In honor of Dr. Seuss' Birthday week, we read "Yertle the Turtle" as an introduction to our lesson. If you haven't read the book, it is a wonderful story written in rhyme (like only Dr. Seuss can) about a power-hungry turtle king, who is not-so-nice to his subjects.
You check it out here, read by John Lithgow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FFfbSWbLWw&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active
After the story, we practiced drawing a turtle by breaking it into shapes (SYNTHESIS-a higher order thinking skill) on regular paper. When we were ready, we embossed our design in gold tooling foil by using dull pencils and magazine padding.
Aren't these fabulous?
