A frog in the bog

Book information:

A frog in the bog

Wilson, K. (2003). A frog in the bog. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books.

ISNB#: 0-689-84081-0

Book contents:

This book “A frog in the bog” by Karma Wilson is a cumulative rhyming tale that tickles your tongue and  causes the readers to snicker over the hilarious scenes.  It is about a frog on a half-sunk log that grows larger and larger as he eats more and more bugs until he realizes that the log is actually an alligator.  The surprised frog then throws up all the bugs one by one, so the bugs crowded inside the frog’s belly eventually escape to freedom. 

The reason that I choose this book for 3-5 year olds:

This book is perfect for three to five year olds age group for three reasons.  First, it uses the cumulative rhyming throughout the story. Learning to recognize rhyming pattern is an important skill for early readers.  Children in this year of ages will build a number of skills that are key to literacy, including alphabetic knowledge, phonological awareness, and concepts about print conventions (Berk, 2009). Children will be phonemically aware of the word and become familiar with it as they are listening the story. Second of all, it shows repeating patterns in both rhyming and unrhyming lines of the story. The constant repeating helps children to predict upcoming lines, and story developments which can develop their cognitive abilities.  Finally, the book is fun.  We often see children get bored and do not focus while they are listening. Yet, the hilarious scenes and unexpected incident will catch their eyes and ask their participations.  But most importantly, children love gross things!

Illustrations:

The book uses watercolour painting methods throughout, so readers can very easily find different colors of paint splashed together making beautiful scenery.  Because the illustrator did not use many colors, the illustrations could look pale, but she used bright and vivid colours for the bugs to balance it out. I think children will like these illustrations, and I definitely want to draw watercolour pictures with them because it is a great way to express soft and dreamy moods.

Provocations: water-table play

Material: water table, muddy water (add mud in the water), big alligator-shaped wooden toy, small frog stoy (if possible different sizes of frog), leaves, logs

Before I read the book to children, I am going to have water table play with children. (If it is not winter, I will take children outside where actual mud is located)   In this empty water table, I will decorate a small bog.  First I will put a big alligator-shaped wooden toy in the middle of the table and then fill the water table with muddy water until the alligator half sinks.  Next, I will float leaves and logs on the table and put small frog toys on the logs and the wooden alligator. Then, I am going to suggest children play there. While they are playing, some of them will notice the wooden toy is an alligator shape and some of them will not.  It does not matter whether they find it or not. It works both ways. Because during the reading time some of them can predict what is going to happen to frog and some of them can laugh at funny ending. Also, while they are playing, I will ask some questions to children so they can share their background knowledge with peers.  

4 ways to present the book:

1) Felt book

I am going to make a whole new book made out of cardboard and felt. 8 sheets of 12.5 inches x 17.5 inches of smooth, 1.mm thick poster cardboard will be used for each page and it will be covered with white felt for background. All the illustrations will express by felt and text will not be included on the book.  One the top of the white felt background, the felt bog will be stitched. However, I will not stitch the felt characters (bugs, an alligator, and a frog) because after the storytelling time children can freely move the characters and create a whole new story of their own. 

Because the book does not have text in, I will have to memorize the lines when I present the story in front of children.  On each part where the frog eats bugs, I am going to drag bugs into the belly of the frog, showing that bugs are in the belly of the frog. On the page before where the logs start to rise, I am going to let children wonder for a while.  There will be a great percent of possibility that children will shout out loud “I know I know!!!” because they might realize the fact (the log is actually an alligator) from the water-table play activity.

2) Matryoshka (Russia nesting) dolls

Matryoshka is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed on inside the other.  I ordered one set of five blank Matryoshka dolls online for $16. The frogs will be painted in each size with bugs on the bellies.  For coloring, I am going to use water color paints and the paint will be covered with a layer of Nitor-lacquer to preserve the colour.

I am going to start from the smallest doll to biggest doll.  First, I will stop the reading on the page where frog first eats one tiny tick and then I will take out a smallest doll from my pocket and put it in front of children.  Then I will keep read the book until the frog eats two flees. Next, I will take out second last size of the doll and put the first doll in the second one and then repeat it until frogs eat 5 snails   I will keep read the story until the part frog throws up all the bugs in order. On each part the frog throws up I will take the doll off one by one and put it on my pocket again until the smallest doll shows.

3) Singing and acting

I am going to dress like a frog and act like a frog in the book “A frog in the bog” while I sing a song. For songs, I ask my friend (Her name is Haeun and she is studying general music in UBC) to put melody on the text of the book.  The melody is very simple so children can easily sing along with it. For the clothes I am going to put green felt gloves on my hands, green felt shoes on by feet, and frog felt mask on my head.  And then, I will hang the green felt board with a string attached on my neck.  Felt bugs will stick on the felt board, so when I act, I will grab felt bugs very easily.

4) Story bags

I am going to present the by using bag filled with small miniatures.  The bag will be used for the background: a Bog. The frog puppet will be made with zipper pencil case and the bugs will be made out of cloth and cotton balls. I will buy a small alligator toy in the dollar shop.

I am going to memorize the line and preset the story without book. I am going to take miniatures one by one out as I tell the story.  The part where the frog eats the bugs I will zip up the zipper and put bugs inside the frog puppet. The children will wonder what will be in the bags.

Three possible extensions

1) Children’s participations (role play)

I am going to read book several times until children memories the storylines.  And then I will role play with them.  The green blanket will be the frog, children will be the bugs and I will the narrative. Huge blanket will be place in the middle of the room and children with printed and illuminated bug masks will get in and out the blanket as I narrate the story.

2) Game (Word rhymes puzzles)

Since it is a rhyme book, I will teach children how rhymes used in the book “A frog in the bog” by ask them to put the puzzle pieces together.  For puzzles, I am going to pint the word from the book such as frog, log, and bog with each picture on the top of indicating nouns. Next, I will laminate them and then cut them into puzzles one letter per each puzzle piece.

3) Art

I will ask children to draw a frog on the log in the middle of the bog.  The painting medium will be the watercolour paint just like the illustrations of the book “a frog in the bog.” I am expecting some of them will draw an alligator instead of a log.

A frog in the bog on PhotoPeach


The squeaky door on PhotoPeach