# Bag of Wonder: The Frog > From tiny floating eggs to a wiggly tadpole to a big bullfrog. Jug-o-rum! A free interactive 3D exhibit for children aged 2 to 6, from Curiosity's Child in Troy, Michigan. - Interactive exhibit: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/frog/ - Ages: 2 to 6. The story is pitched at the youngest; the tap cards give older children more to chew on. - Cost: free, with no sign-in, no ads and no tracking. - Works on: phones, tablets and computers, in a web browser. Sound on for the narration. ## What it is Interactive 3D model of the American bullfrog life cycle, built from real 3D scans of a bullfrog tadpole and an adult bullfrog. A time slider moves from a floating sheet of eggs, through hatchlings with feathery gills, a tadpole that waits out the winter, back legs then front legs, the tail being absorbed, to the froglet and the grown-up bullfrog. A second slider pulls the parts apart with labels; tapping a part shows a child-friendly fact. How to play: press play to hear the story (read aloud in Kelly's voice, with the words on screen). Slide the time slider back and forth to see any part again. Slide "Pull apart" to see what is hidden inside. Tap any glowing button for a fact. ## The story 1. A mother bullfrog lays thousands of tiny eggs. They float on the pond in a flat sheet of jelly. 2. Wiggle wiggle! Tiny tadpoles hatch, with fluffy gills to breathe underwater. 3. The tadpole swims with its tail and munches green algae all day. 4. When the pond freezes, the tadpole waits under the ice, slow and sleepy. 5. Look! Two back legs are growing. 6. Now two front legs pop out too. 7. The tail is shrinking. The froglet's body is using it up, like a packed lunch! 8. The froglet climbs out and breathes air. 9. Hello, bullfrog! Jug-o-rum! 🐸 ## The parts, and what we tell children These are the tap cards, word for word. - **Eggs**: A mother bullfrog can lay up to 20,000 eggs at once! They float on the pond in a thin sheet of jelly, which keeps them safe and floaty. - **Gills**: Baby tadpoles breathe underwater with feathery gills. Soon a flap of skin grows over them, and water flows out through a little hole on the tadpole's left side. - **Tail**: A tadpole's tail is its swimming paddle. It doesn't fall off: the body soaks it back up. - **Tadpole mouth**: A tadpole has a tiny beak and rows of teeny scrapers for scraping algae, like a little lawnmower! - **Tadpole tummy**: It hides a long, curly-wurly tube for digesting plants. When it becomes a frog, the tube gets much shorter, because frogs eat bugs instead. - **Jumping legs**: A bullfrog can jump about ten times its own body length! The back legs always grow first, and the webbed back feet are paddles for swimming. - **Front legs**: They grow hidden under the skin, then pop out! The frog uses them like arms to land and to push food into its mouth. - **Eyes**: A frog pulls its eyes down into its head to help push food down when it swallows. Blink to gulp! - **Ear**: That round circle behind the eye is the frog's eardrum, called a tympanum. A boy bullfrog's ear is bigger than his eye! - **Tongue**: A frog's tongue is joined at the FRONT of its mouth and flips out super fast. Its spit is extra sticky, so bugs can't get away! - **Skin**: Frogs don't drink with their mouths. They soak water in through their skin! - **Tail stub**: While the tail shrinks, the froglet doesn't eat. Its tail is its food! ## Getting the science right What we checked, and the myths we steer around: - Bullfrog eggs float as a thin sheet on the water. The round "frogspawn" clump belongs to other frogs, such as wood frogs. - The back legs always come first, then the front legs. - The tail is not dropped or bitten off: the body breaks it down and reabsorbs it over a few days. - The fluffy outside gills last only a few days before a flap of skin covers them. - A bullfrog tadpole can be bigger than the froglet it becomes; the froglet is shown smaller on purpose. - In Michigan a bullfrog usually stays a tadpole for one to three years (often two), waiting out the winter under the ice. "A frog in twelve weeks" is true of other frogs, not bullfrogs. - The tongue is joined at the front of the mouth and flips forwards. Bullfrog parents do not guard the eggs. ## How to use it with children Watch the story once, then slide slowly through the middle and ask, "Which legs grow first?" Let the child pull the grown-up frog apart and find the eardrum behind the eye. Ask more than you tell, and let the child drive. Then step away from the screen: visit a pond in spring or summer and look for tadpoles at the edge, or listen at dusk for the bullfrog's deep "jug-o-rum". Look, don't take: in many places it is against the rules to remove wild tadpoles. Hop like a froglet, back legs first. A few minutes together is plenty. The exhibit is a doorway to the real thing, not a replacement for it. ## Credits and licenses The real scans, maps and photographs belong to their makers, under the licenses below. The words, story and code are Curiosity's Child's. - Real 3D scans of an American bullfrog [and its rock](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/cc0-american-bullfrog-l-catesbeianus-12244c1e4f3a4bfdbc217acba90e8baa) and of a [bullfrog tadpole](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/cc0-american-bullfrog-l-catesbeianus-8816b4762a3f4f2f865c4af32c3a6222), kindly shared by [ffish.asia / floraZia.com](https://sketchfab.com/ffishAsia-and-floraZia) ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/), free for everyone; thank you!) - Eggs, hatchlings, tongue and pond made in code - Narrated by Kelly, in her own voice - Real pond sounds from Freesound ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/), thank you!): [frog pond](https://freesound.org/s/584045/) (greysound), [bullfrogs](https://freesound.org/s/634517/) (soundsandrebounds), [lapping water](https://freesound.org/s/573163/) (TRP), [spring peepers](https://freesound.org/s/149493/) (kvgarlic), [soft wind](https://freesound.org/s/459977/) (florianreichelt) - Music-box lullaby made for this page ## More on the Garden & Pond shelf - [The Pumpkin](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/pumpkin/index.md): From one little seed to a big orange pumpkin. Open it up! - [The Robin](undefined): Sky-blue eggs, a baby growing inside, hatching day, and first hops on the lawn. Cheep! ## About Bag of Wonder A free library of interactive 3D "look inside" science exhibits, made at Curiosity's Child, a licensed home daycare in Troy, Michigan. Secular and science-based; welcoming to all. - All exhibits and how we make them: https://bagofwonder.com/llms.txt - For grown-ups and AI assistants: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/about/ - To cite: "The Frog", Bag of Wonder, Curiosity's Child (Troy, Michigan). https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/frog/