Walker first-graders and families enjoy Turtle Tea
By Chuck Fieldman cfieldman@pioneerlocal.com February 16, 2012 6:32PM
Christian Youngman (left) and Caroline O Hara talk about their turtle research during the the Turtle Tea, where each student gave a brief presentation about their turtle. | Tamara Bell~Sun Times Media
Article Extras
Updated: March 24, 2012 8:14AM
Kristin Jung, a first-grade teacher at Walker School in Clarendon Hills, never could have imagined that an event she started 21 years ago with a former colleague would now be going stronger than ever.
About 100 parents and grandparents of the 52 Walker first-graders came to the school for about an hour the afternoon of Feb. 16 to listen to students read their research papers about turtles, sing a few songs about turtles, and enjoy a variety of turtle-themed refreshments.
It was all part of Turtle Tea, a Walker event that has become an important annual tradition for first-graders and families at the school.
“We started with a much smaller version of what we have now,” Jung said. “We used to just do reports, but we’ve added a lot to it.”
Ruth Ann Dalenberg is the former Walker first-grade teacher who initially started Turtle Tea with Jung, who now works with the other first-grade teacher, JoAnne Matichak, and Michelle Woodring, the school’s media recourse director, to make the program happen.
Turtle Tea has become the end product of the first research project completed by Walker students in first grade. This was the second year in which first-graders worked with reading buddies, who are older students at Walker, on researching and writing a paper about a particular type of turtle.
Shoeboxes and paper are used to create a model habitat in which clay turtles reside. This year, for the first time, students used iPads to help create a slide show about turtles.
“This really has become a tradition here,” Jung said. “The kids really look forward to it. They hear about it from older siblings.”
Jung said first-graders spend five to six weeks preparing their turtle projects.
“They learn how to do some research and use it,” she said. “They also learn how to speak in front of a group of people.”
Students read to the audience in pairs about the turtles they researched during Turtle Tea.
“I was scared at first when I went up, but when I got up there I realized there weren’t that many people out there, so I wasn’t really scared anymore,” said first-grader Jane Hafner. “I never really thought about turtles before. It was kind of confusing because there are so many kinds of turtles, but that’s good because now I can like a million different kinds of turtles.”
And Jane said she wouldn’t mind having her own pet turtle.
“I would like one because then I could take it on walks,” she said.
First-grader Zayd Shukairy also now wants a pet turtle.
“I would start with a little one and then watch it grow big,” she said, adding she does have a pet frog, Rocky.
Zayd’s mother, Sana, attended Turtle Tea and was very impressed.
“This is our first year in the district, and I thought it was really well organized,” she said. “Zayd has been very excited about this; she was talking about it for weeks.”
Savannah Lee, another Walker first-grader, also was very excited about Turtle Tea, said her mother, Julie.
“She’s been practicing her presentation at home and singing the songs,” Julie Lee said.
“Yeah, Savannah added. “I had it stuck in my head.”
Comments Click here to view or make a comment