It gives me great pleasure to welcome Kim from The Educators’ Spin On It to join us for the 4th post in the this weeks Story Book Summer on the theme of Under The Sea. She’s sharing a book that is very very dear to my heart Sea Turtle Journey – that I have shared with children in Greece and Costa Rica whilst working on Sea Turtle projects in both the countries – and bringing it alive for you with a cute craft.
I am so excited to be a part of this series on Rainy Day Mum. Living in Florida and in love with the ocean, I knew this Ocean Themed Week would be a perfect fit. My name is Kim Vij and I am the co-creator of The Educators’ Spin On It. You can also find me as part of the trio team of organizers of the Virtual Book Club for Kids. I adore creating activities with books and in fact shared a post about it with Cerys many years ago called Creating Activities for Books. I’m so excited that Rainy Day Mum is part of our Love Books Summer Exchange this year too! A Book and activity can be so much fun for kids. I’ve selected one of my favorite ocean books to share with you.
The book we’re sharing is called Sea Turtle Journey: The Story of a Loggerhead Turtle by Lorraine A. Joy It has been a treasured story with each of my 3 children and many years of Kindergarten students. It’s part of the Smithsonian Oceanic Collection Series. I must mention that we also have the audio tape too which makes it so much more special to us. There’s something quite mystical about sea turtles. Have you ever seen a sea turtle in real life? We’ve been fortunate to see them at Sea World and also out in the waters of Florida near the shore. Plus each time we head to the beach usually they will have a part of the beach sectioned off with markers where a turtle has laid their eggs. One full moon night I hope to be able to watch as all the hatchlings head off to see and begin their own journey just like in the story.
Sea Turtle Journey is a story about one special sea turtle full journey in from birth to its return back to the shore where it was born to lay her own eggs. The book includes the sea turtles adventures out in the wide open ocean sea and all the various situations that may arise from finding food to avoiding predators. It’s a vocabulary rich text with captivating images as well.
After reading the story we decide to create our own little baby sea turtles. Can image what it must look like with all the sea turtle hatching?
Sea Turtle Stamping Activity
Supplies Needed for One Turtle
- Lid
- 2 Pipe cleaners
- Paper
- Washable green paint
- Watercolors
- Paint brush
First we created our sea turtle by taking a lid and attaching a pipe cleaner around it to form the head. Then we took smaller pieces to create each of the 4 turtle flippers. We discussed how in the story the front two flippers were very large to help with swimming.
Then we placed paint into a large tray and dipped our sea turtle to make sea turtle stamps. Keep a wet cloth nearby finger will get a little messy while stamping. You have to push on the legs a little bit to make sure they show up on the paper too.
One the sea turtle stamps were dry we took the same paper and painted the ocean on the paper. For our own special sea turtle mural inspired by the book Sea Turtle Journey.
Extensions for Sea Turtle Activity
If you have a little one who loves to stamp turtles you could even create a number book featuring numbers 0 to 10 using the stamps that they create too.
We did keep a special sea turtle out of the paint so that they could use it for imaginary play in their ocean sensory bin too. There are so many fun things you can do with sea turtles and your child. Cerys shared a fun Sticky Sea Turtle Craft that I think your kids will love. Plus take a peek at these create Sea Turtle Crafts shared on Pinterest.
Here are some additional Ocean Activities that your child may enjoy too.
Kim Vij is an early childhood educator and mom of three.
She shares her “Educator’s Spin” on parenting issues and how to make everyday moments into learning opportunities at The Educators’ Spin On It and award winning Pinterest Boards.
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