Sea Turtle Life Cycle

I love when I get to pass on to my kids specialist knowledge that I know they won’t get in the classroom – this weeks #playfulpreschool topic is all about “Life Cycles” and I couldn’t pass up the chance to teach about the life cycle of my specialism Sea Turtles. Finishing university I took up volunteer work around the world with sea turtles on nesting beaches eventually becoming a paid position researching in a community project on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica and working with the majestic sea turtles. Part of my work in the project was working with visiting school groups to talk about conservation, sea turtles and lead them on patrols to help show conservation and research in the field. One of the activities that we did as a talk through was ordering the sea turtle life cycle and producing chalk board representations of it. It’s such a simple ordering activity for kids of all ages that I decided to adapt it to use with T for this weeks post.

Read Next: Sea Turtle Workbook for Kids

All 7 sea turtles follow the same life cycle

Female Adult sea turtles come up to the beach from which they were born

Sea Turtle Life Cycle - Ordering Cards to print and download — Adult Sea Turtle

They lay eggs below the surface of the sand

The eggs incubate under the sand for varying amount of days

The hatchlings (baby turtles) crawl their way through the sand waiting under the surface for dark

Hatchlings then make a mad dash for the sea

It is believed that hatchlings then go to nurseries where they grow to juvenile sea turtles

The juvenile sea turtles stay in shallower water to grow

Before heading to deeper seas for richer food sources

The female adults head back to shore to repeat the life cycle

The males never return to the shore

Sea Turtles of the World Workbook

An 8 page workbook for kids to learn about the 7 species of Sea Turtles in the world, with information and activities.

Buy Now!

What You'll Find on This Page

Materials needed

Images of sea turtle life cycle – I drew this set that you can save the images and print them out for use.

Learning objectives

To talk about life cycles
Order pictures based on prior knowledge

Why not read about sea turtles including information about the threats to them and more about their life cycle with our recommended sea turtle books for toddlers and preschoolers or more detail with our sea turtle life cycle books for kids.

Ordering the Sea Turtle Life Cycle

I started by explaining about the sea turtle life cycle and what happens.

Then introduced my pictures and then T set about putting them in order.

I said it was best to start with the adult turtle and what does she do.

She quickly ordered them first in a row but then decided that it didn’t work like that because she wanted to put the adult at the end again and then move everything.

She decided to order it into a circle as that meant when the adult wanted to go back to the beach it was already there right next to her.

It was interesting that she produced the life cycle anti-clockwise as I would have placed them clock wise but as she placed them I realised why – she was placing them down and then from left to right like we read and write rather than in a traditional life cycle of a clockwise configuration.

I then used the life cycle cards as prompts to talk about the different life stages, what she though they would eat, the other animals that were in the habitats and what sort of things may happen there.

More life cycle playful preschool ideas

Mealworms Life Cycle Activities for Kids

Studying Mealworms with Kids by Raising Lifelong Learners