SEA TURTLE - FUN! 3D Graphic Organizer

SEA TURTLE!

Instructions on HOW to make below!

Not only are 3D graphic organizers fun for the students to personalize and make, they create a new and different experience for them to learn something so that memory of that topic, idea, words, etc., is more easily recalled by the brain in the future.  Research proves that when the brain is given many (not just one) path ways to information, recall of said information becomes more consistent and the information is stored into long-term memory longer!

I will use this graphic organizer as a model for when I want to teach my future students how to create their own!  The sea turtle relates to my unit's theme, "Jamaica", but the words I specifically chose are from the mentor text, Cultural Traditions in Jamaica.  The reason I chose these 5 words (exhibition, plantation, contribution, tradition, and emancipation) from this mentor text is because I found that they all have a common suffix, '-tion', and by writing these words out and their definitions onto their own turtles, it will create a *cognitive tag to helping them remember what the words mean and how they are spelled at recall in the future.

FYI, my professor gave me four imaginary students to plan for, whom are in 3rd grade and are above benchmark level in reading.  This relates to the sea turtle graphic organizer because I first had to decide on a mentor text that was appropriate to use for their skill levels.  I decided this based on data. Here is the data she gave me:

% indicating benchmark accuracy

Joe- F and P level Q = 99%

Monica- F and P level Q = 98%

Rachel- F and P level S = 92%

Ross- F and P level R = 95%

Cultural Traditions in Jamaica by Lynn Peppas is an appropriate mentor text because it is a Fountas and Pinnell level R, and all of the imaginary students can use it as an *instructional text based from the data.  Joe and Monica are ready to move up a level, Ross is just now meeting level R as an *independent text, and Rachel has flexibility and room to move backwards a level for this small group lesson based from her score of the level S.  I know that Cultural Traditions in Jamaica by Lynn Peppas is a Fountas and Pinnel level R because I compared it to an already leveled text, Alaska: The Last Frontier written by Dane Dehler, on Reading A-Z and both texts have similar sized font, number of lines per page, and number of words per page, and headings, photos with captions, maps, a glossary, and an index.

*cognitive tag- a specific memory cue (maybe tactile, visual, auditory, etc.) that helps trigger the recall of learned information
*instructional text- a text that a student can read at an accuracy rate of 90%-95%
*independent text- a text that a student can rad at an accuracy rate of 95%-100%
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HERE ARE THE STEPS as to how I made the Sea Turtle 3D Graphic Organizer!

Materials:

• brown construction paper
• green construction paper
• glue/tape
• two different colored markers

Procedure:

Step 1:

Cut out a turtle's shell.  A turtle's shell is bumpy
so it doesn't have to be "perfect"!

Step 2:

With the green construction paper, first fold it in half (hamburger style), 

and then fold two more times (hot dog style).  You will have 6 total layers.  

In this way, when you cut out his legs, head and tail, 

you will end up with 6 equal sized cut-outs.

Step 3:

Next, place 5 of those green cut-outs behind the brown 

shell as shown below and tape/glue them into place.

Step 4:

You want to use the last green cut-out to make a tail out of it.  

Cut one out and tape/glue that onto the shell as well. :)

Step 5:

Write the 5 chosen vocabulary words onto the four legs and the tail.

Write the commonality (phonics pattern) of the words in a different color.

Step 6:

Flip the turtle and now write the definitions of the 

vocabulary words underneath its designated leg/tail.

Step 7:

Flip the turtle back over and now decorate your turtle's shell and face!