Scoil Bhride

Little Tadpoles

On the 08/03/2011, all the pupils at Croghan School went over to Helena Gratten's garden to look at the tadpoles that were in her pond. They were amazing. We went over early in the morning to her house - it is just across the road. She had two ponds in her house; there were lots of tadpoles in each of them. Everyone was shocked to see how many of them there were.

" They start off as little tadpoles
" Then, they grow a tail after they grow back legs
" Then, they grow front legs and in time they turn into frogs.

The teacher said that they might not all survive but hopefully they will. We had a great time and I'm looking forward to the summer, because I can go down to the bog and see lots of fully-grown frogs.

LOCAL TADPOLES

On a Tuesday morning, the whole class went on a nature walk across the road to Helena Gratten's home. We saw lots of frogspawn in her garden pond but we saw no frogs, unfortunately. However, we often see frogs on the bog during the summer.

• The frogspawn is always joined together.
• It is never on its own.
• The larva hatches out and becomes a tadpole.
• Then it grows legs and the tail disappears.
• When it becomes fully-grown, it reaches the stage where it becomes a frog.
• The female lays its eggs. This is called a meta-mophisis.

It is illegal to take frog spawn out of its habitat, because some might dry up and die.