Five Little Speckled Frogs Lesson

Focus Areas of this Lesson: Letter F, Position Words "in" and "out," Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes Discussion and Song:
This year I was in charge of teaching the preschoolers the nursery rhymes and fairy tales unit.  I incorporated those two things into everything I taught for 2 months.  (I probably could have taught them for a whole year.  There is so much you can do with them!)  

The very first thing I asked the kids was, "What are nursery rhymes?"  I explained they are traditional poems for young children.  Naturally, the next question was, "What is a poem?"  I could have gone into great detail about poems, but I told them they were stories that create pictures in our minds.  They usually rhyme, and some have rhythm to them.

I taught them the Five Little Speckled Frogs nursery rhyme:

Five little speckled frogs,
Sitting on a speckled log,
Eating the most delicious bugs.  Yum!  Yum!
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Then there were four green, speckled frogs.  Croak!  Croak!
Etc. down to no green, speckled frogs.  Glub!  Glub!

We sang the song together complete with actions.

Position Words IN and OUT:
I gave each child a frog with tape on the back.  On the positions words board I had a picture of a pond. The kids put their frog anywhere they wanted on the board.  We then discussed the position words "in" and "out."  I asked them, "How many frogs are IN the pond?"  They counted.  Then we counted how many were OUT of the pond.

Speckled Frog "In" and "Out" Game:
You will need a designated area to be your "pond."  I used the rug in my living room.  I had all of the kids sit on the couches around the rug.  When I shouted the word, "IN!" the kids jumped like frogs into the pond.  When I said, "OUT!" they jumped out.  We did this until the kids got tired.  You'll be surprised how many kids don't want to stop playing.

Letter F Study and Writing Practice:
We gathered back up to talk about the letter F.  I used my letter of the day board to show them what it looks like.  We talked about the sound it makes.  I asked the kids to locate all of the "F's" in the Five Little Speckled Frogs nursery rhyme.

I used the F is For Fire Truck Tracing Page from this site.  (It has all sorts of super cute and easy preschool writing and cutting pages.)  

Letter F Art Project:
I gave each child a paper with the outline of a letter F on the page.  I invited them to change the letter F outline into a picture of something that starts with the letter F.  I showed them my example (pictured above).  We had foxes, firetrucks, and more flags.  The kids seemed to really enjoy this activity.

Happy teaching!

More preschool ideas:

If You Take a Mouse to School Lesson

Humpty Dumpty Lesson