The Beach Said So

Setting: The school library

Characters: Kindergartners (33 of them)

In an effort to stimulate inquiry questions for future research, the librarian has just shown the students a documentary about the life of a turtle. 

Librarian: Do you think all of the turtles on the beach had just one mom or did they all have different moms?

Kindergartner 1: I think they had different moms.

Kindergartner 2: No they didn't. They all look the same, they only had one mom.

Librarian: Since we seem to have different opinions, where could we look to find the answer?

Kindergartner 3: We could ask the turtles who they're mom was.

Kindergartner 4: Yeah, and ask 'em how many brothers and sisters they have.

Librarian: But turtles don't talk in real life. I am thinking we could find the answer inside something we can touch. What am I thinking of?

Kindergartner 5: We could ask the beach.

Librarian: (confused) Ask the beach? But the beach--

Kindergartner 5: (interrupting) Yeah, the beach knows who laid all those eggs and it could tell you how many turtle moms did it.

Kindergartner 6: The beach can't talk!

Kindergartner 5: Yes it can. If turtles laid all those eggs on you, you'd know how many did it!