Frog with a Fly Craft

{Paper Plate Frog with a Fly by Logan, Age 2 1/2}

Here is another Leap Day frog craft idea. This one was a joint effort between Logan and Mama.

Materials:

• paper plate
• scissors
• glue
• tape
• green paint
• foam paint brush
• Styrofoam tray
• two white bottle caps
• red pipe cleaner
• black pipe cleaner
• 2 green pipe cleaners
• black construction paper
• wax paper

Directions:

1. Protect work surface with newspaper. Pour green paint into Styrofoam tray. Have your child paint the back side (non-eating side) of paper plate with a thin coat of green paint. You can use more than one shade if you like. Logan used about 3 different shades, although it is hard to tell since they all started blending together. (Also, he got bored half way through and wanted me to finish the rest.) Let paint dry.
2. Cut a red pipe cleaner in half. Bend as desired to form the frog's tongue. Make a small hole near the center of the plate using the tip of the scissors. Then insert into the hold in the middle of the paper plate so that about 1/2 " goes through to the back. Secure the end with tape. 
3. Cut two green pipe cleaners in half. Bend each one so that you have 3 "toes." Make two of the feet a bit smaller so you can leave more of the pipe cleaner unbent. Use these for the front legs and tape them to the front of your frog. Tape the bigger two to the back side so that just the feet show on the front.
4. For the eyes, cut two small circles of black construction paper. (I made ours by tracing around a quarter.) Have your child glue these to the insides of two white bottle caps. (Ours are from apple juice bottles.) Glue the outside (flat part) of the bottle caps onto the paper plate.

How to Make the Fly:

{Close-Up of Fly}

1. Cut a length of black pipe cleaner about 1 1/2" long. Coil it tightly.
2. Cut a small rectangle of wax paper. Fold in half. Cut towards the fold, but not into it, making an oval shape. Unfold the wax paper slightly.
3. Put a small amount of glue on the underside of the wax paper, right near the fold. Insert into the coiled part of the black pipe cleaner.
4. Glue fly onto the frog's tongue.

• Tip: Have child wear old clothing or paint smock. (We use old t-shirts with a clothes pin to hold them tightly at the back of the neck.)
• Tip: We use recycled Styrofoam from meat packaging (or a plastic compartmentalized tray from a TV dinner), but a bowl or plate will work just as well for holding paint.
• Tip: If you are impatient like we are you can speed up dry time with a blow dryer.
• Tip: You can use googly eyes in place of bottle caps.
• Tip: You can also make the frog's legs out of green construction paper.
• Tip: If you don't have a black pipe cleaner, you can make a funky colored fly, or make your fly out of black construction paper.

Recycled CD Frog Craft

In honor of Leap Day, I decided some frog crafts were in order. Here is one idea for reusing a CD that came in junk mail. I think Mia made a cute and "hoppy" little friend.

{CD Froggy by Mia, Age 5}

Materials:

• old CD
• green paint
• foam paint brush
• scissors
• glue
• tape
• Styrofoam tray
• 2 green plastic bendy straws
• red pipe cleaner
• 2 white pom poms
• black dimensional paint
• 4 self adhesive green craft foam letters (W, M, or V)
• newspaper (to protect work surface)

Directions:

1. Protect work surface with newspaper. Pour green paint into Styrofoam tray. Paint back side (shiny side) with a thin coat of green paint. You can use more than one shade if you like. Mia chose to paint the body with one hue and add spots in a second shade. Allow paint to dry completely. 
2. Cut a red pipe cleaner in half. Bend as desired to form the frog's tongue. Then insert into the hold in the middle of the CD so that about 1/2 " goes through to the back. Secure the end with tape. 
3. Cut two green bendy straws about in half. Use the bendy parts for the hind legs. Cut one of the straight pieces in half. Use each half for the front legs. Tape all four legs to the CD. Peel the backing from green self-adhesive foam letters (We used 2 W's and 2 V's.) and stick them onto the legs to form the toes/feet.
4. Glue two white pom poms onto the CD for eyes. Add a dot of black dimensional paint to the center of each. Allow glue and dimensional paint to dry.

• Tip: Have child wear old clothing or paint smock. (We use old t-shirts with a clothes pin to hold them tightly at the back of the neck.)
• Tip: We use recycled Styrofoam from meat packaging (or a plastic compartmentalized tray from a TV dinner), but a bowl or plate will work just as well for holding paint.
• Tip: If you are impatient like we are you can speed up dry time with a blow dryer.
• Tip: You can use googly eyes in place of pom poms.
• Tip: You could try green pipe cleaners for legs if you don't have any straws on hand.

Paper Plate Tree Frog Craft

Mia likes frogs and I decided that these plastic cups that once held mandarin oranges would make perfect froggy eyes. All we needed was a face, and a paper plate seemed like the obvious choice. This craft was pretty quick to do and Mia was able to make it almost entirely on her own.

{Tree Frog by Mia, Age 4}

Materials:

• paper plate
• green paint
• red paint
• foam paintbrush
• newspaper
• glue
• 2 empty plastic fruit cups
• black felt
• black marker
• pink pipe cleaner, felt, or paper (optional)

Directions:

1. After covering work surface with newspaper, paint the back side of a paper plate green. (We used acrylic paint which dries quickly but will stain clothing so take care when using.) Allow paint to dry.
2. For eyes, we re-used two clean, dry plastic cups. Paint the outside (or inside if you prefer) of each cup red.  Allow paint to dry.
3. Cut two circles from black felt (or craft foam or paper) and glue onto the plastic cups. (I did the cutting.)
4. Line the rim of the plastic cups with glue and adhere to the paper plate.
5. Draw a mouth using a black marker.

Other Ideas:

• Instead of making the eyes red you could use white, yellow, or orange paint.  
• Add a tongue made from a pink pipe cleaner, felt, or construction paper.
• If you don't have plastic fruit cups you could try using egg carton cups or yogurt cups to make the eyes.
• Add a craft stick on the back of the frog to make a puppet.