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 "texts" from the boat.

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect? 2 full bags

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? My students now have a deep understanding of how our rubbish affects ocean life and, more importantly, they feel empowered as kaitiaki (guardians) who can make a difference. It's a fabulous resource that truly challenged their thinking and motivated them to act.

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 have to look after the sea." "I was sad when I saw the plastic in our drains because I don't want the turtles to eat it." "I pick up rubbish whenever I see it so the ocean stays clean and the turtles are safe."

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? Nothing unusual, just a lot of plastic.

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

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 class just completed the "Diary of a Turtle" school kit, and it was one of the most engaging, meaningful units we have ever done. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The absolute highlight for my students was the turtle tracker. I used AI to create a turtle tracker app around New Zealand . The students would rush in, asking, "Where is our turtle today?" Being able to follow a "real" sea turtle on its journey created such a powerful and tangible connection to the ocean. It was amazing to see them so invested. To build on this excitement, I also used AI to help us generate pictures of what our turtle might be doing on its journey. This made the topic even more creative and personal for the children. This "hook" made the rest of the kit so meaningful. Writing diary entries from the turtle's perspective was a breeze because the children genuinely cared about what their turtle was experiencing. The practical component, the Sea Cleaners waterway clean-up, was eye-opening. We used the gloves and bags to clean up around our school, and the students were absolutely shocked by the amount of rubbish we found. They made the connection immediately: "This is what's hurting our turtle!"”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? The day of action was the most impactful because it involved all children and most of their parents. Prior to our day of action we had our local regional council pollution control representative come and talk about storm water drains and how they all lead to the sea. Knowing that rubbish going down the drain will affect Ariel, our turtle, make them so much more enthusiastic.

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect?

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? The youngest members of the school have become the leaders of keeping our school environment clean and safe.

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? One child said, “We need to spread the word, pick up rubbish!”

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? Part of a car and 5 single gloves!

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

“We loved being rubbish rangers and following Ariel our turtle. All children were highly engaged in all areas of our learning which ranged from watching videos, making beeswax wraps and having guest speakers. Their highlight of the year was our day of action at our local area and making the local paper!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? The bags of rubbish and the gloves to collect it with. They made it much safer to pick up sharp items like glass.

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect? We collect n small groups so around 5.

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? Made us realise that even small amounts of rubbish can be harmful.

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 need so save our title.

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? action figure.

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

“They enjoyed writing about Billy the turtle and looking at how far she had travelled on the map. The chdilren enjoyed picking up the rubish and were intesrsted in the types of rubbush that we found.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? Rubbish audit and counting the number of items

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect?

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? The children made a connection with what goes down the gutter impacts our waterways.

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? Can we see if out turtle has gone round in circles since last we tracked her.

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

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

“Class loved tracking and monitoring a turtle.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? Everything

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect? 6 bags of Rubbish

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? Yes. Plastic is to be avoided.

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? Everyone should not use plastic bags, they should use something that is reuse-able.

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? a necklace, a plastic one

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

“My students loved writing every day about their turtle after tracking where it was in the world. They each chose a turtle and tracked the turtle on a map. During this unit of work students researched sustainability, how we can re use things, and not use plastic. The students during the tracking of their turtle, also researched the habitats of turtles, and what they ate. They discovered a very sad piece of information that many turtles mistake plastic bags for jelly fish. During the term, the class did a camp at a local beach, and we cleaned the beach as an activitiy. We also made our own beeswax wraps to wrap our wraps in. The kit was great, we loved it.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? We loved the rubbish bags!

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect?

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? The Diary of a Turtle kit was not just about the sea - it helped us learn about keeping all of our whenua ora (our land wellness) safe and healthy too, because all the rubbish from the land goes to the beach! Now we think about being Kaitiaki (guardians) everywhere, not just by the water, so we are much better at putting our rubbish in the correct bin for recycling and we try to use less plastic at lunchtime, because we know that being kind to the land helps the ocean and all the animals, so we are now doing our job of helping our planet every single day!

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? Yayyyy!!!

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? We found an old watch!

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

“We loved learning with the Diary of a Turtle kit because it was so much fun to be a Kaitiaki (that means a guardian!) and help the ocean! We learned that we have to be super careful with our rubbish, especially the yucky plastic, because it makes the turtles and marine life sick, and we did our best to think like scientists and try to keep the beach clean, so we think this kit is five stars because we now know all about saving the turtles and keeping our whole environment safe!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? The large rubbish bag when we cut it open and analysed what they collected - from school grounds over two weeks - many in their lunch breaks - they were so keen to save the turtles!!

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect? One jam packed full one.

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? Brought a real focus to caring for our school - healthy eating too - no packets should be at school - now we know 2 reasons!!

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're saving the turtles" - proudly wearing gloves at morning tea - Passing teacher -"We're a long way from the ocean here!!" laughing "But all this rubbish can get in the waterways and float out to sea if we don't pick it up" 6 year old child replied! I was so proud of her.

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found? Not sure - But industry leaders need to stop with all the jelly cups, and small plastic wrapping on food so many of the children bring for 'lunch'.

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

“Excellent resource that I used to springboard off into other social science learning - habitats and survival. Loved the gloves, and we focused hugely on stopping rubbish make its way into waterways. Kids totally got it.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Which kit components were the most impactful and why? Tracking the turtle as they enjoyed checking to see how far it had traveled that day.

How many bags of rubbish did your class collect?

How has this kit impacted your class culture toward whenua ora (land wellness) and sustainability? Yes

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? "Can we see where our turtle is today?"

What was the most unusual piece of rubbish found?

Which of the following types of plastic waste did your class collect? Plastic Bag, 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 class loved tracking their turtle and learning how they can keep our eaters clean.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago