A Herd of Turtles

Tomorrow is officially the first day back to school for teachers, but most of us have already been in our classrooms numerous times.  One of the things I accomplished this week was making and installing my door display.  Doing these creative tasks gets me excited for back to school.  I always like to have a display on or around my door that includes student names.  Last year it was owls, and this year I opted for turtles.

I am partial to turtles.  I have them all over my yard as yard art. I have them in my home. I have them in my classroom.  For me turtles represent patience and tenacity. I started thinking about using them on my door at a math PD this summer when I saw that Common Core Standards talked about teaching children to persevere in problem solving.

First I had to figure out how to make them. I am not an artist, so I broke out my scrapbooking drawing books and Googled "How to draw turtles."  Using those ideas I practiced drawing turtles.  I wanted a cartoon turtle that was friendly looking.  After sketching several I came up with four that I liked best.

I went over the lines with a black permanent marker and erased all the stray pencil lines.  I cut them out and mounted them on cardstock,  then I photocopied them to make my pattern.

I made two copies of my pattern.  The first I copied onto various shades of green and brown cardstock for the turtle bodies.

The second set of patterns I cut apart in order to make a shell pattern for each turtle.  These I ran onto various shades of pattern scrapbook paper.  I have a lot of money invested in scrapbook supplies, and I am trying to use up my stash.

Then it was just a matter of cutting out the turtles and shells and gluing them together.  I glued the patterned shell right on top of the solid card stock turtle.

Stick Out Your Neck and Learn!  Take Risks, Try New Things, Persevere, Be Patient, Do Your Best.

I took them to school and arranged them on the door.  On the inside of the door, we will hang our class contract.