100 Days of Science #33-- Raising Tadpoles
My boys and I have had so much fun raising a batch of tadpoles this past month. We brought a baggie full of tadpoles home from one of our hiking trips and set them up in their own little home. We read up on how to care and feed them and set them up with their own little home.
We kept them in a small see through show bin outside on our patio table so they had lots of fresh air, plenty of shade, and other food sources (like the bug larvae that would get laid in the water).
After just a few sort days we saw a few of the tadpoles sprout back legs.
It took some time but they eventually sprouted front legs too and we could see their bodies getting longer and thinner. Evan told me he was so glad we did this because he never knew that they went through so many changes or how it would have happened.
Once we had a few with four legs we decided to graduate them to a bigger habitat with rocks for them to climb up out of the water on too.
We were thrilled to find our first frog! We could still see tiny bits of tail and we just could not believe how small and tiny these frogs were.
Once they began climbing up the sides of our container we knew it was time to let them go. We still weren't sure what type of frog they were so we released them at the very edge of the water figuring that way the frogs could decide where they wanted to go.
See, aren't they tiny?!
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| Released into the wild |
Honestly, they have been so easy to take care of and it has been so fun watching them that I'm pretty sure we'll be repeating this experiment again next year.
Have you ever tried growing tadpoles?
Others in this series:
1. Bernoulli's Principle
2. Ecotarium Trip
3. Air Molecule Experiment
4. Kitchen Science
5. Corn Maze Field Trip
6. Birds of Florida
7. Making Static Music
8. Un-Make It Monday
9. Wind Tunnel Experiment
10. Biomes Field Trip
11. Disappearing Coin Trip
12. Snuffing out a Candle With Baking Soda
13. Making Plastic from Milk
14. Friction Experiment
15. & 16. Snow Experiments
17. Making an Iceberg
18. Floating Eggs
19. Pond Water Under a Microscope
20. Planting Eco Plant Pals
21. & 22. Cotton Candy Experiments
23. Springfield Science Museum Trip
24. Signs of Spring
25. Color Changing Slime
26. Growing Our Own Tickle Plants
27. Learning About Soil Sampling
28. Making Bouncy Balls
29. Exploring the Shoreline
30. Color Changing Flowers
31. Roger Williams Zoo Trip
32. Edible Silly Putty
These photos bring back so many memories. I grew up by a creek and the delight of my girlhood was these precious tadpoles turning into lil frogs. I would pay with them for hours. Now that we have a pond and river, I am going to watch the progress even if the boys aren't into it anymore. I just love the incredible transformation!
ReplyDeleteMy dad used to have a pond in his backyard and we'd watch his tadpoles/ frogs too. It is so much fun.
DeleteThey are so tiny!
ReplyDeleteI could not get over how small they were; I kept thinking they'd grow bigger but they never seemed to.
DeleteSo adorable! We used to do this when we were kids! There was a crick at the end of our road and we watch them go over a time! So cute - I love frogs!
ReplyDeleteI do too! In fact my oldest son had a whole frog/ pond theme for his baby nursery.
DeleteAw they are so cute and so tiny! I'd love to raise tadpoles with my kids. I'm definitely keeping this in mind!
ReplyDeleteSo tiny! I could not believe it. I'm pretty sure the frogs were smaller than the tadpoles they began as.
DeleteThat's fascinating! I can't believe how tiny they are.
ReplyDeleteWe couldn't either. I was trying to look up what species they might be but couldn't figure it out.
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