Crafts With Frogs & Toads
- Take a green piece of paper and fold one corner to the opposite side of the paper. This should create a right triangle with the fold and leave a small portion of paper left hanging off the front. Cut off this excess paper and unfold to complete your square. Fold each corner of the square inward to the center to make a smaller square. Fold the left and right corners inward to make a diamond. Fold the bottom triangle of the diamond upward to make a triangle. Take the bottom two corners and fold them over until they touch at the bottom. Fold the bottom section halfway from the bottom to make the legs. Turn over the paper and push the triangle downward to make a nose. Push the back fold down and release to make your frog or toad hop.
- Purchase several craft sticks, wiggle eyes, black permanent markers, craft paints and wood glue. Lay the sticks out to create a flat frog or toad shape, including the legs, positioned partway down the body. Don't worry about making the mouth with the sticks. Just focus on creating a body outline. Glue the sticks together in this pattern and use your paints to decorate the frog or toad. Use olive green for the majority of its body, bright green for its belly and red for spots on a frog. Use darker colored greens and browns to create a toad. Glue the wiggle eyes on top of the head.
- This project should only be done by older kids who are more advanced with crafts. Start by cutting two identical frog shapes out of green cloth. It helps to cut out one first and use it as a guide for the second. Use a shiny fabric to make a frog and rougher matte fabric to make a toad. Sew or hot glue all but a small portion of the frog shut, with the right sides of the fabric facing each other. Help the kids during this process. Turn the creature inside out to hide the seam. Drop in small plastic beads purchased from a craft store. Stuff these into the frog or toad until it's completely full. Close up the rest of the hole to finish the body. Glue small wiggle eyes on top of the head. Cut out a red tongue and glue it to the front of the mouth.
- Frogs and toads have a life cycle that includes eggs, tadpoles and finally the full grown adult. Make these cards to use as a crafty study guide for your class or child. Take a piece of paper and make a square with it. Draw horizontal and vertical lines down the middle of the square to create four equal sized squares, then cut them out. Draw a picture of eggs on the first card. Toads and frogs lay their eggs differently: frogs lay them in concentrated bunches while toads lay them in strings or lines. Draw a picture of a tadpole on the next card, then draw a picture of a tadpole with legs and a shorter tail on the third card. On the final card, draw a picture of the frog or the toad adult. Color all of these pictures or add embellishments like stickers. Write the name of the life cycle phase on the back of each card.