Amazing Owls: Free Resources and Activities

I have always been fascinated with owls. Owl themed activities and fall seem to go hand-in-hand. I have been doing lots of research over the last few weeks about owls and I have some great free resources and activities to share with all of you.

I always like to start with books for read alouds. I found a list of good books like the one below on Amazon. Just click on the image below to check them out. Hopefully your school library has some of them.

For those of you who love the Book, "Owl Moon" I found a few websites that offer free lessons that go with the book. One is Scholastic that has activities for Pre-K-K, 1st and 2nd and the other you can access by clicking on the image below. There are also links to other "Owl Moon" mini lessons.

I found several websites that give wonderful information about owls and many owl species. The first is The Owl Pages which you can check out by clicking on the image below. This may be more for Grades 2-3. You can click on different species to find out what they look like, where they live, what they eat, and even what they sound like.

Another great website is the Owl Research Institute which has links to many different species of owls with information about each one. Just click on the image below:

Another good website is called Owling.com. You can access this website by clicking on the image below.

If you are looking for fun facts about owls you might like to check out these:
20 Fun Facts about Owls and Easy Science for Kids. For older grades you may want to check out 10 Amazing Facts About Owls by clicking on the image below. Yes, this owl is turning its head upside-down!

I have thought about creating an Owl Reading and Writing Unit for over a year and finally uploaded it yesterday. All of the Informative Reading Texts are differentiated at the 2nd and 3rd Grade levels and it includes Informative text and Opinion Piece Writing Activities. There is also an Owl Report Project and other fun activities. To see sample pages of all the reading texts and many other activities in this packet just click on the image below and download the Preview File.

Finally, one more free activity from me. I put together this fun "Owl Scavenger Hunt" Packet where students can find out where different species of owls live around the world and answer other questions. I've included websites where they can find the information. It can been done individually, in pairs or small groups, or even as a contest.

If you would like to download this freebie just click on the image below.

Hope you find some great resources for teaching your students about owls.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

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November Poems and Free Activities

I can't believe that we are at the end of October! November is filled with wonderful holidays and celebrations. So I cooked up a November Poetry Unit with 10 original poems about Election Day, Veterans Day, Football, Native Americans, Pilgrims, Turkeys, and Thanksgiving.

Look at the poem below. There are so many ways to use this for teaching the 5 components of a balance literacy program.  It is the first poem in my new November Poetry packet. I see compound words, proper nouns, and plural nouns. You could also use it to teach syllables as there are 1, 2, 3, and 4 syllable words. There are lots of verbs and adjectives to find and short a words. Look at the words season and weather. Learning the different sounds of ea is a great phonics lesson. After learning the poem,  ask students about things that happen in November. This is a great way to check for understanding. As a writing activity, I included one in my packet.

Poetry is a great way to help students build fluency, even when you have struggling readers or ESL students. It is a great way to get all your students to participate. When students read aloud they develop expression, phrasing, and most of all fluency. For your struggling readers try  Echo reading.  First you read a line or stanza and then they read it. You can start by having students echo a line and then a stanza. Repeated reading helps develop fluency. You can also Choral Read the poems. Another strategy is Pair Unison. This is where the teacher and student read the poem together. You can also send the poems home so that parents can read them with their child. The more fluent they are the more confident they will be.

Here are the 10 original poems included in this packet.

Here are the Poetry Writing Activities in the packet. Students will write 3 different types of poems: A "How to be" Poem, A "5 Senses Poem" about Thanksgiving, and Acrostic Poems. There is one for Turkey, Veteran, and Pilgrim. When you download the Preview file you will see sample pages of all the Poems and many of the literacy activities for each one.

There are also 3 different literacy activities and Informative text, Opinion Piece, and Narrative Writing Activities with Graphic Organizers. If you would like to check it out please click on the image below.

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