Sea Turtle Informational Article and Comprehension Activities

Bring sea turtles into your reading and writing lessons with this Sea Turtle Informational Article and Comprehension Activities resource.

Students can read an informational article about sea turtles, gather additional facts through online research, organize what they learn, answer comprehension questions, and use their research to write a short informational report.

The sea turtle article is included in two formats: a two-page version with color photographs and a one-page text version. This gives you flexibility when using the resource for whole-group instruction, small groups, independent reading, research projects, or informational writing.

What’s Included

• Vocabulary cards with key terms from the reading passage
• Informational article in two formats:
  • Two-page article with color photographs
  • One-page text-only article
• Online research resources with QR codes and a Google Site containing additional articles and videos
• Graphic organizers for gathering and organizing information
• Comprehension activities, including short-answer and cloze-reading activities
• Fact sort for organizing information into categories
• Summary page
• Writing pages for creating a mini informational report

Build Reading, Research, and Writing Skills

This resource gives students multiple opportunities to work with informational text while learning about sea turtles.

Students can:

• Read and identify important information in a nonfiction article
• Learn and use sea turtle vocabulary
• Gather facts from multiple sources
• Take notes and organize information
• Sort facts into meaningful categories
• Answer questions about what they read
• Summarize important information
• Use research to write an informational report

Use It for Animal Research and Informational Writing

The sea turtle article can serve as the starting point for a larger animal research project.

Students might begin by reading the included article, then explore additional websites and videos to gather more information. They can record their research on the note-taking pages, sort their facts into categories, and use the organized information to create a mini-report.

For additional support with the writing process, pair this resource with my Informational Writing Tools packet, which helps scaffold animal research and informational writing from collecting facts through writing organized paragraphs.

You can also see how I use animal research resources to teach informational writing on the blog.

Ways to Use This Sea Turtle Resource

Use these activities during:

• Informational reading lessons
• Animal research projects
• Informational or expository writing units
• Science and literacy integration
• Small-group reading instruction
• Independent research
• Literacy centers or stations
• Ocean, marine life, or coral reef studies

Because students work with the same topic through reading, research, comprehension, note-taking, and writing, the activities can easily be combined into a multi-day lesson sequence or research project.

Looking for More Coral Reef Animals?

This sea turtle resource is also included in the Coral Reef Animals Bundle.

The bundle includes resources for:

• Coral
• Clownfish
• Tiger shark
• Manta ray
• Giant clam
• Sea cucumber
• Sea slug
• Sea star
• Sea turtle
• Sea urchin

Purchasing the bundle gives you a larger collection of related informational reading and animal research activities without purchasing each animal resource individually.

Please note: Some of the linked videos are hosted on YouTube. Check that your school or district allows access to YouTube before assigning the video research activities.