Are you planning on introducing your Pre-K students to owls this year? Maybe you just want to include the feathered creatures in an “O” themed unit. Either way, you may find one of the following ideas suitable:
Bulletin Board Set-Up
Why not start the unit by decorating your classroom’s wall with a colorful “O is for Owl” poster, wall cards and pictures of owls. The Bird Web site has a lot of full-color owl photos that you may find helpful in that regard. There is also visual material available on the Classroom Clipart and Classroom Printables websites that you could use as well.
As far as the owl wall cards go, I’d suggest logging onto the School Express website. It features a free program that will help you to create a series of owl vocabulary wall cards. You may also want to scoop up the readymade “Owl Alphabet Cards” available on the Kid Sparkz website. Other items that you may want to use to decorate your classroom’s wall are the “Flapping Owl” and “Stand Up Owl” templates posted on the Scholastic website.
Once you’ve added the owl pictures and posters to your classroom’s bulletin board, you may want to include a map of the world in your display too. That way, you could point out where the creatures live with the aid of owl push pins. If you don’t already have owl push pins in your collection, you may want to purchase them through the Push Pins and Fabric Cork Boards website. On average, a set of 10 owl push pins will cost you $10.
When you’ve finished decorating your classroom, you may want to work on familiarizing the children with the unit’s vocabulary words. Words to consider utilizing are “owl”, “nest”, “tree”, “talons” and “hoot.” Worksheets that would be helpful in that regard are available on the Education and Twisty Noodle websites. Handouts to look for on the Education site include “Learning Vowels: O”, “Letter O Maze”, “Letter O Puzzle” and “Jump Into Writing: Write an Owl Sentence.” The worksheets available through the Twisty Noodle site are “O is for Owl” and “The owl is in the tree.
Because owls are nocturnal, you may want to talk to the children about the differences between day and night too. One great way to broach the subject is to have them complete the “Nighttime Owl Coloring Page” and “Day and Night” handouts. A copy of each one is posted on the Education website. While you are on the subject of opposites, you may want to teach the children the difference between large and small as well. There is a “Smallest and Largest: Identifying Relationships Page” posted on the Scholastic website that contains pictures of various size owls. It would work perfectly for such an activity.
Science
Next, you may want to ease the children into a science related activity. For example, you could use the “Life Cycle of an Owl!” handout available on the Lapbook Lessons website to kick things off. The Enchanted Learning website also features materials that you may find beneficial. Among them are diagrams of the western spotted owl, the snowy owl and the great horned owl. Each one is designed to acquaint the children with the bird’s basic anatomy.
Afterward, you could talk to the children about how owls build their nests and where those nests are likely to be found. There is a “Building Bird Nests” booklet on the PRBO website that you could use as background material for such endeavors. It contains pictures and descriptions of various birds’ nests. In addition, there is a bird’s nest craft project posted on the Education website that you may want to use as well.
Crafts, Puppets and Rhymes
From there, you may want to get the kids involved in a few arts and crafts activities. For example, there is a template posted on the First School WS website that could be used to create an owl paper plate craft. The kids could hang the finished owls on their desks.
You could also have the kids create puppets and masks to use as part of a finger or dramatic play exercise. If you do decide to go that route, the Kid Sparkz website has a template for a paper bag owl puppet and the words to “The Owl” finger play rhyme. The Scholastic website, on the other hand, contains templates for making a moveable owl puppet and an owl mask. It also contains a handout that features the words to the “Five Little Owls” finger play exercise.
Math
Finally, you may want to ask the children to complete a handful of owl related math worksheets. The All Kids Network and Make Learning Fun websites feature such handouts. Titles to look for are the “Birds Worksheet – Practice Counting”, “Owl Shape Count” worksheet, “Color by Number Owl”, “Color Match Eyes for Owls” and the “Owl Mouse Count Cards.”
Source: Personal Experience
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