Reptiles & amphibians for kids

What's here

Twelve scaly and smiley characters: lizards, frogs, a snake, a tortoise, and a few slippery in-betweeners. Tap one and it leaps, slithers, basks, or waves, then shares a fact that holds up. This crew runs from a Komodo dragon the length of a car down to a newt that fits on a leaf, which makes "big" and "little" very easy to practice.

Fair warning on accuracy, since some kid will eventually call this in: frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, and the axolotl are amphibians, not reptiles. They live here anyway because the pond crowd and the rock crowd belong at the same party.

Meet these first

• Axolotl. A smiley salamander that keeps its feathery gills its whole life. The reigning champion of cute.
• Bearded Dragon. Waves one little arm to say hello to other lizards. Wave back, it's only polite.
• Chameleon. Can point its two eyes in different directions at the very same time. Try it yourself. You can't.
• Komodo Dragon. The biggest lizard in the world, as long as a car, and it stomps like it knows it.
• Frog. Can leap many times its own length in a single hop. Living rooms make excellent test ponds.
• Snake. Smells the air by flicking its forked tongue in and out. Tongues out, everyone.
• Tortoise. Carries its shell like a home and can live over 100 years, plodding the entire time.
• Tree Frog. Sticky toe pads let it cling to leaves and even glass, which explains a lot of windows.

The iguana, newt, salamander, and toad are basking nearby whenever you're ready, and the salamander can regrow its own tail.

How to play (60 seconds)

This hub is a body game. Hop like the frog, plod like the tortoise, flick your tongue like the snake, and wave one arm like the bearded dragon. Toddlers copy actions before they copy words, and the words ride in on the actions. Then slow everything down: ask for a tiny hop, a giant hop, a slow plod, a fast slither. Speed words and size words in one minute flat.

Good to know

"Hop," "jump," and "snake" are early, useful words, and action words like these tend to show up right after the first wave of animal names. A toddler who hops while saying "hop" is doing exactly what this screen is for.

Keep exploring

The free first-words cards and 50-word checklist are on the printables page whenever you want the paper version.

The Komodo dragon is the closest living thing to a dinosaur, so that's the natural next stop. Bugs covers what most of this crew eats for lunch, rainforest animals has the poison dart frog's home turf, and deep-sea creatures goes even weirder. Full map on the homepage.