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Tot-School Ponds

Ponds Book List

Life in a Pond by Allan Fowler

Little Quack by Lauren Thompson

Turtle Splash! By Cathryn Falwell

Have You Seen My Duckling? By Nancy Tafuri

Little White Duck by Joan Paley

Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond by Mary Quattlebaum

At the Pond by Dawn Sirett

Pond Circle by Betsy Franco

The Noisy Counting Book by Susan Schade & Jon Buller

Just a Day at the Pond by Mercer Mayer

In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming

Tiny Turtles by Wendy McLean

Pond Babies by Cathryn Falwell

Pond Sensory Tub

Materials:

• Aquarium rocks
• Felt lillypads
• Fish net
• Flat glass marble rocks
• Small Jar (for collecting pond specimens)
• Tiny frogs, turtles, fish, dragonflies and ducks

 

Pond Tot-Tubs

Tot-Tub #1 (top left) Play Pond

I cut out a pond shape from blue material. I let T play with pond animal toys, rocks, twigs, and lily pads in his pond.

Tot-Tub #2 (top right) Frog Sorting

I gave T a tub of flat marbles and plastic toy frogs (I found them in the party section at Wal-mart for cheaper).  He used an ice cream scoop to sort them into a green and blue bowl.  (He put the frogs in the blue bowl for the pond and he put the green flat marbles into the green bowl.

Tot-Tub #3 (middle) Feed Froggy

I used a Parmesan Cheese container for the frog. Glue 2 big green pom-poms to the top of the container, and add 2 googly eyes to the pom-poms. Add red felt to the inside of the half open side of the lid. Get some plastic toy bugs to feed to the frog.

Tot-Tub #4 (bottom left) Duck Links

I put T's Duck Links in this tub.  I had him link up the matched colors.

Tot-Tub #5 (bottom right) Pond Pattern Blocks

I found these Pond Animals Patterns for our Pattern Blocks. 

The Online Pond

We visited this Online Pond Site to learn about more pond animals.

Frog Headband

T made the Frog Headband on page 175 of his A Beka Nursery Arts & Crafts Book.

Goldfish

T painted the Fish on page 109 in his A Beka Nursery Arts & Crafts Book.

Paper Plate Pond

Materials:

• Paper Plate
• Green Construction Paper
• Blue Paint
• Paintbrush
• Pond Creatures (I just got some from google images)
• Markers
• Glue
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Paint the paper plate blue.
2. Cut green stripes of paper.
3. Glue them on the outer edge of the plate.
   
4. Color the animals and cut them out.
   
5. Fold the bottom part of the animals and glue the flap to the pond.
   
   

Frogs in the Pond

T put frog stickers onto blue paper that I had cut out in the shape of a pond.

Turtle Snack

Materials:

• 1 granny smith apple
• A few green grapes
• 2 chocolate sprinkles

Directions:

1. Slice the apple into thin slices horizontally.

2. Take two green grapes and slice then thinly, horizontally.

3.Place some sliced grapes on top of the apple for the turtle’s shell.

4. Take another grape and slice into quarters. Arrange these quarters around the turtle for the legs.

5. Take another grape and slice a thin slice off the bottom. From this thin slice, slice a small triangle for the tail. 

Place the tail on the turtle. Take the remainder of the grape and use it as the turtle’s head.
6. Take the two chocolate sprinkles and stick them in the grape head for the eyes.

Graphing Gold Fish

Read: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

Materials:

• Construction Paper
• Colored Goldfish Crackers

Directions:

1. Cut fish shapes out of red, orange, yellow, and green paper.
2. Give the child a small cup of goldfish crackers. Let them sort the crackers on the paper fish.
3. Ask which color has the most and which has the least. Which is his favorite color?

Pond Dice
I  printed out 2 of the the Pond Dice from this free tot pack.  I folded one into the dice and the other I cut out the pieces.  I had T roll the dice and then find that piece and put it in the line.

Pond Animal Charades
Snake

Frog

Duck

Dragonfly

Play Dough Snakes
I showed T how to roll the play dough to make snakes.

Fishing for Colors

Materials:

• Construction Paper (lots of colors)
• marker
• scissors
• paper clips
• Chop stick
• Yarn
• Magnet

Directions:

1. Draw a fish to use as a template. Cut it out and use this to trace all the fish.
2. Trace the fish on your construction paper. .
3. Cut out the fish.
4. Draw an eye and mouth on each fish.
5. Make a fishing pole with a chop stick, some yarn and a strong magnet tied to the end.
6. Tot will go fishing and catch the fish. When they catch the fish ask them what color it is.

Plant & Animal Sort Pond
I found this Plant & Animal Sort Pond from this free tot pack.  I showed him one card at a time and had him tell me if it was a plant or animal.  If he had trouble I asked where it's eyes were and told him that plants don't have eyes.  Then I let him put it on the correct side of the chart.

Paper Plate Duck

Materials:

• Paper Plate
• Glue
• Paint Brush
• Yellow Paint
• Googly Eyes
• Yellow & Orange Construction Paper

Directions:

Paint the paper plate.

Trace 2 hand prints on yellow paper and cut them out.

Cut out an orange beak and orange feet.

Fold the paper plate in half and glue on the hand prints for the tail.

Glue on a circle head, the beak, feet and googly eyes.

Little Green Frogs

Little green frog, won't you

Hop-hop-hop

Little green frog, won't you

Hop-hop-stop!

Directions:

1. Have the child pretend to be a little green frog crouched down in the grass.
2. Say the rhyme and have them take a big “frog hop” every time they hear the word “hop”.
3. When they hear the word “stop”, have them stay crouched down without moving.

Tiny Turtle

This is my turtle. (tuck thumb in fist)
He lives in a shell.
He likes his home very well.
He pokes his head out (stick thumb out like a "thumb's up")
when he wants to eat.
And he pulls it back (tuck thumb in fist again)
when he wants to sleep.    

Color the Pond
I printed out the page 1 of this Color the Pond tot pack to make T a colors review pond book.  First he colored it then I cut it out and folded it in accordian style.

Dragonfly Magnets

Materials:

• Craft Sticks
• Paint
• Paintbrush
• Glitter Glue
• Tissue Paper
• Glue
• Magnet Strips
• Tape
• Googly Eyes

Directions:

Paint the craft stick and add glitter glue to make the designs.

Cut a 3”x3” square of tissue paper and scrunch in up in the middle like wings and fold clear tape round the middle. Do the same thing with another color of tissue paper.

Glue the tape part of the 2 sets of wings to the front portion of the craft stick.

Glue on the googly eyes to the top of the craft stick.

Add the magnet strip to the back of the dragonfly.

Do-A-Dot Animals
 I found this Do-A-Dot Frog and Do-A-Dot Turtle for T to work on.

Paper Bowl Turtle

Materials:

• Dry Split Pea Beans
• Paper Bowl
• Glue
• Paint Brush
• Green Paint
• Green Foam Paper
• Googly Eyes
• Scissors

Directions:

Paint the bottom of the paper bowl green. Let dry completely.

Pour some white glue on top of the bowl and spread it out with a paintbrush. Pour out some of split pea beans onto a plate and place the plate upside down on the peas.  Press down in the middle of the bowl to make sure the peas stick well.

Turn bowl right side up again and shake lightly to remove excess beans.

Cut out 4 claws, a head, and a tail for the turtle from green foam paper.

Glue on the foam pieces.

Add 2 peas for the turtle's eyes.

Feed the Ducks

We visited the pond nearby to feed the ducks.  My boys love going to feed the ducks.

We saw a huge goldfish in the middle of the pond.

T got hungry and started eating the bread.