Mike Koss

Turtle Basics

By Mike Koss
Try it Logo Playground
The turtle, a small triangle, in the middle of the screen

The turtle looks like a little triangle in the middle of the screen. The head shows you which direction he is facing. When the turtle moves he draws a line behind him.

The turtle turning right and left by different numbers of degrees

You can turn the turtle by telling him to turn RIGHT or LEFT. This picture shows how to make the turtle turn in different directions. Instead of typing out RIGHT and LEFT I use the smaller words RT and LT, which mean the same thing to the turtle.

The turtle drawing a line as it moves forward 
FD 100

To get the turtle to draw a line, just tell him to move FORWARD a number of steps (turtles take small steps, so you need to tell him to move FORWARD many steps, like 100, to get him to move enough to see). I like to use the smaller word FD instead of typing FORWARD. Both work the same way.

The turtle walking around a square: FD 100 RT 90, four times

To get the turtle to draw a shape, like a square, you can give him the instructions he needs to “walk” around the shape of a square.