Frogs, Turtles, and Ponds!
Things you never knew you wanted to do? Make your own lily pads and frogspawn!
It’s easy to think of ponds as small and common, but really they are incredibly rich habitats to observe and explore. Or maybe there are marshes, wetlands, small creeks, and lagoons near you instead. All are fascinating places to visit, and maybe even get a glimpse of frogs, turtles, dragonflies, or other wildlife and plant life. I’ve got some fascinating articles and videos for you to check out, and the guide is full of fun ways to explore ponds together with your kids.
What you’ll find in the Pond Guide:
Pond (and frog and turtle) Books to Read Together
Snack Time: Green Lily Pad Pancakes
Invitation to Play: Coffee Filter Lily Pads
Invitation to Play: Pond Play Sensory Bin
Plus poems and songs and some fantastic videos. Download the guide right here ↓ for all the pond-y goodness.
Guides are available to all subscribers for 1 month after they come out, and then they’ll go into the archive which is available to paid subscribers.
12 pond books to read with your kids.
Are You A Dragonfly? by Judy Allen, illustrated by Tudor Humphries
Mossy by Jan Brett
At the Pond by David Elliott, illustrated by Amy Schimler-Safford
The Old Bullfrog by Berniece Freschet, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin
The Caterpillar and the Polliwog by Jack Kent
Pond by Jim LaMarche
Pond Year by Kathryn Lasky, illustrated by Mike Bostock
Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel
Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter
Being Frog by April Pulley Sayre
Tuesday by David Wiesner
I’ve linked to Amazon for the sake of convenience, but my favorite place is always the public library. Or, you can support independent booksellers at Bookshop.org, or buy used copies from AbeBooks, ThriftBooks, and eBay.
Pond videos to watch with your kids.
🐢 World’s Most Personable Reptile? (5 minutes)
🐢 Pond Scum… or is it? (1 minutes)
🐢 The Fast and Sticky Frog Tongue (3 minutes)
🐢 Frog Sounds (3 minutes)
A poem.
I’m not sure if this poem happens at a pond or a marsh or a lake or whatever, but it’s still water somewhere, and I find it to be lovely and grounding.
“The Peace of Wild Things”
by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.A few more interesting froggy, turtle-y, pond-y things.
➵ The Legend of the Windham Frog Fight (Connecticut History) “…it was well after the residents of Windham had gone to bed on that June night that they heard a dreadful sound throughout the surrounding hills. Some believed it was the screams of warring tribal people or, perhaps, the bellowing trumpets of Judgment Day, and some residents reported hearing their names being called out at high volume…As the night’s darkness gave way to morning light, it became clear that the sound was coming from the bottom of a hill somewhere to the east of town.”
➵ Building a house for a frog. (Dazza) This little saga cracked me up, and has my kids asking when we can build a frog house. Related: “You Should Build A Frog Pond” from The Atlantic.
➵ The Tale of Jeremy Fisher (The Royal Ballet) The skill of this dancer doing this whole performance while wearing that frog’s head - impressive! (If you enjoy this, search for Tales of Beatrix Potter on iTunes or Prime Video for the Royal Ballet’s full performance.)
➵ 5 Translations of the Frog Pond Haiku by Matsuo Bashō (Beechwood Review) Have you read this famous 17th-century haiku? I don’t remember ever coming across it, and then in the past couple weeks it’s popped up more than once. I liked reading the different translations, and I also enjoyed this perspective from Frederick Buechner.
“In the life-cycle of the human, the pond has meaning at particular stages. It’s most of all a place of childhood…After childhood, one walks away from the pond, venturing up dramatic mountains, along dangerous rivers. One returns to the pond as a parent — to feed the ducks, to go pond ‘dipping’ with the eternal aids of a net and jam jar. This is pond-loving by proxy.”
—John Lewis-Stempel, from In praise of ponds, the water havens that ‘teem with life as fantastic as anything in science-fiction’
I hope you loved the Frogs, Turtles, & Pond Guide! For more Discovery & Play Guides, click this green button here to find the full archive.
Gotta jog, bullfrog!
Love, Kathryn
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