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Frogs or turtles--who will land on the lily pads and win? 

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Twelve milk caps or water gallon caps will make 6 game pieces. Glue the bottom sides of two caps together. I quickly found out that they don't really stick together unless there is something in between them...so cut a circle of cardboard or craft foam to put in between each pair of caps. 

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After the glue between the caps dries, draw details on top of the bottle caps and glue on googly eyes. The red bottle caps were our turtles. The frogs were made from the clear bottle caps with a circle of green craft foam stuck to the top. 

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Using sidewalk chalk or sidewalk chalk paint, draw a pond with 3 lily pads. 

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This is how it looked when we were finished. (It took longer than I thought it would for the kids to color it in!)

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One player pushes the turtles across the pond and the other player pushes the frogs across the pond. The player to land the most animals on the lily pads wins! For a challenge, assign different point values to each lily pad. 

milk caps

sidewalk chalk

googly eyes (optional)

glue

Frog Pond Game

animals

My kids love to chase frogs and collect leaves...so I thought making a frog out of leaves would join these two loves in perfect harmony! We took a little nature walk to find the perfect-sized rock for our slimy frog and collected the perfect shade of green leaves. Together these nature findings became a very adorable froggy friend!

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After we collected our rock and leaves, we grabbed some glue, googly eyes, and some felt scraps in pink and green colors.

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My two little crafters got to tearing up the leaves they collected. They enjoyed this part a little too much! 

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We added some glue to the rock and they began to put this frog together, piece by piece. It was like a little frog puzzle.

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After our rock was a nice frog green, the kids added some felt and eyes which really turned the rock into a frog!

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With a felt smile and froggy legs, this rock was hardly recognizable. He now sits on my desk where my children like to remove him for the occasional leapfrog and ribbet sound off!

rocks / stones

leaves

googly eyes

felt

Frog Rock

summer

summer fun

Put a fun twist on water play this Summer with a DIY Frog Pond!

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Fill a sand table or a large container with water. Gather plastic animals or bath toys that you might find in a pond. I found a few large rocks from the yard and cut lily pads out of green craft foam. 

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Have your child help you arrange the items in the "pond" or set it up beforehand as a surprise. Either way, your child will be excited to play!

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The lily pads made from craft foam actually float, so it is fun to put frogs or other animals on top of them. 

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She has had hours of fun playing playing and exploring with her DIY pond! 

plastic pond animals

craft foam

water

Frog Pond Water Play

game

indoor game

numbers

Feed the Frog is a fun way to practice counting, sorting, and fine motor skills with pretend play! My little girl had a blast pretending she was in a pond, giving treats to her amiable amphibian friend. 

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To create the frog, tape two construction paper eyes to the top of a tissue box. Cut out the plastic for the mouth opening.  We used plastic spider rings with the ring part cut off and tongs. You can find tongs or tweezers at a dollar store. 

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To feed the frog, put the spiders in a pile or in a small bowl. Use the tongs or tweezers to transfer a spider to the frog's mouth. This takes a lot of concentration and is a fun way to strengthen those fine motor skills. 

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Other ways to play:*Roll the dice and count how many spiders to feed the frog. *Only feed the frog a certain color spider.  *Feed the frog a pattern of spiders - orange, black, orange, black. 

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Natalie thought feeding the frog was so fun! She got tired of using the tongs so she just fed the frog with her hand and pretended he was SO hungry. Then we hunted around the playroom for other items she could feed the frog: blocks, buttons, pom-poms, etc. 

Construction Paper

tape (or glue)

Scissors

plastic spiders (optional)

tongs or tweezers

tissue box / kleenex box

pom poms (optional)

Feed the Frog

craft

homemade craft

nature crafts

learning activity

at-home learning

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indoor project

I try to create different scents and colors of play dough that go along with things we are learning. This week, my daughter's class is working on a pond study. With tea tree oil and watercolors, a pond-themed play dough came together and was a fun way for my children to create little ponds in our home.

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Add 2 cups flour, salt, cream of tartar, oil, and tea tree (few drops) oil to a bowl. A grown-up can pour the boiling water directly into the bowl (try and get it right over the salt) and mix.

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Once it cools a little, I hand over the spoon to my daughter so she can start stirring. When a ball forms, dump it onto a flat surface and knead while adding a little of the remaining flour until the dough is no longer sticky.

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Divide the dough into three balls and knead your color of choice into each individual ball. 

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The tea tree oil was the secret ingredient in our pond dough, giving it a great earthy smell. 

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My daughter loved to build little ponds and show me all the things she has been learning at school.

5 at-home frog projects for kids

Screen-free fun!