Irresistible Ideas for play based learning

We are sooo lucky!!! Things just seem to fall into place for the children and us. Just as we are getting excited about frogs and discussing metamorphosis, Sherry’s son said, “We have a heap of taddies in a tub on our verandah, Mum. Would you like some for kinder?” (As they were not taken from the wild, we are confident that it is OK to bring them here.)

Next thing, here they are, nestled next to the snails and ants – what a menagerie we have at the moment.

We had just set them up as the children poured into kinder and they couldn’t wait to look at them.  Naturally they reached for those ever popular magnifying glasses. Some children didn’t even get to pop their bags away before they were peering into the tub.

Just as they are with our snails and ants, the children are endlessly fascinated with the tadpoles. It’s wonderful to see them showing such an interest in nature, asking endless questions about the process of metamorphosis, wanting to know about the different foods our creatures like to eat as well as noticing the vast differences in their living environments. Children are so inquisitive and do love to learn interesting facts and information!

Please note that you usually need a licence from your relevant State Government to keep tadpoles. In our case they are Southern Brown Tree Frogs (Litoria ewingi) so we don’t need a licence for them. We will ensure that they are released back into their own environment.

For information on care of tadpoles and frogs, get in touch with the Amphibian Research Centre through our ‘Frogs’ link.

One day one of the children brought in a case moth he had found in his garden.

He had been following this little creature around his garden for about a week, finding it in a different place each day.  The children were totally fascinated by the way it crawled around carrying its home along with it as it looked for food.

We explained to the children that the process a caterpillar goes through to become a moth or butterfly is called metamorphosis and we used the story of The very hungry caterpillar to explain it in a language they could understand. The very ordinary caterpillar is another lovely book they enjoyed.

They also had a great time acting out the story with The very hungry caterpillar felt board.

Metamorphosis is a fascinating concept for children so we pulled out a couple of metamorphosis puzzles on the life cycles of the butterfly and the frog.

In keeping with the tadpole / frog interest we are currently experiencing at kinder we set up a frog bog using lots of natural materials, frogs (the odd crocodile or two …  naturally) and our frog metamorphosis set.

Including materials like rocks and logs from our garden the water soon resembled a muddy frog bog. It was spectacular!

We have a wonderful frogbog CD which we played (hidden behind a fern) in the background, which made the play space sound and feel like we really were exploring a natural frog bog.

This CD doesn’t contain music just incredible Australian frog calls. It’s so amazing and the children were fascinated by the sounds real frogs make….not one single gribbet to be heard let alone a gulumph!

We have a great song we taught the children about metamorphosis and Sherry made some fabulous prop cards which the children use to act out the song.

Here are the words to the song – METAMORPHOSIS

Kittens look like cats,

and puppies look like dogs,

so why don’t little tadpoles, look like little frogs.

Bear cubs look like bears,

and little sloths like sloths,

so why don’t caterpillars look like little moths.

Kittens, puppies and other things don’t need a special process.

But caterpillars and tadpoles do.

They go through MET – A – MOR – PHO – SIS!

PS. The case moth was returned to the garden and a few weeks later our young friend discovered the empty case … how wonderful!

You can see some amazing photos of case moths and other incredible insects  through our ‘Moths & Butterflies‘ link.