As I promised here is another post about the tadpoles in our pond. I wanted to make this a learning lesson for my grandchildren. So please keep in mind while you may already know and understand the information in this post. I am attempting to make this a lesson for young preschoolers.
Our tadpoles began their journey as a jelly like egg laid in the pond by the mother frog. The floating mass of eggs are clumped together. The mass of eggs is called frog spawn. A large clump of eggs is safer than a small clump of eggs that may be eaten by other pond life.
The egg starts as a single cell. As the egg slowly develops it splits into two cells. The two cells split into four cells and so on. The mass of cells forms an embryo. Organs and gills begin to form. At 21 days the embryo leaves it jelly like shell and attaches it self to a weed in the pond. The embryo is now a tadpole.
The tadpole grows until it can break free into the water. This can take any where from 3 days to 3 weeks. This will depend on the type of frog the tadpole will become.
The tadpole will use camouflage to protect its self from danger. The tadpoles eat small green algae plants that are in the water. At about five weeks the tadpole starts to grow hind legs. This is where some of our tadpoles are at in their metamorphosis.
I have included a video of a few tadpoles I scooped up today. The first one focused on in the video does not have legs yet. You may be able to see leg buds. As the video moves along you will see tadpoles swimming with legs.
Our tadpoles began their journey as a jelly like egg laid in the pond by the mother frog. The floating mass of eggs are clumped together. The mass of eggs is called frog spawn. A large clump of eggs is safer than a small clump of eggs that may be eaten by other pond life.
The egg starts as a single cell. As the egg slowly develops it splits into two cells. The two cells split into four cells and so on. The mass of cells forms an embryo. Organs and gills begin to form. At 21 days the embryo leaves it jelly like shell and attaches it self to a weed in the pond. The embryo is now a tadpole.
The tadpole grows until it can break free into the water. This can take any where from 3 days to 3 weeks. This will depend on the type of frog the tadpole will become.
The tadpole will use camouflage to protect its self from danger. The tadpoles eat small green algae plants that are in the water. At about five weeks the tadpole starts to grow hind legs. This is where some of our tadpoles are at in their metamorphosis.
I have included a video of a few tadpoles I scooped up today. The first one focused on in the video does not have legs yet. You may be able to see leg buds. As the video moves along you will see tadpoles swimming with legs.
No tadpoles were hurt in the making of this video. The tadpoles were release immediately back into the pond.
As our tadpoles grow we will post more of our learning experience. I found a coloring page online for my grandchildren to enjoy. If you would like the same coloring page here is the link to the coloring page.
Metamorphosis of a tadpole to frog.
I hope you enjoyed our lesson today.
