Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Hoppin' Leap Day

To celebrate Leap Day, we enjoyed a little frog fun. 

We read lots of frog books, especially Froggy books (he's our favorite frog, besides Kermit).

I have collected lots of frog manipulatives and such over the years, so I pulled out some and added a few new frogs to the mix.

Here were the favorites today.


Mr. Two loved playing with my bucket of colored frogs.  I love how he grouped them in a rainbow-like formation.  Mr. Three likes to put these frogs on his little fingers like finger puppets to play with them, too.


I found the idea to make a pond with green foam lily pads somewhere on Pinterest (sorry, no link).  I filled a blue bucket with water, lily pads, plastic frogs and glass colored marbles, then gave the kids scoops and funnels to play in the pond with. 



They loved this and asked to get it out again.  Maybe this weekend, since it needs to be outside.


I also made this little "fishing" game for the boys to play with.  I've had the fly swatter and the little pipe cleaner flies for a long time, to be used in other games.  I had a light bulb moment when I realized that they would make a fun little game together, especially after realizing the flies were magnetic.


I had a frog fly swatter that I laced a piece of red ribbon through to make a long tongue.  I sandwiched two magnets between the ribbon end.   


Then I let them try and catch the flies.


The flies are made with 6 inch black pipe cleaners and a black pony bead.  Here's the basic construction. 


Put the bead in the middle of the pipe cleaner and loop one end through the bead to form a wing. 


Repeat on the other side to make the second wing. 


Fold the ends of the pipe cleaner over onto to eliminate the sharp ends and twist.  Now you have a little magnetic fly to catch.

We had so much fun with the frogs today, I think we'll keep them out and I'll be adding some new games and activities this week and next.

I hope you had a "hoppy" Leap Day!


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