Photo Booth Frogs

I saw this photo circulating on Pinterest and it gave me an idea for our last 3rd grade project.  Their teachers asked if I could do a project about frogs with the students, so I thought this photo booth project would be a great way to review the life cycle of the frog!

This project took about three and a half days total.  At the end of our last project, students had to pair up and fill out this worksheet as best as possible (I found this through a google search).  I didn't grade it, only wanted to see what they could remember about the frog life cycle since they learned about it in 1st grade and had just started the unit in class.  I did alter this worksheet a tad bit by place plain white boxes over the words and printing it out for the students.  Then I made a version in the smart notebook program so I could just move the white box out of the way to show the answer when we reviewed the worksheet.


On the first full day, we measured out the boxes.  This was quite a challenge for some students, but very easy for others.  I took large drawing paper and cut it vertically into three strips.  First we measured a 1/2" border around the outside.  Then, we measured and marked at 3" and 3 1/2".  I showed students how to measure and mark on both sides and then connect the dots to make their perfect box.  Then, we relined up the ruler and marked again at 3" and 3 1/2".  If students measured correctly, they had five boxes at the finish.

On the 2nd and 3rd day, students drew and colored their frogs.  Students were allowed to make their frogs look realistic or cartoon-y, but most of which copied the frogs almost exactly from the worksheet.  At this point, we had just enough time to finish this project before the end of the year, so I didn't pull out examples of frogs for students to draw from. Students had to draw out each stage of the frog and then they were allowed to use either colored pencils or shade with drawing pencil.  I really like the black and white versions a lot.  I think if I do this next year, I will have the students do a value scale so they can get the feel of using different pressures on the pencil and then everyone will have to use drawing pencil.