1st to 3rd Grade Dinosaurs of the Sea Marine Reptiles D www.OurOceanAndYou.com 123 Who Lives In The Sea? Dinosaurs of the Sea: Marine Reptiles CONCEPT / TOPICS TO TEACH Sea turtles and marine iguanas are examples of marine reptiles. There are many kinds of marine reptiles. Most marine reptiles have scaly skin, breathe air, are cold-blooded meaning they use surrounding air temperature to regulate their body temperature, and except snakes, possess four limbs. Everything marine reptiles eat is gathered from the sea. Many marine reptiles return to land only to rest or to bear offspring. There are many kinds of turtles that live in fresh water lakes, rivers and on land, but there are only seven species of marine turtles living in our ocean today. Marine turtle means a turtle “of the sea” or ocean environment. All marine turtles are on the endangered species list. Character Education: CURIOSITY Objectives: As student scientists you get to observe the world using your » Students will exercise their CURIOSITY. Scientists formulate many questions in order to create a creative and literacy skills by creating a marine reptile hypothesis, which is an idea or guess that can be tested. Have your and writing about its unique children go through life being scientists and using their CURIOSITY to qualities. foster learning! » Students will interpret data CURIOSITY can be explained as a desire to know something, helping from a graph to answer a hold our interest in any subject. Children ask “why” all the time, yet series of questions about many adults do not know the answers to questions children are asking marine reptiles. and can unintentionally shut down children’s CURIOSITY. When children » Students will use a scientific ask questions, encourage them to discover the answers. When they tool called a dichotomous ask a “Why” question, you can say, “What do you think?” encouraging key to answer a series of them to learn, discover, and become natural problem solvers. questions enabling them to identify (using taxonomic principles) two species of Ocean Annie and Scuba Divers Have students share findings marine turtles. use CURIOSITY with their buddy by using body language and hand signals. Take » Students will find plot Scuba diving fosters CURIOSITY, your two fingers and point at coordinates on a map to yet we also need to follow rules locate and answer questions your eyes and then point to what so we do not get hurt. Have about the locations of you want them to see which your students get with their various marine reptiles. means, “Look at that! Check buddy teams and go scuba » Students will exercise their this out!” Have them create diving in their imagination. They creative skills and build questions about marine reptiles can explore the coral reef or vocabulary by creating a based on their CURIOSITY areas where marine reptiles live. sea turtle and writing new and encourage them to find vocabulary to complete a Remind them when we scuba the answers. This builds self- story. dive, we wear our regulator in confidence and independence our mouth to breathe. Review while keeping their CURIOSITY communication skills. alive! 124 www.AnnieCrawley.com 1st to 3rd Grade Getting Started Treasure Chest • Algae Required Materials • Carapace ❍ DVD “Who Lives In The Sea?” by • Cold Blooded Dive Into Your Imagination • Curiosity ❍ Large Dry Erase Board/Easel and Markers • Dermal • Flipper • Habitat Anticipatory Set Lead-In • Herpetologist ✧ Watch and become familiar with chapter four “Dinosaurs of the Sea: • Homeostasis Marine Reptiles” from the DVD “Who Lives In The Sea?” • Reptile • Shell ✧ Ask students if they can think of examples of land or marine reptiles. • Scute Marine reptiles are the special group of reptiles that live most of their • Thermoregulation lives in the sea. • Zoology ✧ Before running the film clip, ask students to imagine they are herpetologists, meaning they are scientists who specialize in the study of reptiles and work with their team to collect information about marine reptiles. ✧ For this activity you might choose to divide the class, half of them will be marine turtle investigators and the other half marine iguana investigators. Have them compare their findings. Here are some questions and answers you can use to build a brainstorming session: KWL LGL AG WP Questions for Students Answers for Educators What kinds of animals Marine turtles, marine iguanas, sea snakes, and crocodiles are marine reptiles? A wide variety of foods depending on species. Marine iguanas are vegetarian, turtles eat a variety of food and in some What do marine reptiles eat? cases what they like to eat depends on how old they are. Marine turtles eat jellies, sponges, eel grass, algae, scallops, fish, squid and sea urchins depending on the species. Animals can mistake floating plastic for food and eat Why is plastic bad for it. When this happens it clogs their stomachs and marine reptiles? digestive systems eventually killing them. What is different about how Marine iguanas swim by undulating their bodies and turtles and iguanas swim? tails. Turtles use their powerful flippers to swim. www.OurOceanAndYou.com 125 Who Lives In The Sea? Video Review ✧ Ask students what else they want to know ✧ After watching the clip about marine reptiles about marine reptiles and write ideas down once or even a few times, discuss and for later research. write down additional facts, questions, and ✧ Ask students how it feels to be curious? information students gained from watching the How does curiosity help them in school? video for further research and discussion. With their homework? With Play? Encourage ✧ Ask students to write a reflection in their journal students to do the activities flled with about marine reptiles. curiosity. How will the mindset of being curious affect their behavior? Imagination Play Have your students imagine they are marine turtles. Many children love turtles, imagining they are a turtle or a field biologist studying marine turtles enables them to focus and pay attention to details as you go through the activities. You can read the following script or use your imagination and make your own! “On the count of three let’s use our imagination and imagine we are marine turtles. 1, 2, 3… imagination! You spend almost all of your life living in the salty Ocean. You are a marine reptile and even though you live in the ocean or sea, you breathe air. You could hold your breath and dive underwater for up to seven hours as a turtle! Like many animals, if you get scared, you breathe quickly. As a turtle when this happens, you would need to immediately surface to breathe. Turtles rest in cracks and crevices on the reef, and sometimes can be found floating on the surface of the sea. Depending on your diet, you might feed on turtle grass, jellies, clams and scallops, or even sponges. Although you cannot move around very well on land, when you are in the water you glide through the sea using your flippers. You have to return to land to lay eggs. Your shell is connected to your skeleton and you never crawl out of your shell, it is attached to your body. Sometimes you swim through cleaning stations and damselfish or butterflyfish will eat algae and barnacles growing on your shell. Your relatives have been around since the time of dinosaurs! You need children to help you because all seven species of marine turtles are endangered! Let’s continue to use our imagination and curiosity to find out more about marine reptiles and waht we can do to help!” Earth has one big ocean with many features covering 70% of the planet. 126 www.AnnieCrawley.com 1st to 3rd Grade CLASSROOM ACTIVITY STATION D1 WE LOVE MARINE REPTILES! Overview Students will choose and decorate or draw their favorite marine reptile, and use facts to write sentences or a story about it for a class bulletin board. Participation in this activity will help students develop artistic skills, vocabulary, writing skills, and reading comprehension. Materials: Marine Reptile templates, “Marine Reptile Facts”, “Save the Reptiles”, butcher paper, bulletin board, paper, scissors, crayons/colored pencils, pencils, additional decorations Talking Points Lesson Procedure ✧ Review “Marine Reptile Facts” 1. Use the templates to make a set of marine reptiles or help students cut out their own to ✧ Ask students if they can remember what kind use as stencils or coloring shapes. of reptiles live in the ocean. Have students share interesting facts, statements or 2. Prepare a bulletin board with butcher paper questions about marine reptiles. and the title “We Love Marine Reptiles”. ✧ Review with students points from the marine 3. Each student will create or choose a marine reptile fact sheets or ask discovery questions reptile cutout to decorate. relating to marine reptiles. 4. Arrange finished reptiles on the bulletin ✧ Ask students if they can think of ways they board, and post the reptile fact sheets with can help protect marine reptiles or their the respective animals, and the “Save the homes. Create a class list that can be added Reptiles” block in the center. to the bulletin board. Affirm the importance 5. Review marine reptile fact sheets with of stopping pollution, never purchasing students. things that come from marine reptiles like food or leather, and never disturbing animals 6. Ask students to incorporate facts they have like sea turtles when they are resting or learned about their selected marine reptile nesting on the shore. into sentences or a story. Add completed writing to the “Who Lives In The Sea” journal. Scuba divers plan their dives and dive their plan. They also keep a journal! www.OurOceanAndYou.com 127 Who Lives In The Sea? MARINE REPTILES FACT SHEET: Sea Turtles Where Do Sea Turtles Live? What do Sea Turtles Eat? » Sea turtles live in the ocean all around the » Different kinds of sea turtles have mouths world.