Turtle Tales

We splashed into "Turtle Times" where we found creatures of land and water who can pull their heads, feet, and tails inside their shell to hide from their enemies.

We practiced counting backwards from ten in a favorite book of the week- Turtle Splash! Countdown at the Pond by Cathryn Falwell.

We skipped across the pond on the backs of turtles with different colored shells while we called out the color of the shell- kind of like Turtle Hopscotch!

We listened to this classic turtle poem.

The Little Turtle
by Vachel Lindsay

There was a little turtle.
He lived in a box.
He swam in a puddle.
He climbed on the rocks.

He snapped at a mosquito.
He snapped at a flea.
He snapped at a minnow.
And he snapped at me.

He caught the mosquito.
He caught the flea.
He caught the minnow.
But he didn't catch me.

We talked about turtles being amphibians- laying eggs, living both on the land and in the water, and then we created a turtle habitat. 

One of our favorite turtles is from Susan Lowell's book about a tortoise who lives in the desert and has a race with a jackrabbit- The Tortoise and  the Jackrabbit. Any guesses who won?

In order to empathize with turtles and understand why they move so slow, we tried moving with "shells" or pillows on our backs. We had to move without losing our shell. It was sloooooow going. Now we understand...

As cumbersome as they are, we learned along with a little turtle in Eric Carle's book, The Foolish Tortoise, just how important that shell is for protection.

Using sponges, ferns and flowers to dip into a variety of colors of paint, we designed a shell for a turtle. After spending the week observing turtle shells in books and magazines, we felt pretty competent in designing one of our own. 

We named our turtles and told stories about them.

My turtle's name is Myrtle.
He likes to hide in his shell.
He likes to fly.
He lives underground in a secret hideout.
He has wings. 

My turtle is orange, red and yellow.
His name is Big Toes.

My turtle's name is Sammy.
He likes to climb trees and fly in the sky.
He lives in the street by cars.
He likes to eat quesadillas!

My turtle's name is Rosie.
She lives in her shell.
She likes to climb in trees and fly.
She can dig underground so she doesn't
get rained on. 

My turtle's name is T O R Y.
He lives in the ground.
He likes to hide.
My turtle can swim.

My turtle's name is Miss Monica.
She likes to color.
She is very, very, very, very, slow.
She has her mom and dad.
She lives under the ground.
She can fly!