Owl About Our Week!

Corny title right? I had to fit some kind of owl pun in there...

Ok, so I've mentioned this before, but I call my room the "accidental owl" theme. I managed to make it 20 years without revealing my love for any one particular thing (besides Starbucks). I had fears of becoming that teacher who mentioned that she liked teddy bears her first year of teaching and by year 7 she was bringing in mini-hammocks to "store" the fuzzy little fellows.

But my time may have run out. I think I'm now officially the crazy owl lady. You can take a peek at my room HERE to see what I mean. It's pretty subtle, but it's there. And people are starting to notice. So our latest unit of study doesn't help my cause - Owls! Oh well, there are worse things...

So to start off with I read one of my favorite books, Owl Moon by Jane Yolen.

The book is beautifully written and provides a nice level of complexity for second graders.  A young child learns how to go owling with her father. The book presents all the "rules" one has to follow as to not disturb nature and ensure a glimpse of an owl. After we explore and discuss the book, we write our own interpretation of the rules in this simple flap book.

We are on a bit of a tight timeline for this unit, so we didn't fit in too many extra things, but there is one thing I just couldn't let go of - the owl pellet dissection lab! As you probably know, owls can not digest the bones and fur of their prey, so they cough up pellets containing those bones and fur into a little mouse-looking ball. Sounds way more gross than it is, I promise. They don't smell at all and are completely dry, otherwise this lab would NOT be happening in my room! So we donned our safety goggles and dug into the pellets! I have a bunch of serious scientists this year!

Our science teacher supplied us with the pellets and this great poster to match up and categorize our samples. I also found some great printable ones. Look for the link at the end of the post.

I made up the sheet you see in the last square to record their findings and observations. They also glued some samples on it to take home. Look for the link down below.

And to further cement my owl-lady persona, our hallway display this month is also owls! We have a long cork strip, an outside bulletin board, an inside clothesline and large student work display board in our rooms. While I really do dig the cute craftivities that look amazing, sometimes I just don't have the time or justification to do them. So I created a pack of bulletin board banners that combine some writing, research, content knowledge, holiday flair, and a little bit of art. All I have to do is print and let my kids create! Better yet, they make great take home projects too.

The whole pack has 25 banners with topics like back to school goal setting, holidays, book reports, field trips and more. I haven't offered this anywhere else, but there's a freebie from that pack just for you at in the links at the end of the post. I know they've already saved me tons of time and the kids loved them!

25 Quick and Creative Student Made Bulletin Board Banners

Banner Sample Freebie 

Owl Pellet Dissection Lab Sheet Freebie

Printable owl pellet bone chart

A great owl unit from Kristen Smith