Frog Form and Function

Frog Form and Function
Frogs live in two completely different habitats during their life cycle, and need different things to help them survive underwater as tadpoles than on the land as frogs! In this activity, students get to use props to act out what different body parts amphibians need. Materials
If you cannot get the suggested materials below, you can use anything similar to the animal feature you are trying to represent. Get creative! 
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Swim fins
An ice scraper
A football
A comb
A sponge
A slinky
A balloon
A sticky toy (one with a long stretchy cord) or fruit by the foot candy
Procedure
Discuss with the students where tadpoles live and how they survive under the water. What do they eat? How do they move? How do they breathe? As you collect ideas pass around the materials that represent the different features that tadpoles have to help them survive; fins for the tail, comb for the gills, the ice scraper for the scraping tongue and the football for a streamlined body. Now have everyone imagine an adult frog that’s gone through metamorphosis. Ask the students if they need the same things to survive on land. As the students discuss, replace each of the water‐based props with the appropriate land‐ based prop; sponge for absorbent skin, slinky for strong leg muscles, balloon for lungs and the sticky toy for the long sticky tongue. (Make sure to mention that not all frogs have long sticky tongues!) Alternate Activity
If it is too difficult to procure all the props for the activity, you can have students simply act out the different things they come up. You might try having the class move around, acting out the process of metamorphosis as you emphasize the different adaptations that frogs have when their tadpoles, adults and in between.