We read "Emma's Turtle" by Eve Bunting. The turtle in this story belongs to Emma, a little girl who reads stories to her turtle about fabulous places around the world. One day the turtle decides to travel the world himself. He digs his way out of his pen and begins his adventure. Along the way he encounters what he believes to be creatures from foreign lands, and discovers the cat next door likes to visit "India". Emma eventually finds him, picks him up, and takes him back to his pen. She reveals that his full day's journey only took him across the yard, but he resolves to dig out tomorrow and attempt to find China.
Last week I introduced some basic story elements - title, main characters, and setting. The kids understood the title with no problem. They listed almost every character in the book when I asked for main characters, but since the vast majority are not yet old enough for kindergarten, I will take comprehension of "characters"- we can work on comprehension of "main" later! I thought they might be confused on the setting, but to my surprise, they nailed it! I figured a few would think the setting was Australia or India, or where the turtle thought he was traveling. Amazingly, they all named the setting correctly as "the backyard". I was so proud!! These kids are soooo smart!
Our craft was a bit messy, but they loved it! I used a paper bowl to make the outline of a turtle shell, then three shapes to finish his body - a triangle for his tail, an oval for his head, and a rectangle for his legs. Once I had a basic turtle shape marked out in sharpie, I xeroxed it onto green construction paper. I cut two shades of green tissue paper into squares, and mixed a little bit of glue with water. The kids (or parents) cut the turtle shape out, then glued the bowl onto the paper to make the turtle. They painted the shell with the watered down glue, and covered it with the green tissue paper. Once everything dried, a hole can be punched into the turtle's shell and a string run through so he can be pulled along as they walk. You can draw on eyes and a smile, or glue on wiggly eyes. Here were some of our semi finished products!
Even the littlest ones were able to stick the tissue on their turtle, and they were all so thrilled to take this home! This is something I will do again!
Images with children were posted with parent's permission - please do not copy any images containing children! You may copy images without children's faces for instructional purposes. Please give me credit if these images are shared. Thank you!
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