Thinking Thursday: Turtle Research & Tiny Trucks with the Cousins!

Look at the cute little turtle we made today. :)

Today was a special Thinking Thursday since we got to share it with our cousins! My sister had lunch plans with friends so we kept her crew for a couple hours.

After a delicious lunch of PB&J and peaches, the girls and I started our Turtle Research. Last Friday when we went to the turtle pond, a few questions came up..some from the kids but also from my sister and me. So this was a perfect topic for Thinking Thursday. 

I figured we would research 3 questions they wanted to find out and then make a turtle something. Snagged this cute idea on Pinterest HERE.

Got the materials ready while they played for a bit. We had checked out a couple of Turtle books at the library earlier in the week. 

Then I asked the girls what they wanted to learn about turtles...

I wondered about the last question...I knew it was a long time!

I had my Macbook and iPad available but I wanted them to look thru the books first! I told them to think about their question and then look for pictures that might show their answer. 

They enjoyed looking through the pictures. :)

The books told us what they ate and we could assume what turtles do. We watched a few turtle videos too. The girls really wanted to see baby turtles racing to the ocean after they hatch. 

Learning is fun!

O wrote that turtles "swim". 

We did research and find how long they lived by using the iPad. 

A healthy turtle can live to be 80-100 years old! Crazy.

The girls took turns writing that down on our board.

After we found our answers we talked a little bit about it. 

Here they are telling about what they learned... (just excuse the noisy little brothers in the background!)

After sharing our knowledge, they were excited to make their turtle. I had shown them earlier a picture of the one similar to what we would make. Myla really wanted to make a turtle purse but this had to do. :)

Easy Turtle Craft

Materials:

Green and yellow Card stock Paper
Paper bowls (green would be best)
Markers
Double-sided tape
Masking tape
Scissors
Yarn or string

Since we did not have green bowls, I had the girls color their bowls with a green marker to make the turtles shell.

While they were coloring, I drew the face, legs and tail on the green paper for them. 

Then I sketched out the pattern to glue on top of the bowl to make the shell. It was AFTER this that I noticed that the blog I found it on had a pattern to print out. Oh well...this worked just fine!

We colored the whole bowl green for the shell...

And added the legs to the underside of the bowl using double-sided tape.

Myla drew her face (red eyes with eyelashes, of course) and we taped that on too.

Then she started placing the shell pieces on the top.

Olivia did such a neat job coloring. She made sure to take her time!

Last step was punching a small hole in the "shell" above the head and tying a piece of yarn (so the girls could pull it behind them and "take them lots of places"). I used masking tape on the underside of the bowl so it would stay better. It came off twice as she was playing with it before I figured that out. 

Now Olivia's was almost done too!

Done and taking their new turtle friends for a walk. 

So fun!

The whole activity was pretty easy and they could do most of it on their own. It took about 30-45 minutes to complete! 

Now, I knew better than to involve the boys in turtle research and crafts, but I still wanted to do something with them for Thinking Thursday. Something that would hold their attention and be something they would enjoy....TRUCKS!

I found this online and printed on card stock...

It has a set of 9 trucks on one page and the same trucks on a separate page (which I cut out to make cards) only tinier. The objective was to have the boys use the magnifying glass to match the tiny truck to the big truck. This was using their thinking skills, right?!

First we just noticed the big trucks and named them. 

 We then explored a little with the hand lens to see them up close. 

 Taking turns looking at the little cards and placing them on the matching big truck.

 So serious...

They were so good at this....

 It's a match!

One more!

 Way to go, E!!

 Got them all...took a whole 4-5 minutes which reached the max of their attention span. Noah actually checked out a little earlier!

Olivia came by the table and snapped this cute pic of me and Myla. 

Just love having this time with them. 

Teachers HEART summer break!

Tomorrow is Fun & Friendly Friday but we don't have any playdates lined up. Kinda snuck up on me so we might change it to Fun & Family Friday and make it a family day. 

Unless anyone wants to meet us to play...let me know!!