Spring Tadpoles

 Little Swimmers....

...in the thousands!

Our apartment complex in Shanghai has a teeny, tiny amount of green space that a number of people take very good care of. Within this space is a little pond full of koi, the occasional turtle, frogs and most recently...tadpoles. 

Not just a few...thousands of little black, tadpoles swimming their way into frogs!

 Pond Posing

Now I know nothing... absolutely nada..about tadpoles remarkable process of metamorphosis, so we have some learning to do. Slightly tempted to pick up a few tadpoles for home-viewing, but we agreed to keep them in the pond with their "mother"!

We did have a quick conversation about tadpole fare, that went something like this,
Mama: "What do you think tadpoles eat?
O: "Hmm. Not sure. Potatoes?"
To which I could only say, maybe. I have never tried to feed a potatoe to a tadpole!

EXPAND ON LIFE CYCLE OF FROGS

Raising Tadpoles. This homeschooling mom collected tadpoles and documented their life. In the end the family returned  the frogs back to the pond. She includes a list of books about the Life Cycle of Frogs. Lovely! http://www.thepearlsofhomeschooling.blogspot.com/2013/04/tadpole-to-frog.html

Raising Tadpoles (different version). This family adds some important bits of info (do not use tapwater, as it is chlorinated). http://rainydaymum.co.uk/learning-with-nature-tadpoles...and some other hearty details to help your frog kids.

Felt Frogs. If you cannot find tadpoles or are a bit leary (read: that's me!) about being able to keep them alive at home, try out a puzzle version, cutting shapes to resemble the tadpole and shapes to add like arms and legs.