El Ciclo De Vida De La Rana/Life cycle of a frog (Ciclo De Vida / The Life Cycle)

by Bobbie Kalman, Kathryn Smithyman

Describes how frogs develop from eggs to tadpoles to froglets to adult frogs.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Bobbie Kalman (1947 - ) is the award-winning Canadian author of more than 400 non-fiction books.

She established herself as a leading author in children’s non-fiction in the 1980’s and 90’s with two acclaimed series about pioneer life, The Early Settler Life Series (15 titles) and The Historic Communities Series (31 titles), both published by Crabtree Publishing.
She has created many of Crabtree’s most popular series, which also include The Native Nations of North America Series (19 titles), The Lands, Peoples, and Cultures Series (93 titles), and The Science of Living Things Series (32 titles), among others.

Born in Hungary in 1947, Bobbie and her family escaped to Austria during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. The family spent several weeks there as refugees before immigrating to North America. A former teacher, Bobbie Kalman taught at both the elementary and secondary levels. She also spent several years working as an educational consultant for several publishing companies. Bobbie holds degrees in English, Psychology, and Education. She is married and has four children and three grandchildren.

Although best known for her non-fiction, Bobbie’s newest book is autobiographical. Released in September, 2006, Refugee Child is the account of Bobbie and her family’s escape from Hungary when she was just nine years old. Written to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution in October of 2006, the book is told from the perspective of a young girl.

Reviews

[Katherine Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This informational text goes into detail about the life cycle of a frog. It shares details and facts about each stage the frog goes through in it's life from an egg to an adult frog. This text would be appropriate for all elementary grade levels depending on the use of the text. This text can be used to talk about life cycles, comparing the life cycle of a frog to a different animal, or talking about text features. I intend to add this book to my collection of informational frog books. This is a wow book for me because in my classroom, students write a research paper with a partner about the life cycle of a frog. This would be a great resource to add to my collection so that students can not only research on the internet, but they can read a nonfiction text to get some of their information.

[Renee Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book for examining the life cycle of a frog. Nicely illustrated and gives detailed information on the different stages of a frog's life. Allows for lively discussion and is presented in a way that lower elementary students can understand it. There is a brief discussion on the difference between a life cycle and a life span. There is also a brief discussion on toads and how they differ from frogs and sadly, how frogs are becoming an endangered species.

[Stacy Renee (LazyDayLit)]

Perfect for learning all about the frog life cycle!

[Emily V]

Frogs, frogs, frogs! In this book you will learn all about frogs, their habitats, their facts, and their life cycle. There are pictures and illustrations so you can see what every color and frog leg looks like. You can use this book to write about frogs and to base your amazing drawings on them too!

This book is full of interesting/relevant facts to teach students about frogs! The book is set up nicely so students can navigate the pages for a specific purpose; this book is also full of text features (more exposure)! I like that the book has a balance of facts, pictures, and covers the life cycle; the readers get a grand amount of information in one book.

I would pair this book with a Brainpopjr video about life cycles. I think students would enjoy learning about the life cycle from the book and then be able to connect to the information in the video.

I would have students use this book to pull information for a written assignment. Students would reference the book and create their own informational text mirroring the text features.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book introduces not just the life cycle of a frog, but also a frog's habitat, eating habits, and behavior. My 4 year old especially enjoyed it, and she was very pleased to have learned a new word: amphibian.

[Kathryn Sublett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Students will understand the life cycle of a frog as this book is read aloud. Teachers can use this book in the Explain part of a Five E lesson plan to provide formal vocabulary for the stages of a the life cycle. Students would be able to make real observations for their frog's life cycle chart if the teacher created stations of the different stages using real frog eggs, tadpoles, young adult, and adult frog representations. This would be appropriate for students in second grade.

[Rose]

597 Kal

[Zitlaly · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I thought is that it was a great book. I want to read it again. I am going to read it again because it is super good. It is really good.

[Kaetlyn Scarpa]

Title: The Life Cycle of a Frog
Author: Bobbie Kalyan and Kathryn Smithyman
Awards: None
Grade: 1-5

Summary: This book is about the life cycle of a frog and teaches you about all the stages in a frogs life. Frogs change in 4 stages: egg, tadpole, froglet and adult. The book also shares many different types of facts about frogs.

Review: I liked this book because it was simple yet very informative. I also really liked the cool facts that they included in the book about how the eat. The pictures of the different stages were also really cool.

Classroom Use: I would read this book to all grades but for this activity i would use it with older kids like grades 3-5. This book can be read as an introduction to the new class pet: tadpoles. Students can use their science journals to document the tadpoles journey into changing into a frog.