November/December 2023

Turtle's Winter Trick

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Academic Standards

Reading Objective:

Students will identify steps turtles use as they prepare to survive the winter and will examine turtles’ adaptation for breathing underwater when the top of the pond is frozen.

Next Generation Science Standards:

K-LS1-1: What animals need to survive

1-LS1: How animals use their external parts to survive

Vocabulary:

breathe, frozen, cloaca

Check comprehension and inspire discussion.

 

1. What should the turtle do on a warm, sunny day?
(soak up the sun)

2. When the days get cooler, should the turtle eat a lot?
(no)

3. What should the turtle do when the top of the pond is frozen?
(sleep under the ice)

4. How can the turtle breathe under the ice?
(with its bottom)

 Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

  • Not all turtles use bottom breathing to get through the winter. Box turtles have a different trick—they freeze solid and then thaw in the spring!
  • Baby dragonflies can breathe through their bottoms. They suck in water and air to breathe. Then they let it out with such force that their bodies shoot forward. Whoosh!

Materials: Soft objects to rest on kids’ bellies as they breathe, space to lie down, chart paper or whiteboard, image of turtle to project/show, pencils, skill sheets

Overview: Kids observe how an object on their belly rises and falls as they breathe. Would it be the same with a turtle, which has a hard shell instead of a soft belly?

Directions:

  1. Tell kids they’ll explore how their bodies behave when they breathe, then compare theirs with a turtle’s body.
  2. Ask kids to lie down and breathe slowly with a soft object on their belly
  3. Use chart paper or the board to record class observations. Ask: What happens when we breathe in? (Our bellies expand. The object goes up.) What happens when we breathe out?
  4. Show an image of a turtle. Ask: How is a turtle like us? How is it different? What would happen if we were to put an object on a turtle’s belly? Does the turtle have a soft belly like ours? (No, it has a hard shell.)
  5. Give it a try: Can they breathe like turtles, whose bellies don’t move? (Probably not!)
  6. Breathe like kids again, bellies free to move. Is it relaxing? Record results on the skill sheets.