Owls in the Family
Author: Farley Mowat
Submitted by: donnaing@hotmail.com
Our 5th grade reads the book, Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat. I made up packets for each chapter dealing with vocabulary words, sequence and comprehension questions. As a culminating activity each child completes a 3-D owl project. I have had students construct owl nesting boxes and actually put them up in trees of their yards in hopes that owls will nest there. There are a few different types of owl boxes for the varied species.
The instructions can be found on the net. I have found this to be such a great activity for the students to construct at home because they get to work with their parents. They do need help from their parents because they use power tools. Be warned that some of these boxes are quite large and when the kids bring them in they need assistance. The second year I did this, I told the students that they could just bring in pictures of their box, but the students opted to bring in the boxes because they were so proud of them.
Students also sewed and stuffed owls that looked very life like when I hung them in the room. Other ideas are construction of a map that shows the area where specific owls live in the world, tape recordings of different species of owls and their hoots, video of owls, reading other books on owls and constructing a story map or model of those books. It is such a wonderful book about nature as well as friends and family.