Look WHOOOO's Learning About Owls Mrs. Attaya's First Grade Class with THANKS to Kathy Morrison, Cindy Venables, Happy Carico and Vicki Christensen Denton ISD Science And Language Saturday Academy Owl Characteristics Owl Babies Owl Habitats Owl Pellets Owl Math Owl Resources Lesson Focus: Owls are Birds Brainstorm: what we know about birds Investigations with feathers Label Owl poster - parts of an owl Owl Assessment - Yes/No statements work sample by Eric Lesson Focus: Owl Babies Read: Owl Babies and act out using Owl masks We made masks and acted out a favorite story. What a WISE class I have! Owl Cookies: Owl cookies - 2 balls of peanut butter cookie dough, flattened and pinched at the top to form tufts. Bake as directed on package. Push chocolate candy kiss eyes and a cashew beak into the hot dough after taking them out of the oven. Cool and enjoy! Lesson Focus: Owl Habitats Life in a Tree Label parts of a tree Match animals to part of the tree that they live in Good-Night Owl Play Owl Books contain factual information about owls for students to read   Lesson Exploration: Owl Pellets We examined owl pellets to find out what kind of animals the owls had eaten. We worked in pairs with our tools- bent paperclips and a magnifying glasses. Look what we discovered! (And look at our focus while we were making our discoveries.) Lesson Focus: Owl Math Owl Story Problems using owl counters and work mats: The children used owl counters (see detail below) on work mats to act out math addition and subtraction problems. Lima beans spray painted brown with paint pen features and feathers glued to the back make these owl counters fun to use for a variety of math and learning activities. Writing and illustrating Owl Addition Story Problems: The children wrote and illustrated math story problems about owls. Emphasis of this lesson was mathematical problem solving. Stories were not edited for spelling. I see 3 owls that have yellow eyes. I see 3 owls that have orange eyes. How many (owls with) colored eyes are there? 3+3=6 by David I see 6 owls (in a) tree. I see 7 owls flying. How many are there? 6+7=13 by Valerie Owl measurement - measuring and comparing owl sizes Owl paintings - draw and measure an owl - complete data sheet The children drew owls with fine tip permanent markers, colored them and painted over them with a wash of thinned black paint. We used inch rulers to measure the height and width of each owl. We compared the sizes of our drawings with the sizes of real owls. The sizes of our drawings varied much more in size than shows on the cropped and resized web pictures. Owl Resources Owls Creative Teaching Press All About Owls by Jim Arnosky Owl Zoo Books Owl Babies by Martin Waddell Good-Night Owl by Pat Hutchins Owl Moon by Jane Yolen The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson Life in a Tree Newbridge Early Science Owly by Mike Thaler I Can Make It! I Can Read It - Fall Mailbox Books Reading Math Browsing Box - familiar books Add Owl Babies Label parts of an owl on poster Owl Story problems Materials: Night workmats, owl markers, simple addition and subtraction word problems Children read simple math addition and subtraction story problems and act out problems using owl counters. Children choose one story problem to copy and illustrate   ASSESS: problem solving using addition and subtraction Phonics Social Studies OW Detective Materials: mini pocket chart, word cards - ow words, black construction paper, chalk Children read a word card and place it on the pocket chart. The child copies words from pocket chart onto construction paper using white chalk. The child uses a colored chalk to circle the letters OW in each word.   ASSESS: Have child read words copied to you, check for accuracy in reading and writing ow words Fly Into the Night Materials: Night gameboard, owl markers, North, South, East and West game cards. Pairs of children will sit side by side in front of the gameboard. Each child will place an owl marker in the center circle of the gameboard. Game cards are in a small cup. Children take turns selecting one game card, reading it and moving their owl 1 space in the direction stated on the card. The first owl to fly off of the gameboard and into the night is the winner.   ASSESS: observe understanding of cardinal directions - North, South, East and West while playing the game. Writing Computers Wise Owls Materials: Owl stationary writing paper Writing prompt: I am as wise as an owl. I know . . . Children write about things that they have learned  SHARE with class during share time following rotation. Save for student portfolios. Owl Puzzle   Science Creative Arts Owl Pellet Findings Materials: bones found during owl pellet explorations, magnifying glasses, bone identification chart, vole skeleton sketch The children will use science materials to investigate further into findings from owl pellets. Record observations on record sheet ASSESS: teacher quick check Night Scenes The child will read and follow written directions using terms, "first, second, etc" to create a night scene.   ASSESS: Share with class during share time following station rotation Listening Literacy Owl Listening Tape: Listen and Follow Directions The child will listen to tape recorded owl facts and follow directions to complete an owl worksheet. ASSESS: Language Arts - Listening BOO! Materials: plastic pumpkin to hold game pieces, "Smarties" candies, each with a word from the high frequency word wall taped to it, 10 candies with the word BOO taped to them. Children work in pairs to play this game. One child selects a candy. If the child can correctly read the word printed on it, s/he may keep the candy in a pile. If not, the candy is returned to the pumpkin. If a child selects a candy with the word BOO on it, all of her/his candy has to be returned back to the pumpkin. Continue playing. Each child may select one treat to keep at the end of the game. Teacher Quick Check Guess WHOOO'd like to hear from you!     Home ~ Skills ~ Spelling ~ Special Events ~ Toybox ~ Sneak A Peek ~ Teacher Talk Pecan Creek Elementary School ~ Denton ISD created by Lin Attaya 10-30-01 updated: 11-16-01