter approaching, use this time to study oviparous animals and perform egg investigations. My science students hatched chicken and duck eggs in the science lab. Click here to watch a video of our chicks hatching and here for a video of the ducklings.
I watched robins hatch on a window ledge at home.
But birds aren’t the only ones who lay eggs; both my aquatic and terrestrial snails surprised us with eggs!
We also watched praying mantids hatch from their egg case.
Turtles lay eggs too!
Have you ever seen frog or
toad eggs?
Watch the following informative video to learn about the variety of oviparous animals. Click here to watch the video full screen.
Try the following lively investigations and experiments that can be performed at home or in a classroom:
Identify which egg is hardboiled and which is raw by spinning them and squeeze an egg without breaking it!
Make an eggshell disappear! (A favorite!) Click here for directions.
Knock eggs in water using inertia. (I practiced with golf balls.)
The egg in the bottle was always a crowd pleaser in my science lab! I used “milk” bottles that I purchased at Michaels.
Use eggs to teach the importance of brushing your teeth. Click here for additional information.
Demonstrate the power of air pressure and separate the white from the egg yolk. Squeeze the air out of an empty water bottle and place the opening of the bottle over the egg yolk, still squeezing. Slowly let go of the squeeze and watch how the yolk is sucked into the bottle. It works like a pipette.
Use After the Fall as a springboard for an engineering activity. Task your students with devising a way to help an egg balance on a block wall without falling off or for the popular egg drop challenge. Click here to view full screen.
My youngest scientists tried to make an egg balance using salt which required perseverance!
The Easter Egg Farm is a humorous story to integrate art into your study of eggs or to read before you dye eggs. Click here to view full screen.
In the beloved classic children’s story, Charlotte’s Web, Charlotte makes her egg case in the fall before she dies. She explains to her friend, Wilbur, that the spiderlings will emerge in the spring.
Are these egg cases or something else preserved outside in a corner of a second story window? Perhaps the spider wrapped insects caught in its web. I will be watching! If you see old webs when you are outside, look to see if they contain an egg case.
Click here to view full screen. Grateful animals are no longer in cages! Discuss why with your children.
Teach children to care for the unlovable and they will grow to be compassionate.
Discovering a rainbow is always a special moment! Have you noticed that the sky is darker above the rainbow? Do you know why? Click here for the answer from Physics Girl. You won’t look at a rainbow in quite the same way again!
The visible spectrum appeared on my wall. I believe the light was refracted by the stop sign outside.
Place a prism on your window and observe the visible spectrum move around the room. Why does its location change? For another example, Click here. My students also brought the prisms outside to refract sunlight onto sidewalks.
Complete a rainbow arch to demonstrate capillary action. Click here.
Tilt a mirror inside a container filled with water, shine a flashlight toward the mirror, and look for a rainbow on the wall.
Use rainbow peeps or refraction glasses to find rainbows. Look at a variety of types of light. How does what you see through the lenses change? Click here for more information. Click here to order rainbow peeps. Remind children to not look directly at the sun.
Refract light with a CD. Click here.
Spray your hose with the sun behind you and low in the sky to refract the sunlight and reveal the visible spectrum.
Put the colors of the spectrum in order using density. Click here to watch Steve Spangler in action. Salt could be used in place of sugar.
Click here to use rainbows to develop the skill of questioning.
Watch the following video for additional ways to create rainbows and to observe the visible spectrum. Click here to watch the video full screen.
If you are studying rainbows, enjoy a rainbow snack of yellow (bananas), purple (grapes), orange (oranges), green (kiwi), red (strawberries), and blue (blueberries) sliced fruit.
For full screen viewing, click here.
I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (Genesis 9:13)