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Tower Tots Help Save the Sea Turtles


Tower Hill’s youngest student volunteers participated in a service learning project this week to raise awareness and funds for endangered sea turtles. The 3- and 4-year-olds in the Tower Tots preschool program held a bake sale that earned upwards of $600 to benefit the Ocean Isle Beach Sea Turtle Protection Organization.
 
“They always love doing this, and this was their biggest year yet,” Service Learning Director Chris Morrow said. 
 
The effort is part of a three-week classroom unit about sea turtles that integrates age-appropriate science, literacy, art and math through hands-on activities and interactive play. Developed five years ago by Tower Tots teacher Jean Snyder, who has volunteered at Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina to protect sea turtle nests and hatchlings, the unit had children counting sea turtle “eggs,” playing together with turtles in sand, listening to non-fiction and fiction books and creating life-sized paper turtles. 

Watch the Tower Tots in action

Using animals in the classroom is an effective way to teach compassion, too, as part of the preschool character education program, Snyder said. The children come away understanding not only basic sea turtle biology, but also that the turtles are endangered—and “helpful humans” can make a difference. 

Tots attended an Upper School morning assembly to ask older students to come to the bake sale, and they turned up in spades to support the cause. The proceeds allowed the Tower Tots to adopt a sea turtle nest through their donation.

“This has really grown into a fabulous unit for us,” Snyder said. “Our kids love it.” 
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