Frog Pond Small World for the Light Table

The theme for the Light & Reflections Series this week was dramatic play, so after much brainstorming, I came up with this frog pond small world for the light table.  We haven't really set up small worlds like this on the light table before, but boy was it fun!

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Frog Pond Small World Light Table Activity for Kids

I was actually inspired by some plastic grass that one of the other moms in my homeschool preschool co-op gave to me.  I was curious to see what the plastic grass would look like on the light table.  Once I saw how neat the plastic grass looked, I built up the small world around it.

To create the small world, I used a transparent blue folder (same ones used to make the color blocks and homemade shapes and letters), some colored glass stones (two shades of blue, clear, and two shades of green), large green glass stones that have a leaf-like swirl in them (found at the dollar store), small chunks of plastic grass, and some frogs from a Safari Ltd. Frogs and Turtles Toob.  The large green glass stones were the lily pads.  I just simply placed a frog on each lily pad.

K really enjoyed moving the frogs around the pond saying, "Ribbit.  Ribbit."  It's great to see him engaging in imaginative play like this.  And I think he had a lot of fun with it too!

J and K then worked together to disassemble the pond.  Aw, all my hard work ruined in a matter of seconds...I don't take it personally.  They obviously had other ideas in mind.  For example, J practiced some one-to-one correspondence by placing one frog on each of the lily pads.

J then hid a frog under the plastic grass.  Apparently the frog wanted to play hide and seek, as J told me, "The frog is hiding, mommy.  Where'd it go?"  Hmmm...well, ready or not frog, I see you!

Then J spent quite a bit of time carefully examining the different glass stones, especially the lily pad stones.

Our first attempt at a themed small world on the light table was definitely a success.  Guess that means I will have to make some more for the boys.  What kind of small world should I do next?  Tell me your thoughts in the comments.  

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