Pre-Kinder 9

Turtle Study

Complied by Karla Rosas

October 2005

Teacher: Tell me what happened to the turtle?

Carlie: She died.

Ale. It got sick and died.

Diego: Maybe someone took her to the desert.

Ricardo: I think it went to recess.

Junkee: He went to the beach.

Carlie: No, remember she died.

Ale: He is gone.

Michel: He jumped out of the tank and went to a classroom in heaven.

Diego: All the animals go to heaven.

Teacher: Why do you think the turtle died?

Ale: Because someone took her out.

Ale: Maybe someone touched the turtle and took it out of the water.

Diego: Maybe everyone touched her on the same day.

Carlie: Maybe because we gave her too much to eat or we forgot to feed the turtle.

Emilo: They touched her.

Aaron: He was sick.

Sofia: It went too far in the water and drowned.

After this happened the children sat down and did a journal entry of where they thought the turtle had gone. This activity helped the children sort their thoughts and discuss in small groups what had happened to our turtle.

The children were asked to draw in their journal where they believed the turtle had gone.

Diego said, “ He went to heaven.”

Alejandra also believed the turtle went “to heaven.”

A few days later several boys began to take the plastic turtles that we had in our classroom and put them into our turtle tank to replace the one we had lost. I proceeded to ask these boys if they would like to get a new turtle for the classroom. They all agreed that they would like to have a new turtle in the classroom. Diego told me during swimming that he wanted to bring in his baby turtle for our classroom and then Rafael asked when could we go get a turtle like the ones in Miss Karla Solana’s classroom.

A few days later I spoke to these boys and asked them what should we do before we get a new turtle because it was important that we take care of it. The boys discussed it among themselves and agreed that we needed to know how to take care of a turtle. Rafael specifically asked for books about turtles. The children then observed a real-life turtle and again did a journal entry on how they believed we should take care of a new turtle.

Some of these same boys built turtle homes with blocks and discussed the turtle’s needs for shelter and food.

This play allowed the boys to develop different skills and helped the with:

·      cooperative play

·      creativity

·      group decision-making

·      language development

·      spontaneous discussion

·      balance

·      construction

·      shape and size analysis

Later on that week all the children sat down and studied a dehydrated turtle with Miss Paulina. They looked at the specific parts of the turtle and then built model turtles with modeling clay. By combining art and science into a single activity, the students had an opportunity to learn more about the different body parts of a turtle. Please observe some the detailed perceived by the students when creating their own model turtles.

Junkee made sure that the front two legs of the turtle were turned back because on the sea turtle he carefully observed this detail and wanted to replicate the direction of the legs in his model.  Alejandra V. chose to bring out the eyes on her turtle and noticed closed eyes of the sea turtle.

After the children analyzed the parts of a turtle we looked at some informational books we checked out from the library. These books included, “Turtles” by Timothy Levi Biel, part of the Zoobooks series and “Box Turtle at Long Pond” by William T. George. The children then sat down in small groups and explored the books and discussed the different types of turtles that existed and what kind of coloration they had. During these small group studies that children discussed the different pictures and types of turtles found in the books. Then the children sat down and sketched and painted their own turtle.

This is part of the conversation the children had while they looked through one of the turtle books together.

Child 1: Look this turtle lives in the water.

Child 2: Yes, this is the ocean.

Child 1: They have lots of colors.

Child 2: This one is gray.

Child 1: Gray and brown.

Child 2: Miss, look he is eating fish with his beak.

After using these artistic activities to explore and learn more about turtles. I asked the children to revisit their journals. Paulina read a story to the children about a sea turtle and it’s life in the ocean. The children then discussed in small groups what they remembered from the story.  Below you will find different photographs of the children listening to the story and sharing their ideas. We have also included journal entries of what the children recorded from this book.

Santiago drew a picture of a turtle with his friends and colored them green like they were in the book.

Carlie drew a “rainbow, magical turtle.”

Karla drew a turtle with a shell. The mother turtle is going into the water, the eggs will be safe buried in the sand.

Jonathan drew the turtle in the ocean.

In October the children watched a video on turtles. I asked the children to pay careful attention to the video images and think about what they saw. Afterwards we had another conversation on what they had learned from the video and the activities we had done so far.

Teacher: Tell me what you know about turtles?

Daniela: Algunas tortugas vuelvan de donde son.

Rafael: Caminan rápido.

Ricardo: Puedan comer flores.

Ale V.: También plantas.

Emilio: Se empujen para jugar.

Juan Jorge: Unos son de arena y otros de agua.

Ricardo: Unos tienen garras y otros no tiene garras.

Ale V.: Flat. La concha es plano.

Juan Jorge: Comen peces.

Emilio: Cuando son grandes comen cangrejos.

Ricardo: Les gustan la agua.

Santiago: Hay muchos tipos de tortugas.

Ricardo: Les gusta agua y arena.

Santiago: Hay tortugas en jardines.

Teacher: If we get a new turtle for the classroom what would we have to do to take care of it?

Rafael: Cuidarla y darle de comer.

Juan Jorge: Qué tenga agua limpia.

Ale V.: También que toma agua limpia.

Ricardo: Hay que darle de comer, pero no mucho.

Rafael: Si, nada más dos bolitas.

Karla: ¿Qué comen?

Juan Jorge: Las bolitas.

Rafael: Tiene que comer todo los días.

After completing this conversation, we decided we were ready to adopt our new classroom turtle. Rafael and I went over the Kinder 8 classroom to adopt a three-year-old turtle that had gotten too big for his home. The class voted on a name and decided to name him “Happy Turtle.” Happy Turtle now has his own home in Pre-Kinder 9 and the students take care of him daily.

Dia de los Muertos

On Monday, October 31^st, Pre-Kinder 9 went to the library for story time. Miss Juliet read the children two stories related to Día de los Muertos. She explained to the children how this celebration was like having a party for our loved ones that had passed on.

On the way back from the library the students observed and commented on several Day of the Dead displays that were set up in different sections of the school by students of different grade levels.  Rocco exclaimed with surprise and curiosity. “Mira, Miss un dinosaur. Tiene un dinosaur.” Other girls giggled and laughed at the funny skeletons represented on the altars. Juan Jorge pointed out the lighted candles, “Las velas están prendidas.” Other children shouted out in amazement “Que padre!”

When we arrived back at the classroom a few children commented on how they wanted to make an altar for our classroom. I sat down with the group and asked them if they would like to make this a group project. The students shouted out with enthusiasm, “sí” and “yes” at the same time. Then we discussed as a group who we would make the altar for. Ale V. said “Yo sé. Vamos hacerlo para mis abuelitos.” Tamara said “Mi perro murió.”

After several suggestions were made by the students. Karla shouted out, “Yo se, la tortuga. Hay que hacerlo para la tortuga.” I then asked Karla if she meant the turtle we currently had, Happy Turtle, or if she meant the turtle that had died. She giggled, as her eyes gleamed and said, “No, miss la tortuga que murió.” Most of the children shouted in agreement. So we voted on the idea and decided to make an altar for our late turtle.

That afternoon the students started cutting out colorful paper to cover the altar. Carlie sat down, and with the help from her classmates, she made me a shopping list of the materials I would need to collect and bring so we could set up our altar the next day. This list included candles, flowers, skulls, bread, and a dinosaur (remember Rocco).

The next day, I brought in materials the children requested and Ale V. helped by bringing in two small skulls made of sugar. The children got to work quickly cutting the flowers, and decorating paper skulls. They began laying out the material on the altar Miss Paulina had set up for them. Carlie added shells for the turtle. Tamara arranged and rearranged the flowers. Juan Jorge, Emilio, Rafael, and Michel made skulls for the turtle. Quickly things came together and before the morning was over the children had created a beautiful day of the dead altar for our turtle (and a butterfly Carlie found in our classroom.)

At the end of this activity we all sat down together shared some Pan de Muertos as we talked about the beautiful altar everyone had worked so hard to set up. “Mira, está muy bonita, ” Daniela said, as we sat around the table, admiring our work of art.

That afternoon I took a group of children around campus again to observe the altars. The students took clipboards and paper with them and made some sketches of things they liked from the different altars. Karla drew a skeleton bride, Juan Jorge drew the crosses, Rocco drew a coffin, and Ale M. drew flowers. When we came back to the classroom I asked the children if there was anything else they would like to add to the altar. They decided not too, because they liked the altar just the way it was. “Así me gusta Miss, está muy bonita.” Tamara said as our day came to an end.