The Plan
Books
A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na
I’m Not Scared! by Jonathan Allen
Little Owl’s Night by Divya Srinivasan
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
Extension Activities
Flannelboard: “Five Little Owls”
Five hoot owls sitting a tree
One flew away, how many do you see?
One, two, three, four. (count down)
Action Rhyme: “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”)
Credit: Wilmette Public Library
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 hokey pokey and you fly yourself around
That’s what it’s all about! Hoot, hoot!
Credit: Ms. Hegna’s Storytime
Song: “Owl In the Tree” (Tune: Skip to My Lou)
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, are you?
Credit: Ms. Hegna’s Storytime
Song: “Twinkle, Twinkle”
Credit: Childhood
Craft
This was a craft that was inspired by this blog post, at Meet the Dubiens. (I originally saw this as a Pinterest post, but without a link back. Luckily, I recognized Jill’s watermark!) I used the template that Jill links to, but I did balk on the handprint painting when it came time for storytime to start. Instead, I pulled out our feather bin and let the kids go at it!
How It Went
This is very similar to the owl theme that I did in the fall, but I knew I had to repeat it for the CSLP theme of “Dream Big, Read!” This time around “Owl Babies” was the big hit, followed by “A Book of Sleep.” The extension activities went AWESOME and they had a great time shaking their tails in the Owl Hokey Pokey. We made a lot of great connections in this storytime about owls sleeping at night and having wide-eyes so they could see in the dark. It was a very rewarding storytime to be at!
storytime katie 
Your book choices are pretty much identical to my owl story time! I substituted the Owl Babies names with kids in my audience which they liked.
That’s a great idea! I always feel like there are more owl books than there actually are for storytime, but really these ones are the best!
Sounds like a hoot. 😉
Abby, I adore you. And your puns!
I enjoy Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton too (lots of opportunities for crowd participation) but Owl Babies is my hands down favourite. Thanks for another great post!
I will have to look into “Little Owl Lost” next time! Thanks!
Katie,
I want to thank you for posting your Story Times. It is such a help and I always find a book or a project that adds so much to my own StoryTime planning!
Thank you!!