Trash To Toy: Paper Towel Roll Speckled Frog

Good Morning!

I hope everyone is having a safe week and you're still finding bits of joy in the "new normal". If you were one of the lucky ones who found toilet paper and other paper products during quarantine, you probably have lots of empty rolls sitting in your recycling bin. "5 Speckled Frogs" is a popular hit in our music classes and seems to be a favorite with the littles. Today, I thought we could put those paper towel and toilet paper rolls to good use making our own fly eating speckled frog!

What You'll Need:

1. Paper Towel Roll or Toilet Paper Roll (*You will need 2 if using toilet paper rolls)

2. Yarn or String

3. Markers (*Specifically green, red, and black but your frog can be whatever color you want ;) )

4. Scissors

5. Glue

6. Stapler

You'll begin by taking your paper towel roll and cutting it in half. It helps if you squeeze the middle of the roll, flattening it slightly, and then cutting it. If you are using a toilet paper roll, you will keep the roll whole. Once you have cut the paper towel roll in half, set the one half aside and cut the other half open so that the cylinder can become just flat cardboard. Color your cylindrical half completely green on the outside and on one end, color the inside red. This red end will be the frog's mouth. With your now flat piece of cardboard, draw out 4 frog legs, 2 frog eyes, and 1 fly. Color them and cut them out.

Once you have all your separate pieces, you can begin gluing. Glue 2 frog legs on the left and right sides of the cylinder about a 1/4 from the top and then glue the other 2 on the left and right sides about a 1/4 from the bottom. Then, glue your eyes on the top of the end that you colored red inside.

After you've assembled your frog, now it's time to add the fly. Cut a long piece of yarn or string. On one end of your yarn or string, glue your fly. Let this sit for a moment to ensure the glue is very dry and the fly is securely fastened.

Next, you will want to feed the end of the string that does not have your fly into the mouth end of the frog. Leave some of the other end of the string that has your fly attached to it hanging out of the frog's mouth. Staple the bottom of the frog shut, securing your excess string in place (*Staples can be a little scary and dangerous! Guide your little or do this step for them...:) ) After you have stapled your frog shut, you can add the speckles to the body and legs and arms.

Looks like your speckled frog is hungry for some delicious bugs! Not only is this craft cute but it can also be a fun game of trying to catch the fly inside your frog's mouth!

Ribbit Ribbit!

Miss Logan

Babies@MAFS