"Reptiles," found at SMART Exchange online, allows students to identify which reptiles fit into which reptile group. In this activity, students also are able to learn characteristics of each reptile group to better understand the diversity of life and how living things live together within an environment. Students look at pictures of reptiles in all shapes and sizes within the interactive SMART Board Notebook. Students learn definitions within this free lesson, such as cold-blooded. Students can also click on certain reptiles to watch videos, including the basilisk as it walks on water. This lesson also has a tile activity and a quiz. Many public school classrooms in the United States have SMART software programs or free Notebook interactive viewers, but the lesson can also be opened with a MAC OS, Microsoft Windows or Linux system. After this lesson, teachers can pass out various plastic reptile toys. Students can experiment by matching the right items with the right reptile group, listing the characteristics of each reptile and an activity relating to it. This activity is recommended for grades 1 through 3.
Set smooth river stones and clay on a table and let students chose one to make a reptile. Stones represent turtles. Create lizards and snakes with the clay. Allow students to paint and glue googly eyes on the stones. Students will research the housing needs of their reptile and place the necessary items within a shoebox diorama before creating their reptile and placing it within its home. Before the experiment begins, place scenarios on paper in a basket. Situations, such as "a sudden freeze occurred. Your reptile has suffered freezing temperatures," or "your reptile is changing color. What could this mean?" Have students draw a slip out of the bag each day and create a timeline with their reptiles, charting each situation and writing down how their reptile would respond in a real situation, answering all scenarios.
Study the life cycle of a sea turtle, found at Rice University online, and the frog life cycle. Ask students to compare and contrast the various stages of sea turtle and frog development. Instruct students to draw a hypothesis based on what would happen if sea turtles hatched in water and tadpoles hatched on land. Ask students to draw conclusions to help them understand the differences in sea turtle and frog anatomy.
Turtle shells do not tell a turtle's age like the rings on a tree. There is much to learn about a turtle's shell and its anatomy. If you do not have the means to do an actual dissection of a turtle as an experiment within your classroom, follow an interactive online dissection or follow a photographic dissection. Vertebrate Biology Turtle Dissection is a positive example of a photographic dissection experiment, with labeled photos, found at Cumberland.K12.iL.us.