Turtles in My Sandbox

Helping Animals & Changing Habitats

by Jennifer Keats Curtis, Schongut Schongut (Illustrations)

Imagine finding turtle eggs in your sandbox! When a mother diamondback terrapin lays eggs in a young girl's sandbox, the girl becomes a -turtle-sitter- to help the babies safely hatch. She raises the teeny hatchlings until they become big enough to fend for themselves in the wild. Then, with the help of experts, she releases them. Along the way, she learns about these unique animals and that she has made an important contribution to their survival. The -For Creative Minds- educational section includes terrapin fun facts and a turtle habitat craft.

Genres: Science, Animals, Spanish Literature

Audio

First published September 10, 2006

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered this one on Epic last year when we ended up doing school online after school got cancelled. Now that we're back in school and doing City Wildlife, I can't help but read and discuss this story again with my students. It teaches a lot but is still a story that captivates kids. I read that some schools on the east coast actually raise terrapins in their classroom and then release them in the Spring. That would be SOOO cool!

[Taylor Relacion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turtles in My Sandbox is about a young girl who finds turtle eggs in her sandbox, a mother diamondback Terrapin lays her eggs there. The girl helps take care of the eggs and make sure they hatch safely, once they hatch she raised them until it was time for them to go back into the ocean. Experts help her release them back into the water. I would recommend this book for upper elementary and early middle school because it does have long paragraphs.
I would use this in my classroom to introduce sea life awareness or if we covering the topic of ocean life or sea turtles. This book is informative and can be helpful to children who may live close to a beach. I liked all of the illustrations in the book, it really captured a lot of what the young girl was doing.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a mother terrapin lays eggs in a sandbox, a little girl ends up raising the babies until they're 9 months old and big enough to be on their own.

[Christi · Rating 3 out of 5]

cute book. i especially like it because my grandparents used to find turtle eggs in their dirt drive in Texas and they would put the turtle eggs in a 2 liter 7up bottle in sandy dirt, keep them warm and hatch them... ahh. the memories. educational book too. great.