I love creating preschool and kindergarten music lesson plans and something that I’ve found I thoroughly enjoy in the process is naming them with one-word titles that encompass the lesson plan’s theme. Most of the lesson plans inside of the Music For Kiddos Community library and all of the preschool & kindergarten music lesson plans found in our Top 5 Lesson Plan Bundle are examples of that preference such as the “Sweets Lesson Plan”, the “Rainbow Lesson Plan”, the “Space Lesson Plan” and the “Bear Lesson Plan” (the latter two can also be found here).
The Frog Music Lesson Plan for preschool and kindergarten music time is no exception to what I described above! As opposed to the majority of the lesson plans in the Community, where the lesson plans specifically include my original songs written around a theme with different developmental, SEL and academic goals in mind, this music lesson plan includes traditional or popular songs. However, this Frog Lesson Plan features one of my most popular original movement songs, “Move It, Move It!” which you can find on Spotify, Amazon Music or your favorite music streaming platform.
Here are the songs for the Frog music lesson plan and a quick break down of how I use them!
1. Hello Song
Use the Hello Song of your choice! (Here’s a packet of some of my hello + goodbye songs, which you can download for free, or watch the video below for 3 other favorites!)
2. Five Green & Speckled Frogs
This song is great to reinforce counting. I model and ask the kids to put a hand out and pretend that their fingers are the five green & speckled frogs. Every time one of the frogs falls into the pool, kids bring a finger down and count how many frogs are left. With preschoolers, we might need to guide them a bit more when counting, especially at the beginning of the school year. When you get to zero and now there are zero speckled frogs, it's good to explain to the kids what zero is because the concept of “zero” is actually a really big developmental stage for the preschool years. Saying that there are “zero”, and that “zero” means there are no more frogs on the log because they all jumped into the water can helps kids understand that concept.
3. Just A Little Tadpole
This is a song that at a lot of elementary music teachers use, especially in second or third grade, from the musical Swamped!. Because it is a longer song (wordy), it's more of a listening song at the preschool and kindergarten age.
I actually wasn't quite sure if it was gonna be a big hit with my students because I thought it might be too wordy. It ended up being a story song and they really liked it!
The concepts are not very complicated for preschool through first grade; the song talks about the process of a tadpole turning into a frog. Something that stands out about this song, however, is that they got the process of how a tadpole turns into a frog wrong! This should be the order: first it's a tadpole, then it gets its back legs, then it gets its front legs and then it's tail gradually disappears.
I changed two of the verses around to portray the right stage order (which you will see reflected on my version of the song below):
I’m just a little tadpole, swimming with my friends
If you’re a little tadpole, the fun never ends
I wiggle my tail, since I left my egg
Then, gradually, gradually… I grew some legs!
A tadpole! A tadpole! A young pollywog in an old foggy bog,
And maybe, someday, I’ll grow up to be … a real live FROG!
I’m just a little tadpole, swimming with my friends
If you’re a little tadpole, the fun never ends
I wiggle my tail, since I left my egg
Then, gradually, gradually… I grew some arms! (or I grew my front legs!)
A tadpole! A tadpole! A young pollywog in an old foggy bog,
And maybe, someday, I’ll grow up to be … a real live FROG!
I’m just a little tadpole, swimming with my friends
If you’re a little tadpole, the fun never ends
I wiggle my tail… “Hey! What happened to my tail?”
I guess I lost my tail. It happened somehow,
And you can see … You can see … I’m a frog NOW!
No tadpole! No tadpole!
No young pollywog in an old foggy bog!
Hip! Hip! Hooray! It’s my lucky day!
I AM A FROG!
RIBBIT!
Here’s a video with the song + lyrics, and if you want to incorporate movements with this song, this video might give you some ideas.
4. Instrument Exploration
When I facilitated this lesson plan to my students, I shared the cabasa during the instrument exploration because that was an instrument I hadn’t introduced to them before. You may also use the Basic Beats wooden frog rasp available at West Music, and ask the kids to make it rib-it like a frog.
5. On A Log, Mr. Frog
Such a simple song and movement activity which I did not expect to be as popular with my students!
You can hear how we played with this movement song (using numbers, jumping, dancing, and then we freeze!) during my preschool and kindergarten music classes on this video (I start talking about this song at minute 5:20).
6. Move It, Move It!
After the previous song, the kids are a little bit riled up because they've been jumping like frogs and to get some more of the wiggles out, we move on to one of my favorite active movement songs, “Move It, Move It!”
You can watch the lyrics video for “Move It, Move It!” below or listen to it on Spotify!
7. Goodbye Song
Lastly, we sang a goodbye song. If you need fresh and new goodbye songs, you might want to download my Hello + Goodbye Songs Packet (for free!). You can download it HERE.
This was a pretty long lesson plan and it took about 25 minutes to get all the way through it in my classes.
Did you know I create new preschool and kindergarten lesson plans every months for the Music For Kiddos Community members? If you liked this lesson plan, you might love my library of more than 400 early childhood music resources, including lesson plans with original songs and visuals. The Community welcomes new members twice a year. Learn more about it and sign up for the waitlist HERE.
Would you like the chords and lyrics of our most popular children’s songs, including “Move It, Move It!” featured on this lesson plan?
Free Download 🍉
You can find a professional recording and the chords + lyrics of the song “Move It, Move It!” in our “5 Most Popular Children’s Songs” Songbook!
Download the songbook for FREE here ↓
Hope you enjoy this lesson plan!
xo stephanie
