Turtles & Tortoises

By Connie Goldin, MA, MFT

Recently, by chance, my husband and I stumbled upon The San Diego Turtle and Tortoise Show, an annual event in Balboa Park held by the San Diego Turtle & Tortoise Society. We had our five-year-old-grandnephew and his mom and dad with us and it was a great find. We saw several Galapagos tortoises, as well as several other species of these fabulous reptiles. Johnny, the five-year-old, had a blast checking out all the animals and even touching some of them on their hard shells. I’d definitely attend again, because it was very interesting, and was free!

Check out the excellent Turtle & Tortoise page on the San Diego Zoo website. You’ll find great information and new vocabulary. Some of the words and terms include:

Leatherback turtle

sea turtle

terrapin

tortoise

carapace

camouflage

celonian

cold-blooded

habitat

predator

webbed feet

Meet Tortoise, Timothy, who is almost 162 years old!

Here are some fun books, both fiction and nonfiction, that introduce turtles and tortoises to kids, from toddlers to teens. There is wonderful new vocabulary to learn for all ages from reading about a topic. Talking about the difference between fiction and nonfiction with young children will be helpful to them too.

This is a foam book for the younger set. The sea animals come out of the books as fun shapes.

This book is a fictional account of a little baby turtle for preschoolers. It has some fun special visual effects.

Tiny Turtle delivers nonfiction information in a storybook form. Kindergarteners and kids in the early school grades will enjoy this book.

Not much turtle info here, but great for emerging reading skills.Young kids will love the wacky Seuss classic.

The turtle is one of 13 moons in this story from Native American folklore. This is good for older elementary through middle school students.

Old Turtle is a thoughtful story about human nature. It is children’s literature for older elementary through middle school students.

The Peterson First Guides are meant for beginning naturalists. This is a field guide to reptiles that has six pages of turtle and tortoise illustrations. Pure nonfiction and only costs $6.

These books can be purchased at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.