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Life in the Tech Lab K–6 Technology Education
First Grade · Frog Life Cycle

Frog Life Cycle Booklet: Notes for Teachers and Parents

How students make their own frog life cycle book, and how to print it as a real booklet.

  1. At a glance

    Grades
    Written for First Grade. Works for Second Grade, and for Kindergarten with a lot of help.
    Time
    About four to six sessions of 20 to 30 minutes.
    You need
    A computer or Chromebook with internet, and a printer that can print a booklet (see below).
    Students will
    Read about each stage, type a page for each stage in their own book, label the life cycle, and take a quiz.

  2. Technology skills in a real context

    Each activity on this site teaches a core technology skill while students use it for real learning. Here, students open their own copy of a document, type on each page, save and name their file, and see their typing become a real printed book they take home. The bigger lesson: technology helps us learn, write and share.

  3. Where this fits

    This booklet is one part of a classroom unit on frogs, life cycles or animals that change as they grow.

    1-LS1-2
    Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive. (The jelly that protects frog eggs is a good example.)
    3-LS1-1
    Life cycles are a Third Grade standard, so this unit is an early, friendly first look at them.
    Writing
    Gathering information from sources an adult provides and writing about it, a First Grade writing and research skill.

  4. How the pieces fit together

    • Learn about each stage: students read the stage pages, with a Listen button for beginning readers.
    • Get your book: each student opens their own copy of the booklet template and types about each stage.
    • Watch a video: a good break between writing sessions.
    • Label the life cycle: students put the pictures and names in order on the computer, or print a worksheet to label with a pencil.
    • Take the quiz: ten questions and a printable certificate with the student’s name, score and date, handy for a gradebook or a completion check-off.

  5. Printing a real booklet

    Every student gets their own small book to take home. Booklet printing puts two pages on each side of a sheet, in the right order, so the stack folds in half into a little book.

    • School printers and copiers: most large printers have a Booklet mode. Choose it in the print settings, print, fold the stack in half, and staple along the fold.
    • Microsoft Word: in Layout, open Margins, then Custom Margins, and set Multiple pages to Book fold. Then print on both sides.
    • Google Docs: Google Docs has no booklet setting. Download the book as a PDF (File, then Download), open it in the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, and choose Booklet when you print.
    • Home printers: many home printers have a booklet or 2-up layout in their own print settings. Look for Booklet, Book, or Pages per sheet.
    • Print on both sides. If your printer can’t, print the fronts, put the pages back in, and print the backs.

    A long-reach stapler makes stapling along the fold easy. Print a few extra books for the classroom library.

    Once students know how to make a booklet, you can use it for writing projects all year, and for years to come.

  6. At home

    • In spring, visit a pond and look for eggs and tadpoles. Take pictures instead of taking them home; in many places, collecting them is not allowed.
    • Read the finished book together, and let your child read it to someone else in the family.
    • Make another booklet about any animal that changes as it grows, like a butterfly or a ladybug.
Back to Frog Life Cycle Booklet All First Grade projects

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