Owls!

The Plan

Books

A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na
I’m Not Cute by Jonathan Allen
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
Whoo? Whoo? by David A. Carter
Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood

Extension Activities

Action Song: “Owl Hokey Pokey”
You put your right wing in
You put your right wing out
You put your right wing in
And you flap it all about
You do the owl pokey and you fly yourself around
That’s what it’s all about! Hoo, hoo!
(left wing, right claw, left claw, beak, whole self)
Credit: Ms. Hegna’s Storyroom

Song: “Owl In the Tree”
Owl in the tree says, “who, who, who?”
Owl in the tree says, “who, who, who?”
Owl in the tree says, “who, who, who?”
Who, who, who are you?
Credit: Ms. Hegna’s Storyroom

Fingerplay: “Wide-Eyed Owl”
There’s a wide-eyed owl (circle your eyes with your hands)
With a pointed nose (make a beak with your fingers)
Two pointed ears (make ears with your fingers)
And claws for toes (wiggle your “claws”)
He lives way up in the tree (point way up)
And when he looks at you (point to children)
He flaps his wings (flap your wings)
And says, “Whoo! Whoo!” (say “whoo whoo”)
Credit: Wilmette Public Library

Flannelboard: “Five Hoot Owls”
Five hoot owls sitting in a tree
One flew away! How many do you see?
One, two, three, four. (count down)
Credit: Sunflower Storytime

Craft

I picked this up at Michaels — it came in a kit and was self-stick. It’s supposed to be an owl picture frame, but none of the kids wanted to leave space to put a picture. That was fine by me!

How It Went

Thursday morning
Had a really good, energetic storytime. The kids loved the extension activities for this theme. Their favorite books were “I’m Not Cute!” and “Wow! Said the Owl.” We had a great time!

Friday morning
This was a much rockier storytime than I expected. I had a class of two-year-olds and my class of four-year-olds didn’t show. So, I wound up shortening much of storytime because my two-year-olds had a much harder time paying attention without the four-year-olds to model that behavior for them. No biggie, though, librarians need to be able to adjust, right? We wound up skipping “Owl Babies” and “A Book of Sleep.” Their favorite book was “Whoo? Whoo?”