My kids love collecting bugs, butterflies, frogs and just about anything else they can find.  We observe them for a bit, then turn them back to their natural habitat.  Bree is always on the hunt for cool creatures no matter how big or small they are.  She has a love for all things living and wants to hold everything.

This weekend at the cabin, Bree found lots of tree frogs.   These little guys are really interesting.  By accident we found out that they have the ability to change color from grey to green to creamy white.  After a bit of research, we found that these amazing frogs are called the Gray Tree Frog.

When we first found this little frog he was hiding in the grill cover.  Since he was hiding on black, he camouflaged himself to be a molted grey/black color.   Notice his yellow hind legs and little toe  pads that enable him to climb walls!  A really cool feature that allows them to sit on windows, walls etc to feed on bugs.  The same feet that allow these little guys to stick to wall giving them the advantage for finding food, also help these little frogs jump out to scare me!  The kids never got tired of my squeals when one jumped off something and surprised me.

Bree made a fun observing habitat out of an ice cream pail.  When she came back to check on this little guy, he was a cool grey/while color.  This was the first time we realized that we had a “chameleon” frog.  They also thought it was pretty cool that he could stick to the side of the pail.

Observing these little guys was lots of fun.  After some research we found their color range is anywhere from a mottled grayish black or solid green to a gray or creamy white color. The inner thighs on the hind legs of all gray tree frogs are yellow.  The kids were really excited each time the  frog turned a different color.  I was surprised how quickly he was able to adapt to a new color.  Who know a frog could be so exciting and entertaining!

Since we had so much fun observing these little hopping creatures, I decided to create these simple Eric Carle inspired TEXTURED FROGS with my daycare kiddos.

 We used our own texture painted paper to make these cute frogs.  Making painted paper is a really simple process.All you need is paper (nothing special is needed), a variety of paint colors (we used tempera paint), credit/gift card and texturing items.

For these cute frog, we revisited a fun technique of using credit cards as our paint brushes.  This technique is really fun, and the kids love how messy it is.  Instead of pushing paint around with a paint brush, use a plastic credit/gift card to scrape the paint across your page.  Make sure to cover the entire paper with paint.  Add depth and interest by scraping multiple colors at once or layering multiple colors.

While the paint is still wet drag texturing tools through your paper.  You can purchase texturing tools, but if you dig in your recycling bin/art cupboard you can probably find everything you need.  Some of our favorite texturing items are…plastic forks, combs, stiff cardboard, old sponges, and rollers.   You can use any paper as the base for you painted paper.

We used a circle/oval cutter to make all the shapes for our frogs.  However if you don’t have access to a circle cutter, then print this Frog Template, trace it onto the textured paper and cut out the shapes.  I love how these little frogs turned out.

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Tammy