Draw a Life Sized Sea Turtle

During the summer I like to ask my girls to work on little research projects. Learning how to research and writing up the information found is important to critical thinking development and is an important life skill. This summer the girls decided to focus on sea turtles. When I was in high school my art class designed and built a life sized whale and dolphins in our school courtyard. I remember how cool it was to stand beside a life sized whale...that we had created. My art project inspired our outdoor activity. The girls' discovered that sea turtles are quite large - much larger than the turtles you see in the pet store. To illustrate their actual size I suggested we draw a life sized sea turtle with chalk on our driveway. We considered making one out of paper mache, but quickly realized we would have no where to keep such a large creature.

We gathered up some chalk, our measuring tape and the book that had the turtle's size inside and went outside to get creative. Our driveway is made from concrete and has many lines in it, that have grass popping through. We incorporated the grassy part into the underwater scenery. We created a life sized sea turtle, sea horses and a black tip shark, a smaller sized shark. When the drawing was done it was truly beautiful. We had brought our driveway to life. Our neighbours even came outside to take pictures of our creation. These pictures don't really do it justice. By drawing the turtle the girls were able to see just how HUGE they actually are. They gained a greater understanding of sea turtles and the busy world that exists under the water's surface. Amazing. 

Dabbling Momma shared a fun chalk activity they had fun playing...riding a bike in search of numbers.
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