Diary of a Turtle 25 Reviews

4.6 Rating 224 Reviews

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Which kit components were the most impactful and why? The picture of "our" turtle with her tracker attached, they adored it.

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect? 2, we only have a little school!

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? Absolutely made us more aware of what we do on land affects the waterways, and its permanence

How high was student engagement throughout this kit?

Very Low

Neutral

Very High

What’s a sentence you heard in your classroom that would help us understand the type of learning that was taking place? In the playground, "pick up your chip packet (name) otherwise Nugget could choke on it!

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? Batteries :(

Which of the following types of plastic waste did your class collect? Plastic Bag, Plastic Bottle, Plastic Bottle Top, Plastic Container, Plastic Wrapper

How well did this kit help your class build statistical thinking and numeracy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

How well did this kit help your class build literacy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

Diary of a Turtle helped my students better understand the impact plastic waste can have on marine life. Agree

“Our Year 0-3 class loved following "their" turtle every day. It opened up rich discussions and gave meaning to our around-school rubbish collection.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? Learning about the sea turtles themselves and how we affect their habitat.

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect?

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? I think that this kit has had a positive impact on my tamariki, especially in regards to learning about our actions and how they affect

How high was student engagement throughout this kit?

Very Low

Neutral

Very High

What’s a sentence you heard in your classroom that would help us understand the type of learning that was taking place? Turtles are endangered. The turtles were around when the dinosaurs were.

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? Nothing unusual as we only picked up rubbish within our school but we did find items of clothing (odd socks, shoes).

Which of the following types of plastic waste did your class collect? Plastic Bag, Plastic Bottle, Plastic Bottle Top, Plastic Straw, Plastic Wrapper

How well did this kit help your class build statistical thinking and numeracy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

How well did this kit help your class build literacy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

Diary of a Turtle helped my students better understand the impact plastic waste can have on marine life. Agree

“This was a great way for my students to realise the impact that they have on our environment. It was awesome to interact with real turtles and watch their jounrey across the oceans.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? The website and feedback from other teachers in Aotearoa.

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect?

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? They truly beleive they can make a difference and they care and they understand the importance of being sustaianable.

How high was student engagement throughout this kit?

Very Low

Neutral

Very High

What’s a sentence you heard in your classroom that would help us understand the type of learning that was taking place? "Even if other people don't care about plastic, I am never going to have single use plastic in my life" Said Eden (7 years old)

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? A needle

Which of the following types of plastic waste did your class collect? Plastic Bag, Plastic Bottle, Plastic Bottle Top, Plastic Container, Plastic Straw, Plastic Wrapper, Plastic Cup

How well did this kit help your class build statistical thinking and numeracy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

How well did this kit help your class build literacy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

Diary of a Turtle helped my students better understand the impact plastic waste can have on marine life. Agree

“With 30 years teaching experience I was thrilled to introduce this amazing resource to my class. Teaching Education for Sustainability is so vital and important in these times and the impact my students had at home was amazing.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? The links to the information were incredibly helpful, as they allowed me to explore further and make stronger connections to the angle I needed to take to align with our overall inquiry. They also helped me understand how the turtles were being tracked, which added valuable background knowledge and enriched the learning experience for my class.

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect?

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? They are now definitely more aware of the impact that litter—particularly plastic—has on our world, and they recognise the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling wherever possible.

How high was student engagement throughout this kit?

Very Low

Neutral

Very High

What’s a sentence you heard in your classroom that would help us understand the type of learning that was taking place? I didn't know that there was so much plastic in the ocean.

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? A jandal

Which of the following types of plastic waste did your class collect? Plastic Bottle, Plastic Bottle Top, Plastic Wrapper

How well did this kit help your class build statistical thinking and numeracy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

How well did this kit help your class build literacy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

Diary of a Turtle helped my students better understand the impact plastic waste can have on marine life. Agree

“My class absolutely loved tracking Twinkle and, through this experience, developed a much deeper understanding of our responsibility to be kaitiaki of our oceans. They became genuinely engaged with the journey and asked thoughtful questions that showed real curiosity and care. Along the way, they also gained valuable insight into the impact litter—especially plastic—has on marine environments, recognising how even small actions can make a big difference. This learning has really strengthened their sense of guardianship and awareness of the choices we make each day.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? The turtle and learning more about the turtle and what we could do to help them survive in the ocean

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect? Just one bag as we could only do this at school, of which their wasn't much rubbish around the school groundss

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? The tamariki were quite excited to learn a bit more about turtles and the environment they live in and how they could help

How high was student engagement throughout this kit?

Very Low

Neutral

Very High

What’s a sentence you heard in your classroom that would help us understand the type of learning that was taking place? "The poor turtles they can't eat that" "We are not very good by leaving our rubbish behind"

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? none

Which of the following types of plastic waste did your class collect? Plastic Wrapper

How well did this kit help your class build statistical thinking and numeracy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

How well did this kit help your class build literacy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

Diary of a Turtle helped my students better understand the impact plastic waste can have on marine life. Agree

“This came in handy when the class wrote about the turtle then we had a Junior trip to Kelly Tarltons and the kids saw the turtle and their other favourite sea animal was the peguins.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? We liked the tracker component because it made the journey turtles take more real to the students.

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect? Unsure but I would say at least 3 so far

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? They are looking out for things, making comments like, 'I told my dad to put in in the bin so it didn't get eaten by a turtle'.

How high was student engagement throughout this kit?

Very Low

Neutral

Very High

What’s a sentence you heard in your classroom that would help us understand the type of learning that was taking place? These are so cool (gloves) I can pick up so much rubbish and make lots of turtles happy and healthy.

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? Nothing really unusal so far

Which of the following types of plastic waste did your class collect? Plastic Bag, Plastic Bottle, Plastic Container, Plastic Wrapper

How well did this kit help your class build statistical thinking and numeracy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

How well did this kit help your class build literacy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

Diary of a Turtle helped my students better understand the impact plastic waste can have on marine life. Agree

“My class loved learning about Turtles and they got excited to follow Pebbles and see where she had gone. I supplemented the kit with videos of turtles swimming through the ocean, which then helped with writing the diaries. We were unable to go out on a school trip to collect rubbish as the term was so busy already and my bosses decided that it wasn't logistically possible, So instead I sent the gloves home and I set the children and parents a mission. I did ask for pictures, which I haven't been sent yet, however the children have been very excited about the gloves and have loved coming to tell me what they have picked up with their gloves. I was quite limited by fixed school routines, so I wasn't able to do as much on the Turtle kit as I would have liked. I still think the children got into it though.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? The teaching resources.

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect? We did 5

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? It worked in perfection with our Environment Schools.

How high was student engagement throughout this kit?

Very Low

Neutral

Very High

What’s a sentence you heard in your classroom that would help us understand the type of learning that was taking place? We found so much rubbish.

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? We think it was a car part. A big piece of metal

Which of the following types of plastic waste did your class collect? Plastic Bag, Plastic Bottle, Plastic Container, Plastic Wrapper, Plastic Cup

How well did this kit help your class build statistical thinking and numeracy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

How well did this kit help your class build literacy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

Diary of a Turtle helped my students better understand the impact plastic waste can have on marine life. Agree

“This is a fantastic kit. The student really engaged with the topic and enjoyed the learning experiences”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? the details for tracking of a turtle, and the tools for collecting rubbish

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect? 2 to date - but we plan to continue this as a regular thing and as there were other classes within our team also using the kit we had to pick our time to find rubbish within the school grounds. We are planning a trip next week to the reserve across the road from our school to collect more rubbish.

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? It gave the chidlren a deeper understanding of why we pick up rubbish - as they learnt better about the potential impact of their rubbish

How high was student engagement throughout this kit?

Very Low

Neutral

Very High

What’s a sentence you heard in your classroom that would help us understand the type of learning that was taking place? 'the more paper rubbish we find the better' - the kids learned that paper rubbish could be recycled and that it was plastic rubbish that provided the real threat to our waterways - they decided if we find less plastic rubbish around the school over time, then that is a good sign of plastic reduction

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? canisters for vaping

Which of the following types of plastic waste did your class collect? Plastic Bottle Top, Plastic Container, Plastic Straw, Plastic Wrapper

How well did this kit help your class build statistical thinking and numeracy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

How well did this kit help your class build literacy skills?

Helped a little

Somewhat helpful

Very helpful

Diary of a Turtle helped my students better understand the impact plastic waste can have on marine life. Agree

“We enjoyed using the resource; especially the tracking of a turtle. It would have been even better if the turtle being tracked was in NZ waters and on our coastline as the kids have trouble connecting to the Americas etc. Could there be some NZ data provided somehow? It tied in really nicely with Watercare's education programme about keeping our waterways clean. The gloves for rubbish collection were awesome - beautifully tied in with sustainability as we washed them and are reusing them in the school garden for tree planting.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago