Teachers – students love learning about the Western Swamp Tortoise. From primary students to secondary and even tertiary students, the Western Swamp Tortoise is a fantastic local reptile for all levels of study and research. Our talks can be tailored to your study topic, for example, threatened species, climate change, pollution, etc.
Our Education Team would love to visit your school, kindy, early childhood centre or any other group you might coordinate, for a FREE PRESENTATION, with a short video or story reading, talk, question and answer session and interactive games or craft activities to follow if required.
We can lend you the following items to enhance your lessons.
Posters and photos to display in your classroom
Games
- Threatened Species Bingo (Class set, laminated)
- Swampland Adventure Board Game (Class set, laminated)
- Tortoise Tic-Tac-Toe floor game
And provide these lesson plans with worksheets for use in your class
- Information Notes- Fact Sheets
- Fill in the Blanks Work Sheet
- Comprehension worksheet
- Threatened Species worksheet
- Crossword
- Word sleuth
- Building a Wetland (Diorama instructions) and activity sheet
- Colouring in sheets
- 3D tortoise art activity
- Suggestions for Extra Activities
To download, go to main Resources page.
We also have a book, published and written by one of our members, Cathy Levett, called “Westy”. It is a photo book designed to help juniors understand the tortoise life cycle, and we would be pleased to attend an assembly to present a FREE hardback copy to your school library. The story has proved so popular we have prepared a Kit for Guided Reading, containing 10 soft cover copies of Westy together with fact sheets, an A1 poster and a comprehensive Teacher’s Guide linked to Curriculum outcomes, in a stand alone container. This is available for purchase by contacting westernswamptortoise@yahoo.com.au.
In 2020, several schools encouraged their students to write stories about western swamp tortoises. One of these, written and illustrated by 14 year old Neeve Blackham-Jennings, called Wally’s Way Home, was self published and now has been supported by The WA Naturalist Club, who are selling the book online. Part proceeds go to the Friends Group for ongoing work.
