Unit on Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

This was adapted from this unit at Homeschool Share. The ideas and lapbook activities they offer are awesome.

Missy and I read this book:

The verdict was: “It rocks! I love it!”

Language Arts –

Rhymes and Songs — We made a notebook page with one of the lapbook resources in the HSS unit; it included owl poems, songs, and fingerplays. We read or sang them all several times.

Math –

Jim Arnosky’s All About Owls told about the sizes of various owls, from the Elf Owl (5.5 inches) to the Great Gray Owl (up to 33 inches). Using a yardstick and a long roll of newsprint, we measured and sketched the outlines of owls in these various lengths. We talked about the various sizes.  (Measurements, Comparing Sizes,  Counting)

Science –

Owls –

We reviewed our Living vs. Non-Living Things Montessori activity, which I introduced a few weeks ago, then we read several books about owls:

A beautifully illustrated, poetic living nature book describing the lives of barn owls.

A beautifully illustrated living nature book describing the lives of barn owls.

A bit didactic, but informative and well done.

Nocturnal Animals — To introduce this topic, we did a notebook page using a lapbook activity on nocturnal animals from HSS.

Then we read these books:

This is a real gem. It’s a beautiful book for little ones on diurnal and nocturnal animals of the forest.  During daylight hours, deer splash through a stream while an owl dozes in a nearby tree, snakes stare at sleeping foxes, and blue jays squawk as skunks snooze in a hollow log. Flip the book over to forest night and see the deer bedded down while the owl searches for food, the foxes on the prowl as the snakes rest in a tangled bunch, and the skunks scurrying about while a jay sleeps with its head tucked beneath its wing.

This is an introduction to diurnal and nocturnal animals for little ones. It’s a bit didactic, but pretty good.

Owl Pellets

This was the best part. We talked about what owls eat, sorted the bones we found in the pellets, and looked at food webs.

Food Webs

When we dissected owl pellets, Missy seemed interested in our poster showing a food web, with the owl at the top,  which I got with the kit. So I taped it to the door at her face level.

She followed some of the arrows with her fingers and  talked about what different animals eat.

We also added a simple lapbook activity on what owls eat, from HSS, to our notebook.

Birds — Reading about owls kind of lends itself to exploring the topic of birds. Conveniently, the Great Backyard Bird Count starts tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Sensory/Practical Life –

We also made the letters B/b (bird) and N/n (Night) in colored shaving cream.

Art –

She had a blast with this craft: