Margaret Anne Smith, age 11, of Lancaster, Penna., for her question:

Where do frogs go in the winter?

Frogs are cold blooded animals. This means that their bodies cannot generate heat to keep them as warm as ours can. Cold blooded animals get their warmth from the air and the solid things around them. They cannot get warmer than their surroundings. And cold weather makes them slow and drowsy. They must therefore escape the winter.

Come fall, every frog eats extra food to make a layer of. fat. Then he finds a safe hideaway. It may be under a pile of old leaves, in the roots of a tree or down in the mud of a stream or pond. He nestles into his cozy hiding place and goes into a deep coma.

This heavy sleep is called hibernation. The sleeping frog is scarcely breathing and his heart is hardly beating. You might think him dead. He stays that way through the cold winter months.

When spring comes the ground becomes warm. The frogs body feels the warmth and begins to come to life. The little heart beats faster, the blood quickens. In a few days, old Sleeping Beauty is wide awake and getting ready to lay a batch of eggs for a new generation of frogs.