Turtles and Cattails

Our last pond creature was the snapping turtle. I had fun teaching the kids about this guy. Our art project was very simple, but I loved how it turned out. I found a coloring sheet of a turtle (found here) and copied it so it was centered on the bottom of the paper. First the kids colored the turtle's head and legs and belly. (Our turtle was missing a tail. I wish I had drawn one in before photocopying it.) They could also make green "stems" on the sides of their paper for cattails.

Then they used corks dipped in green and brown paint to decorate the shell.

 The corks gave the shell some nice texture.

And they used pom poms (attached to a clothespin) dipped in brown paint to make the cattails.

I searched and searched for a cattail craft, but couldn't really find one. So I thought I'd give pom poms a try and they worked great!

And to top it off, corn dogs were on the lunch menu that day and one of my kids said, "These look like cattails!" So we had cattails for lunch!

Fun Fact: Unlike other turtles, a snapping turtle cannot pull its head, legs and tail inside its shell.