Frog Life Cycle

We successfully witnessed a frog's life cycle, from egg to adult frog!  It was an enjoyable learning experience.  It is a leopard frog (Northern leopard frog, to be exact), and supposedly they take three months or around 12 weeks to complete metamorphosis.  Our frog took eight weeks.  I wonder whether it was nourished extremely well or whether that is supposed to include the frog growing in size.

Past life cycles we've learned about and witnessed can be found on this blog on the following pages:

Bird Life Cycle

Wasp Life Cycle

Butterfly and Pill Bug Life Cycles

Human Life Cycle

Most of the pictures I took of our tadpole are not good quality.  It would have been optimal if I'd have taken all the pictures when I had the tank in the bathroom to change out its water, but in the earliest stages I didn't even walk that far with the tank, but poured half the water into a bowl.  Also all were taken with my iPhone, as I could not get my digital camera's flash inactivated.  I do not know what the deal is.  It lived its tadpole life out on top of my dresser.  The most important thing, of course, was that we were able to watch and enjoy.  Jaden William and Elizabeth especially enjoyed it (as did I).  Liv liked it, too.  Trusten didn't seem to care a whole lot.  Nathan thought it was pretty neat and watched Tad's transformation, too. 

At arrival, most were embryos; there were some eggs.  The second day all but one died.

See the little back leg, at just over five weeks vs. the supposed sprout at six weeks.

Bathroom picture came out better with better lighting.

Front legs!  And they grew completely over one night, I swear!  I don't know how it would have hidden them, as I was daily watching closely for sprouts.

I placed a piece of wood in the tank for Tad to climb upon.  Its tail is hanging in water.  Second picture is underwater photo, as it was frightened.

Chin propped up on wood, tail shrinking quickly!

Short tail and practically no tail

Dirty little creature; picture on right taken in boys' room where it now resides.  We've not seen it eat any live moving insect, yet, but that's what it's supposed to do.  It's certainly not for lack of providing them.

A Kindle book borrowed for free with our Amazon Prime membership:

Boys' journal entries on tadpoles/frogs:

 Trusten's illustration cracked me up.  Remember, he's the one who was "not that much" interested in the life cycle of the frog.  The way he depicted the tadpole growing and then winning a race (rather than transforming into an adult frog) makes me think he's likening it to the story of Willy the human sperm.  Hahahahaha!  I love this boy!

I love William's colorful picture!  Do you see the frogs at his feet?  And then he drew the life cycle.

This was fun!  I highly recommend teaching life cycles by seeing the real deal.  We've always enjoyed seeing the various stages of life in different species, whether it be plant or animal or other.  

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Until next time...