The Heartbreak Turtle Today Kindergarten Programseaturtles.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/heartbreak-turtle-kindergarten.pdfThe Heartbreak Turtle Today Kindergarten Program By Ingrid

The Heartbreak Turtle Today

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The Heartbreak Turtle Today Kindergarten Program By Ingrid Norris and Bonnie Webster

Preparations Find a comfortable spot in the room ahead of time where children may sit on the floor or in chairs in front of you. Have materials ready at hand:

• The Heartbreak Turtle Today video (for teacher viewing) • Read aloud pages from The Heartbreak Turtle Today • Turtle Activity Page • Crayons • Review box (printed and pasted together, or store bought box, labeled and

decorated) for additional activity • Picture cards • Pillars of Character sheet • Music for summary activity

Objectives • Students will demonstrate what they know about keeping the Kemp’s Ridley

Sea Turtle healthy and safe. • Students will identify behaviors that are examples of respect, responsibility,

and kindness. National Standards English: NL-ENG.K-12.1 Social Science: NSS-G.K-12.5 Science: NS.K-4.3, NS.K-4.6 NOAA Ocean Literacy Principles 6


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Activity Students will begin by completing the pre/post-activity assessment sheet. They will then listen to a story from The Heartbreak Turtle Today video followed by a discussion of various things that are safe and healthy for Kemp’s Ridley turtles. The session will end with a musical chairs review activity. Introduction Safe/Unsafe Activity Sheet (Pre-Instruction Assessment) *This activity is an option if you would like to assess what the class knows about how to keep sea turtles safe prior to the lesson.

• Copy and hand out the Pre and Post Instruction Assessment Safe/Unsafe activity sheet.

• Begin by saying, “Let’s begin by working on an activity about Kemp’s Ridley turtles!” I’d like you to color the picture of the turtle in the middle.”

• Say, “Now I would like for you to look at the pictures around the turtle in the middle of the page and think about which ones would make the turtles feel safe and which ones unsafe.”

• Say, “I would like for you to place circles around the items you think are safe and healthy for the Kemp’s Ridley turtle. Place an X through the items you think are unsafe and unhealthy.” Teachers may need to explain each picture using the background material found in the video they have previewed.

• Collect and keep all the activity sheets for later.

Action Steps • Begin a discussion of various things that are safe/healthy and

unsafe/unhealthy for children. · Group Prompts: · “What do you need to be safe and healthy?” · “What can cause you to be unhealthy?” · Possible answers: · Healthy food, clean water, shelter, medicine, exercise. · Junk food, dirty water, colds, diseases.

• Read to students the pages from The Heartbreak Turtle Today video.


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Group Discussion: Picture Cards • On an easel or board label two areas: Safe/Healthy and Unsafe/Unhealthy.

Using Picture Cards, hold up one picture at a time and ask the class which category it belongs under (see suggestions in the following table). Place the pictures under the appropriate category.

Card Category PC 1 Safe PC 2 Safe PC 3 Unsafe PC 4 Unsafe PC 5 Unsafe PC 6 Safe PC 7 Unsafe PC 8 Safe

Summary • Summarize the lesson with the following activity.

Musical Chairs Game • Set up enough chairs to equal the number of students, minus one. • Play music and turn it off at various points. (see resources for sea turtle

related music) • Instruct the students to walk around the chairs and that when the music stops

to sit down. The student left standing has to say one thing about Kemp’s Ridley turtles that they learned in the lesson.

• Do not remove more chairs, just repeat again. No one is “out”, all the students continue playing.

• Variation-instead of walking around the chairs, students remain seated and pass a stuffed turtle around while the music is playing. When the music stops, the student with the turtle has to say one thing they learned about Kemp’s Ridley turtles that they learned in the lesson.

Conclusion • Display the Pillars of Character poster and briefly discuss each pillar.


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• Review and discuss what students could do to help the Kemp’s Ridley and relate it to the Pillars of respect, responsibility, and kindness.

• Examples: Throw trash in a trash can so it does not pollute the beach and ocean where the turtles live and lay eggs (kindness), if they live near a beach and see a nesting turtle leave it alone (respect), if you live on or near the beach obey lights out (responsibility), report stranded/nesting turtles (responsibility).

Safe/Unsafe Activity Sheet (Post-Instruction Assessment) *This activity is an option if you would like to assess what the class knows about how to keep sea turtles safe after the lesson.

• Distribute a second copy of the Safe/Unsafe Activity Sheet and instruct the class to complete it again.

Suggested Additional Activities Service Learning

• Cut out the colored turtles from the activity sheet. • Place them in a plastic baby pool. • Make a sign reading something like “Tens for Turtles” or “A King’s Pence

for Kemp’s”. • Have students encourage other classmates and school workers to donate “ten

pennies” or “ten cents” or “ten dollars” as a donation drive. Send the money to an organization that supports sea turtle conservation.

Turtle Review Box

Using the turtle review box like a dice, let each student roll. Have them name one thing from the lesson that fits in the category that lands face up on the box.

· Name-What is one name for the animal we have been learning about today? Turtle, sea turtle, Kemp’s, Kemp’s Ridley, Heartbreak turtle. · Safe-Name one thing that the student can do to help keep the Kemp’s Ridley turtle safe. · Unsafe-Name one thing that is unsafe for the Kemp’s Ridley turtle. · Favorite-What was your favorite part of the story? · Baby-Name one thing the student learned about baby Kemp’s Ridley turtles.


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· Adult-Name one thing the student learned about adult Kemp’s Ridley turtles.


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Review Box


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The Six Pillars of Character-Josephson Institute Trustworthiness Be honest•Don’t deceive, cheat, or steal•Be reliable-do what you say you’ll do•Have the courage to do the right thing•Build a good reputation•Be loyal-stand by your family, friends, and country. Respect Treat other with respect; follow the Golden Rule•Be tolerant and accepting of differences•Use good manners, not bad language•Be considerate of the feelings of others•Don’t threaten, hit or hurt anyone•Deal peacefully with anger, insults, and disagreements. Responsibility Do what you are supposed to do•Plan ahead•Perservere: keep on trying!•Always do your best•Use self-control•Be self-disciplined•Think before you act-consider the consequences•Be accountable for your words, actions, and attitudes•Set a good example for others. Fairness Play by the rules•Take turns and share•Be open-minded; listen to others•Don’t take advantage of others•Don’t blame others carelessly•Treat all people fairly. Caring Be kind•Be compassionate and show you care•Express gratitude•Forgive others•Help people in need. Citizenship Do your share to make your school and community better•Cooperate•Get involved in community affairs•Stay informed; vote•Be a good neighbor•Obey laws and rules•Respect authority•Protect the environment•Volunteer.


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SAFE/UNSAFE ACTIVITY SHEET

Situation Picture Card ______ The Heartbreak Turtle Today

PC 1

Turtle Excluder Device


PC 2

Turtle Doctor


PC 3

Shrimp Boat


PC 4

Vultures


PC 5

Oil Rig


PC 6

Sea Turtle Patrol


PC 7

Turtle in Net


PC 8

Hatchling Release

Resources Heartbreak Turtle

http://freesongsforkids.com/audios/arribada Arribada! The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Song by Lucas Miller http://mp3.rhapsody.com/frank/spanish-gold/sea-turtle-song?amp;pcode=yahooreal&cpath=buylink&ocode=yahooreal&rsrc=undefined Sea Turtle Song by Frank and Ann Thomas http://www.animalsongsforkids.com/Kids-Music-Videos-Animals-Songs-Ocean-Sea-Turtles/blogpost11985 Here We Go! by Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders https://www5.cruzio.com/w5a146/prds0708.html#oneOcean Turtle Ate a Jelly, Only One Ocean CD by the Banana Slug String Band http://bobsandlolo.com/store.html#D7028 Sea Turtles Are Special To Me by Bobs and Lolo ted picture http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/peril_bycatch.html

This is the remarkable story of the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle and the efforts to save this magnificent creature.

Sea turtles have been around since the time of the dinosaurs.

The Kemp’s Ridley turtle lays eggs at two main locations along the Gulf Coast. Rancho Nuevo in Mexico and South Padre Island in Texas.

South Padre Island

Rancho Nuevo

Females can lay up to 150 eggs at one time.

They can do this 3 or 4 times a year.

Baby turtles, called hatchlings, come up out of the nest and go towards the brightest area, the whitecaps of the surf.

Baby turtles face many dangers.

Humans collect the eggs for food.

Hatchlings may be eaten by birds, raccoons, and crabs.

Nests or baby hatchlings may be run over by cars on the beach.

Adult Kemp’s Ridley turtles face many dangers too.

Humans collect them to make things like….

…shoes and clothing.

Adult turtles can be caught in fishing nets and drown.

Fishing hooks can get caught in their mouths.

Here a turtle doctor tries to remove one.

Turtles can get caught in shrimp nets.

Oil spills can make the water they live in dirty.

Oil covers their bodies and poisons them.

Adult Kemp’s Ridley turtles can get sick with diseases.

Many experts gather to help the Kemp’s Ridley Turtle.

Volunteers work hard to find turtle nests and move them to safe areas.

When new eggs are found they are moved to corrals where they are better protected from raccoons, dogs, and humans.

Some corrals hold as many as 100 nests or more.

Here you see Donna Shaver of the U.S. National Park Service at Padre Island National Seashore releasing hatchlings to return to the sea.

Some baby hatchlings go to a lab in Galveston, TX. They are raised until they reach a size where they can avoid the many dangers that face young

sea turtles.

Here a volunteer is releasing one of the turtles raised at the Galveston Laboratory.

Education is a key to helping sea turtles.

Ila Loetscher loved to talk to people about the Kemp’s Ridley and other sea turtles she helped save. She is known as the “Turtle Lady of South Padre

Island.”

Elementary schools wrote letters to government officials asking them to help save the Kemp’s Ridley turtle.

More people are building houses and hotels along the beaches of the Gulf Coast making it hard for the Kemp’s Ridley turtle to live.

Because of signs like these on the beach, many sea turtles have been saved.

This is a turtle excluder device, sometimes called a TED. It is sewn into a shrimp net and helps save turtles that get caught in the net.

Here is a turtle swimming out of a shrimp net to safety. This shrimp net has a TED sewn in. Hooray!

The United States and Mexico worked together to save the species. Now the survival of the Kemp’s Ridley is again up to us.

Documents

The Heartbreak Turtle Today Kindergarten Programseaturtles.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/heartbreak-turtle-kindergarten.pdfThe Heartbreak Turtle Today Kindergarten Program By Ingrid