The Little Turtle Poem

The Little Turtle

by Vachel Lindsay There was a little turtle. He lived in a box. He swam in a puddle. He climbed on the rocks. He snapped at a mosquito. He snapped at a flea. He snapped at a minnow. And he snapped at me. He caught the mosquito. He caught the flea. He caught the minnow. But he didn't catch me.

This is a poem we have been reading in class. Our poem comes in an illustrated book, and also a CD so we can sing along with the words. 

Before reading the book we make predictions about what the book might be about. We talk about the covers and learn about authors and illustrators jobs. Then we take a picture walk, just looking at the beautiful illustrations and discuss what the picture clues tell us.

We read the story a few times, and the children come up and following along with their finger, read the words. Memorization of sight words, using pictures to guess a word, hand actions and sounding out words is the beginning process of reading!!!! Your kids are reading!!!

Ask your child to read along with you, focusing on the repetitive parts and the word HE.

Ask them to be the illustrator and draw the pictures!

The children loved reading their own copies of the book and following along with CD in the listening centre.

This friend wanted to write who the illustrator was of HER book, so look how she figured out how to spell the word illustrations. Great problem solving!!!