Terrific Turtles (45 minutes)

Young students will enjoy visiting with a variety of Connecticut’s turtles as they discover their habits and habitats.  Students will have a chance to try on a real turtle shell and meedt and touch live turtles!  This program may be presented in your classroom or at the Nature Center!

Students will be seated in a half circle on the floor at the Nature Center or in your classroom in order to facilitate a hands-on learning experience and close-up observation of native turtles.  Students will learn that turtles are reptiles and what characteristics define a reptile.  Students will discover how turtles are adapted to live in a variety of environments all over the world.  Students will get to touch live turtles and see how they move.  A live eastern box turtle, a painted turtle, and a snapping turtle will be presented to show land and water turtle differences.  They will take turns touching the shell and the legs of the box and painted turtle to feel the scales.  Students will observe the physical adaptations that allow each of these turtles live in different environments, such as aquatic or terrestrial.  Students can take turns “wearing” the Green Sea Turtle shell to visualize the large size of the turtle.  A turtle race will round out the program.

Turtle Vocabulary