Our Tadpoles
Have
you ever walked by a pond and wondered if there were tadpoles
living in there?
This
past summer my Dad took us to a small neighbourhood pond
complete with bullrushes and long grass. We took along a big
bucket in hopes of catching a few tadpoles. Well, we put in
our scoop and before we knew it we had about 15 or so
tadpoles. We thought that it would be a good idea if we also
took along enough of the water and plantlife so they would
feel at home. Shaelyn tried to catch a tadpole with her
hands, and kind of slipped into the water, but only her feet
and shoes got soaked. When we brought them home we put them
in a big bucket, with the plantlife. Each day we watched them
grow, and grow, and grow. And then finally, one day we
noticed one of the tadpoles had back legs! And before we knew
it two more were turning into small frogs.
Within
about 2 weeks all but one tadpole had legs. The ones with
front and back legs also began to change the looks of their
heads. They were very small frogs, about an inch long. But at
the same time it seemed like some of the tadpoles had
disappeared, because they never came up to the surface when
we put the food into the bucket.
About a week before school started up again we took them back
to the pond where we had gotten them from, much to Shaelyn's
dismay. She was hoping that we could keep one. The deal was
that when they became frogs we would return them to their
original habitat. When we had put all of the tadpoles back
into the pond, and were leaving, one of the tadpoles poked
his head up from the water, as if he was saying good-bye!!!
It was very cute.
Although we didn't keep the tadpoles until they were full grown, we still had a great experience watching them grow so quickly!.....
If you are thinking
of experiencing the great changes that take place from
tadpole to frog, the link below is a great source for
information. Don't forget the most important things -
tadpoles need chlorine-free water (we used rain-water mostly
because we just had so much of it this summer!) and they love
lettuce!! (We boiled up a huge batch and kept it in a large
freezer bag in the deep-freeze and broke off pieces daily).
The tadpoles gobbled it up I'm sure even before it had time
to thaw. It's a cool learning experience for kids and even
for parents. There were many a times we'd even see mom and
dad kneeling in front of the container for quite some time!
(Probably reminiscing their childhood, I suppose)
.........Brittany, Shelby & Shaelyn
Our Dog Irie / Silverwings / Our Tadpoles / My Mini Dolls /
Our Artwork / Christmas at Our House / Babyz Fashionz
How to Raise Tadpoles - a great site with loads of info to get started
Music Playing:
Birds and the Bees by Jewel Akens
