InterSpecies Relationships

Turtles

Turtle Rescue

The protagonist of the story is an injured male red eared slider who needed a place to recover after he and the turtle he was living with reached a point where they wanted their own territory. After an overnight trip to the emergency veterinarian Cody found a new home at another school where he was nursed back to health. After making a full recovery Cody returned to his original school.

Preparing the Tank

The children knew that there was a turtle coming here. A friend let me borrow his really big aquarium tanks, so that he would have room to swim. At the moment they didn't have anything to send over for us to have here because there was another turtle living in the tank. We had to establish tanks for him. I wound up doing that here and the children wondered, "Who's gonna live in this empty tank?" I said, "Well, we've kind of talked about who our little housemate was going to be, and who was going to have a massive sleep over while everybody else was having a vacation with their parents." The children were very curious about him and helped him to feel welcome by drawing him a big picture with other turtles, so he wouldn't feel lonely.

Cody came over, before the children went to spring break, so they got to meet him. There was this build up to who was going to be here, and what you're going to be doing while we're gone. They met him and they saw that he was kind of scared. They were worried about him. Their friend, one of our students here, had had surgery, a couple months before his surgery, knew all about needing to rest and had people take care of you, so it was a big deal, because now they're like, we're going from a human experiences creature and taking care of our creatures is a very important part of our classroom culture.

Rescue School

The children welcomed him with open arms. They were aware of Cody's injuries and were super careful to not be too loud or fast so he would feel safe.

During the time the children were nursing Cody back to health they formed a relationship with him, really cared about him, and were very sad to see him go. They missed him and began sending messages checking in to see how he was doing, drawings, pictures of themselves, and requested a video of Cody. The children missed Cody so much they decided to adopt a turtle for their own class. A local reptile and amphibian rescue had a turtle named Donatello that has been at the rescue for two years waiting for a loving home. They made him this picture with little turtles on it, so he wouldn't feel lonely. They were over the moon to give him exactly what he needed.

The children wanted to introduce Cody to their new turtle, Donatello. We sent them pictures of him swimming around and we were connecting through email.

Original School

The children mailed us a thank you card. Cody and his team, and it got the kids thinking here they're like well, they don't know we have Donatello, that's what we need to say. They don't know that we have Donatello, and we want to send them something back. So they're thinking mail. They sent a note that said, "We made this for you. We wish you will play with it. The sticks are for Cody, so he doesn't feel left out. We have a turtle too. His name is Donatello." Using the Juxtaposer app the children transformed themselves into something special and a gift for them.

Fostering Exploration / Co-Learning

In an effort to include all of our children in this process and honor where each child is in their development, we intentionally chose mixed media to create the clear representations needed to complete their transformations. Representational work using traditional art mediums like pencil, paint, etc requires more sophisticated fine motor skills.

Those who wanted to paint could paint, those who want to draw could draw those who maybe weren't there with the fine motor but could manipulate something larger picture of that and bring it down to scale so that they can transform themselves. Then we sent it over, and we shrunk them and we cut them out and Cody also got a piece of driftwood because it's something Donatello likes to play with.

Digital App

We decided to use mixed media to create themselves using Juxtaposer, a digital app, to bring it all together. We embrace digital technology as a medium because children experience it daily and need to know it as a creative tool. Juxtaposer doesn’t replace drawing or storytelling; it’s a tool to expand the imagination into the digital realm. So we invited the children to dream of what they could become.

The children were empowered by how they could manipulate the images to create the exact visualization of the creature they wished to become.

The children found the forgiving nature of this app to be liberating.

more than human relationships

Wonderings from the children:

"Where was the other school when he wasn't here?"

"Who are these kids that drew this picture?"

"Where did he go?"

"How can we see each other's turtles without visiting each other?"

"Is there a way to live stream each other?"

"To play with one another without being in the same space?"

"These two turtles have this relationship over digital space and send these messages and things to each other is very sweet."

"The Common Worlds Collective is out of Vancouver, BC, British Columbia. They examine the human in more than human relationships. And that is such a moment of more than human relationships, using the digital to form friendships between turtles."

The questions, interests, and connections the children made with the two turtles created the opportunity for the children and the turtles to have a relationship over Zoom where they were able to meet.

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