28th April Save The Frogs Day

Save The Frogs Day is on 28th April.  It is the largest day of amphibian education and conservation action. Frogs are an integral part of the food web! They help clean waterways by eating algae, eating insects that transmit fatal diseases to humans, and serve as a food source for other species.

I have written about frogs on this blog several times before, but I am writing about it again just to say how popular frog books have been in the library this week. We haven't had a frog display for quite some time, but the day was coming up and the other displays, Autumn and Mathematics didn't have many animal books and they are often what the students are looking for so we put out frogs and they have walked out the door!

These were the first to go, and I was surprised to see how many were information books not stories.

and these three Ken Kimura books:

20th March World Frog Day

Frogs in the Blue Mountains 

Photos by Ákos Lumnitzer .

World Frog Day, held on 20th March each year, is a day dedicated to raising awareness for frogs and other amphibians. Many frog populations are under threat and many species are disappearing, or have already become extinct!

In the Blue Mountains, which is very close to where we live the proximity of bushland with its network of streams, bogs, swamps, and lakes means that frogs are never far away from us, although for many of us, they are rarely seen. But even unseen, they make their presence known each spring, the chorus of frogs being one of the thrilling sounds of nature.

There are 35 amphibian species in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. Sydney is home to a diverse range of native frogs too, including tree frogs and ground-dwelling species commonly found in gardens and bushland. Common species include the Striped Marsh Frog, Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog,  and Common Eastern Froglet.

The young children I teach are fascinated by frogs and it is easy to put together a display. At hthe moment though most of the books are in classrooms so a display will have to wait for  one of the other days that celebrate frogs. See pinterest page.

3rd to 12th November Frog ID Week

    

 

Be a citizen scientist.Take part in Australia's biggest frog count! Our frogs are under threat from habitat loss, disease and climate change. Record frog calls with the FrogID app for our scientists to listen and identify and help provide valuable data for the protection and conservation of frogs.

Similar to Bird Week when Australians keep tabs on the birds in their backyard, here is a chance to record the frogs you can hear. What a fun thing to do!

Living in Australia there are 230 species within the five native frog families. Sounds like a lot, but the number of frogs in the world is dwindling and we do need to be aware of them and what we can do to ensure their survival.

If you want to read more about frogs while doing your frog hunt, borrow these books from the library. They are full of good information for a budding frog scientist.

7th to 13th May Amphibian Week

Amphibians are unique. They begin their lives in the water, but most of their adult life is on land. And they are ectothermic, meaning their body temperature relies on external sources, like a rock heated by the sun or a river or lake. Amphibians are sensitive to invasive species, drought, disease, and other changes where they live. So researchers study amphibians because they often show early signs of stressors, like disease and climate change.

Jodi Rowley, from the Australian Museum who was named in The Australian’s Research 2023 magazine as research field leader in zoology, says that amphibians are one of the least understood and most endangered groups of animals on the planet. She notes that, according to the authoritative IUCN Red List, 41 per cent of amphibian species worldwide are threatened with extinction.

Year 2 at my school classify animals into their groups as part of a Unit of Inquiry they are undertaking. The students don't always find this easy as they don't necessarily know a lot about animals beyond their generic name. As they learn more they become fascinated by amphibians, partly because they have no knowledge of any, other than frogs and they really like that they can live in water and on land.

One year while they were doing this unit, in the library we embarked on learning more about salamanders. We started with Minton,  a well-loved series of books about a salamander called Minton which started with The Hottest Boy by Anna Fienberg and Kim Gamble. The students did not know what a salamander was and were curious. There are no salamanders and newts native to Australia, so it wasn't that easy finding nonfiction books at their level to research further.

We found three:

• Salamanders  by Nick Winnick

• Fun Facts About Salamanders  by Carmen Bredeson

• Lifecycle of Salamander by Robin Nelson

There is some fiction as well:

• The Salamander Room  by

• Spike  by Michelle Knudsen

• The Fiery Salamander  by Colin Thiele

Look here for books about the more popular amphibians, frogs and toads.

Of course frogs, toads, salamanders and newts will feature in any book that is specifically about amphibians. See my Pinterest page on Animal Classification for suggestions.

If your students are young, these are perfect:

• Amphibians Living Things and their Habitats  by Grace Jones

• Amphibians Live on Land and in Water by Sarah Ridley

• Do You Know About Amphibians? by Buffy Silverman

• Amphibians  by Angela Royston

Foot note: The Smooth Newt has been introduced to Australia near Melbourne and has started to spread. This probably occurred because a pet salamander escaped or was dumped.

13th May Frog Jumping Day

Frog Jumping Day is a good day to celebrate frogs and their amazing ability.

'Frogs have great jumping capabilities and are the best jumpers among all vertebrates given their size.'

Collect all the frog books you can find, both stories and expository texts and set aside time to read and learn, read and laugh and read and share. The most borrowed frog book in the library is Juliette MacIver's The Frog Who Lost His Underwear. There are so many favourite 'frog' series in my library.
There's
* Frog by Max Velthuijs. There is a dozen or so books in this series and they have recently been reissued in a larger format with covers that no longer have a bordered illustration.

* A Boy, a Dog and a Frog by Mercer Mayer. These little books are textless and small hands love them and tell the stories to each other without any trouble. There are six of them.

* Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel. This series has been around for a long time, but so many generations of children have learned to read using these beginning chapter books. They are always in print.

* Lester and Clyde by James Reese. These three books are very old now, out of print and hard to find, but I know teachers who share these stories with their class and then the children are keen to borrow them.

While these aren't a series, there are several versions of the dreamtime story of Tiddalick , a frog who caused a flood in my library, complete with puppets so that the children can make a play. It would be good also to introduce the fairytale  The Frog Prince  because it is one of the Grimm stories that not as many children know. Read a traditional version with fairytale language, not a 'reader' and then compare it with a spoof like Jackie Urbanovic's Prince of a Frog. Have fun revisiting lots of old favourites and jumping around like a frog. Below is a collection of stories about frogs. There are a large number of nonfiction books too listed here.

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