Adding and Subtracting with Frogs
Continuing the Frog Unit Study this lens is all about adding and subtracting with frogs. Children learn best when given hands-on multi-sensory projects and games that relate to the overall subject being studied.
With dozens of frog related addition and subtraction activities, matmats, workjobs and games children will soon have their number facts hop and jump right into their brains. Jump into the mathematical pond and catch the math facts...
Hopping off the Lily Pad
Frog Subtraction
Glue blue felt to the inside of a file folder. On one side place a green lily pad shape.
Then create many small frog shapes and laminate the frogs, use plastic counting frogs, green buttons or Lima Beans painted to look like frogs.
The children place six frogs on the lily pad.
Ask the children how many frogs are on the lily pad. (six)
Tell the children Four frogs jump into the pool. Now how many frogs are left on the lily pad? (two)
Everyone together tells the story Six frogs minus four frogs equals two frogs left on the lily pad.
Variation: On one side of an index card write a simple addition problem (2+1=3).
On the other side draw a model of the pond and lily pad.
Playdough and Frogs
Add and Subtract the Frogs in the Pond
Photo Credit: Playing with Playdough
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
In this workjob the playdough becomes the frog mathmat and the frog toothpicks are the manipulatives that children can add or subtract from the pond.
Use playdough to form a frog pond. You could use blue as that is the color used to represent water but think about the color of the pond the last time you visited. Did it appear blue?
The frog pond near my house is in the woods. It appears black or dark brown most of the year. Sometimes it is covered in vegetation and appears green. Sometimes there are flowers blooming on top and it appears green with large yellow blotches.
Choose some playdough and make a frog pond.
Start with 5 frogs in the pond and 0 out of the pond. 5 - 0 = 5
One frog hops out. 5 -1 = 4
Record the number problems as each frog hops out of the pond.
Continue on to discover all the possibilities with 5 frogs.
Puffy Frog Cupcake Picks - 12ct
12 Frog Picks (4 of each design)
Amazon Price: $2.10 (as of 11/28/2009) 
Kaplan Kolors Scented Dough - Blue Blueberry
Shape, model, or sculpt, then oven-bake or microwave for a permanent decoration!
Dough has 100% natural ingredients, is non-toxic, doesn't stain or crumble, and isn't sticky. Shrink-wrapped in 60 oz.pail.
Amazon Price: $10.95 (as of 11/28/2009)
Help the Frogs find their Lily Pads
Match the Frogs and Lily Pads
Make lily pads with number sentences on them.
Then make frogs with numbers on them.
Match the correct frog to it's lily pad.
The Tadpoles Grow Up
Tadpole to Frog Lima Beans
To make the Tadpole to Frog Lima Beans:
1. Spray paint a bag of large dried Lima Beans on one side green for frogs.
2. When dry, spray paint the other side brown for tadpoles.
3. Use a fine-tipped permanent marker to draw the features.
4. Use hairspray as a fixative.
Tadpole to Frog Math Center Activity
Put 10 Tadpole Lima beans in the pond.
Write "10+0=10".
One tadpole becomes a frog.
Turn the frog over and make it leap onto the lily pad.
Now write 9+1=10.
Continue until 0+10=10.
Now all the tadpoles have grown up into frogs and the children have used concrete methods to understand the combinations of addition problems that add up to 10.
This is an activity that my First Graders loved to play over and over. Each time we changed themes we played it again. Soon the children were playing the Tadpole to Frog Math game on their own and some even took Lima Bean Frogs home in the Frog Literacy Bag to teach the game to their families.
Tadpoles and Frogs (Beginners Nature, Level 1)
Amazon Price: $4.99 (as of 11/28/2009)
Frog and Toad Math
Frog Story Boards
- Frog and Toad Math
- The students created their own math story boards by tearing paper and creating a tree, pond and log for their frogs and toads. They practiced addition problems with the frogs and toads.
Hungry Frogs Add Up their Lunch
Add the flies and feed the frogs.
Make a set of Frog Cards with a number problem on one side and circles to represent the number of flies the frog eats on the other.
Children use flies to figure out the answer to the problem and then match their answer to the circles for self checking.
Number Line Frog Hop
Addition and Subtraction of Two Digit Numbers
- Number Line Frog Hop
- An Addition and Subtraction game from ExploreElearning.
Live a frog's life as you hop along a number line in search of flies. Learn how addition and subtraction can be represented as movement along a number line. Fred the frog may even help you get better at adding and subtracting two-digit numbers in your head by decomposing them into tens and ones.
Sesame Street - A fly and a frog
Frog Math Fact Practice Online
Test the Toad and other Online Math Games
- Math Forum: Temple Everyday Math Kindergarten Online Games and Activities
- Information to support the use of online resources for EM Grade 2
Frog Counters
Frogs go together with:
Photo Credit: Green Frog in the Public Domain.
Photo Credit: Fly in the Public Domain.
When I am creating mathmats or workjobs I try to think of counters that logically go together. Here are some suggestions. Please add to the list to help other teachers and homeschoolers who are looking for more frog counter and math activity suggestions.
Swat and Subtract the Flies
Frogs and Flies
Swat the Flies: Start with 20 flies. Roll a die. Swat that many flies and then write the subtraction problem. 20-4=16, 16-3=13 etc. The one to run out of flies first is the winner.
More fly related ideas can be found on my Old Black Fly lens below and Word Walls has more ideas for using fly swatters to read and write the room.
Birdwell Cleaning Flyswatter 54-288
Amazon Price: $2.11 (as of 11/28/2009)
FISTFUL OF FLIES
Amazon Price: (as of 11/28/2009)
Set of 5 polyhedral dice - 10 sided 22mm - Green
Amazon Price: (as of 11/28/2009)
Frog and Fly Literacy Bag
Frog Math Homework
Funny Speckled Green Frog Tote Bag
Price: 17.99
Born To Fly Fish Frog Tote Bag
Price: 14.99
Learn more about Frogs
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Learning to count can be a joyful hop around the Frog Pond. With this froggy theme, children count their way around the frog board, count the flies the frog eats and count the hidden frogs. From counting to 10 to helping in annual Frog Monitoring pr...
Save the Frogs
Look who's Twittering about Frog Math
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- KitchenStew
- We have a frog! Our tadpole, which was sup'd to take 10 wks to transform, is now a frog w/a tail. We got him in May. U do the Math! ???
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Are Vernal Pools in remote rural areas of Vermont being destroyed by industrial waste? Come on a walk in the early spring. Walk through the cold wet mud and try not to slip on the remaining spots of ice as we go on a hunt for frog eggs and discover s...
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Each year we eagerly await the arrival of spring to listen to the Spring Peeper and anticipate the discovery of frog eggs in the vernal pools. Frogs lay their eggs in pools, ponds, and puddles. As snow melts, low lying areas fill with water and frogs...
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Frog Unit Study: Hopping to Learn
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Take trips to the frog pond. Become a frog and play games and sing songs, gobble up the insect words and swat the fly verbs. This lens will give you dozens of ideas, resources, hints and tricks to create frog-themed activities for both homeschool fam...
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The Frog Report
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Find out what is going on in the world of frogs? There are reports of frogs being arrested in Nevada and frogs that make so much noise that that home values are going down in the neighborhood. Maybe the most disturbing, however, are the reports of...
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Frog Art Center
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Art for your Frog Unit Study from how to draw frogs to painting, clay, sculptures, origami, frog cakes, Moche, Totem Poles and much much more... Children thrive with a hands-on. creative learning experiences that help them illustrate all that they a...
How do you add and subtract your frogs?
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Reply
- nightbear nightbear May 23, 2009 @ 1:54 am
- how extremely innovative and fun. Great lens!!
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Reply
- sandyspider sandyspider May 21, 2009 @ 9:43 pm
- Cool frog math facts..
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Reply
- spirituality spirituality May 21, 2009 @ 4:28 am
- Great lens (again) - you've been blessed by a squidoo angel :)
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Reply
- AndyPo AndyPo May 21, 2009 @ 3:47 am
- Another excellent froggy lens
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Reply
- OhMe OhMe May 20, 2009 @ 1:34 pm
- What a fun way to learn math. I love froggies so I think they would be fun for the children.
- Load More
About the Author of this Frog Math Lens
Hop on over to my Hands-On Learning Blog Log.
Find out what I'm up to when I'm not hopping around the frog pond:
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Evelyn Saenz: Lensography of a Teacher
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My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning should be integrated and no skills should be taught in isolation. I believe that each topic s...
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