The Battle of Frogs vs. Toads

We've been reading frog books all week and I am all "frogged" out!  Our basal story this week was "Days with Frog and Toad".  I wanted to bring in some other fiction and nonfiction stories to help us compare and contrast frogs and toads since it is not such an easy concept to understand.  They really liked buddy reading the stories together is discussing all things frog.

We watched a short clip from www.DiscoveryEducation.com that gave a visual and auditory representation of the differences and similarities between frogs and toads.  I would put the link up here, but you have to have a membership to access it.  I highly recommend checking out DiscoveryEducation.com for many subject areas.  It is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

Next, we made a T-Chart/Anchor Chart about things we learned.  It is similar to the one found {HERE}.  I love the virtual vine as well!

Students were given a Thinking Map (Double Bubble) Template to compare and contrast frogs and toads using the information from our anchor chart.  You can pick up the template we used for free.  Click on the pic!

I had the students pick which one was their favorite, a frog or a toad.  They had to write a sentence that told which amphibian was their favorite and write at least 3 sentences explaining why by inclduing facts that they learned throughout our study.  Some students are just learning how to write a complete sentence and when to use capital letters and punctuation.  The student work below is an example of a student who is in the developmental stage of writing.

This picture is just too cute for words!

That's it for today.  Enjoy your weekend.  It will be Monday before we know it!