Tadpole's Promise- Life cycles 5-7
Be prepared for a surprise when you get to the end of this story which portrays the blossoming love between a caterpillar and a tadpole and what happens when tadpole inevitably breaks his promise to the caterpillar to 'never change'. However, although adults who read this book are often very shocked and declare it unsuitable for children, children generally take it in their stride and relish the macabre outcome to the story ....
It's a great story to use when exploring life cycles and helping children to describe the difference in the life cycle of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird. It will also help children to begin to describe the process of reproduction in some plants and animals.
Tadpole's Promise by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross.
Life Cycles
This book describes the members of one family from a new born baby to an old man. It also sensitively tackles death, although it is shown as something that only happens to the extremely old. Pages from this book could be shared on the interactive white board to spark discussion about how human beings change as they grow and age. Children could be encouraged to compare the ways that humans change as they grow with the way the the tadpole and caterpillar in the story change.
This book is over twenty years old so do consider the representations of gender . The mum and grandma are shown in caring roles and it is clearly the baby's mother than does most of the child care. Dad is shown going out with his tennis racket as the mum fills the washing machine. Perhaps bear this in mind when deciding which pages to share with children.
Spring Watch home page
Many schools bring eggs into school to give children to see chicks hatch and grow. However, this can be very expensive. Consider cheaper options including watching caterpillars hatch from eggs and develop into butterflies.
Another option is a 'nest cam' so that you can watch birds build a nest, lay their eggs and raise a brood of chicks. However, if you can't run to this, remember that while each series of Spring Watch is running there are live nest cams broadcasting on line 24 hours a day. This will give you the opportunity to see a variety of birds at different stages of their life cycle. Go to the Spring Watch home page for details of when the next series is due.
Life Cycles
The first video clip shows several life cycles including a human, a frog and a poppy. This would be great to share with children and to spark conversation about the different life stages that animals and plants go through. Children could compare the lives that they see here with the lives of caterpillar and tadpole in the story. They may also be interested to notice how different the tree frogs in the story look from the frog in the story.
The third clip down is called 'odd one out'. I would modify this for use with the class as it shows four animals and asks which is the odd one out before suggesting that the 'right' answer is human as it is the only one that does not undergo metamorphosis. An equally good scientific answer could have been frog, as it is the only one that lives in water, or bee as it is the only one that stings. It is a good opportunity for children to come up with different answers and to explain their reasoning. Showing them that often one there may be more than one answer.
Telling children that there is a single correct answer discourages them from having their own ideas or raising their own questions. Instead of using this clip as it is you could however show the pictures to the children and encourage them to think of as many 'odd ones out' as possible. See the link below for how to use the odd one out activity to encourage higher order thinking.
BBC Exporify odd one out activity.
This short vide clip from the BBC Explorify project shows how the odd one out activity can be used to encourage children to share their own ideas and open up thinking, rather than closing it down by having a single 'right' answer.
Just Add Water
Here are instructions for making a wildlife pond. A pond provides innumerable opportunities for watching a wide range of wildlife, understanding habitats and observing life cycles first hand.
Clearly there will need to be a detailed risk assessment, because of the safety and hygiene risks caused by a pond. However the risks can be over stated; many schools do have ponds without incident. Those that both have them and, most importantly, use them report what an invaluable teaching and learning resource they are. Who knows, maybe you will even spot your own 'shiny black pearl' or 'beautiful rainbow'!
Watching tadpoles develop in the pond is preferable to bringing them indoors to watch in a bowl or tank as the warmer indoor temperatures lead to extremely high mortality rates for the tadpoles.
Often there are ponds in local wildlife areas, that children could visit on a school trip.
Life Cycles Activity Pack
This activity pack from the Linnean society has lots of ideas for studying life cycles in the classroom including animals such as frogs and butterflies and plants. Ideas include a butterfly feeder, attracting insects to the school grounds.
They also suggest researching the life cycles of some different animals. Perhaps you could encourage your class to write a story about a ladybird larvae and caterpillar that fall in love, or a tadpole and a dragonfly larvae. Or maybe they could be inspired by Eric Carle and write the story of The Very Hungry Newt.
Looking for Ladybirds
Many children in your class will already know about the life cycles of frogs and butterflies. However, many children (and not a few adults) are unfamiliar with the life cycle of a ladybird, so working with these is equally interesting for all children.
This resources shows some of the wide range of ladybirds, and their larvae, that can be found in the UK. it also clearly depicts their life cycle and would make an interesting comparison with the creatures in the story.
Education Pack: Life in Ponds
This resource gives guidance about pond dipping for KS1 children (and older). It also provides recording sheets and a guide to the kinds of animals you might find in a pond. Find out what other creatures might have been living in the water with tadpole.
Education Pack: Food Chains
This resource comprises some sets of cards which can be used to build some food chains, and an idea for an active game which could be incorporated into a PE lesson.
Links could be made to the story by working with children to make a similar set of cards to make some pond life food chains. Children could be asked where the characters in the story would fit into the chain. They could then adapt the game to use animals that live in a pond.
Nature Detectives: Frog information
This page has lots of information about frogs and frog spawn. You can also download and make an 'i-dial' to help children recognise the different stages of a frogs life. You can also download instructions for building a simple pond to attract wildlife to your grounds or garden.
Urban Tails: a Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles in Urban Areas
Although this resource is aimed at older children it contains some lovely images of different amphibians and reptiles which live in the UK. It could be used with an interactive whiteboard and shared with the whole class. Children might like to research the lifecycles of reptiles and compare them with those of the frog in the story and other amphibians.