Owl Unit Study
Owl Unit Study
A unit study can be as broad or as specific as you would like it to be. While doing our bird unit study, we departed to do a smaller owl unit study. In part I was inspired by resources I had seen other homeschoolers using and was excited to include that into our bird unit. Once we included those resources into our bird unit, I realize that we had created a mini Owl unit.
With a mini unit study, I don’t source as many resources as a typical unit study. A mini unit study is also considerably shorter than a regular unit study. And lastly, I’m not looking for as broad of an exploration as I would with a typical unit study. In a typical unit study approach, I may include activity books, cookbooks, historical fiction, biographies, and more. When doing a mini unit study, I focus more deeply on the subject at hand.
For this owl unit, one of the highlights was going to our local Audubon Nature center where we got to see owls up close in first time. Additionally, we went on night excursions to listen for owls. Those two activities were probably more educational than all of the other lessons we did for this unit. And one of the perks is that since we’ve completed this unit, our ears and eyes are more tuned for noticing owls in their natural environment. And as we share a habitat with owls, we delight when we see or hear them.
Owl Unit Study
-
Owl Unit Study
Are you looking for a small unit study on owls? I've got you covered! I know my unit studies tend to be long, involved and contain a lot of books, but this one is small, with a few beautiful books, a couple projects and a game to start off the lessons.
-
Chalk Drawing
Art inspiration for chalk drawings usually comes from material we plan to use in our unit study or main lesson block. The Chalk Drawing for our Owl Unit is one we plan to keep up for the whole duration of the unit.
-
How to Make a Felted Owl
WoolPets are the best kits for beginners looking to try wool felting. The kits are also an amazing value, you can get at least 4 owls from this kit (the package says 2), and if they are a bit smaller, you can get 6 adorable owls :)
-
Owl Pellet Dissection | Full Rodent Skeleton
If you've never done an owl pellet dissection before, fair warning, it can be hard to stomach this activity. We took this project to the next level by assembling a complete rodent skeleton out of the remains we found in the owl pellet. While that wasn't our initial intentions, I'm really glad we did so, and I found it to be the most educational part of this project.
-
Owl Peg Doll Tutorial
Finding hands-on projects for our unit studies and main lesson blocks brings me so much joy, especially when we can make adorable owl peg dolls like these. They were pretty simple to do, but had their challenges.
-
Trivia Cards For Owl Unit
We love our Professor Noggin's Trivia Cards, so making our own was not just a fun way to make a game we know we'll love but it was also a great way to add essential skills to our lessons: research, synthesis of information, handwriting and drawing.
-
How to Make Nature Study Flashcards | Homeschool Bird Unit Study
For years now I've noticed that our science units lack substantial written narrations. While some of our science units may include a fair amount of writing, most don't and we end up with unit after unit with the same blank main lesson book.
-
Owl Drawing Tutorial
Whenever possible, I incorporate art into our lessons. It's not a art lesson, rather it's a science lesson that's artistically depicted. Sometimes art is the perfect medium for a lesson and when it comes to nature science, I can't think of a better choice.
-
Owl Feather Watercolor
Whenever possible, I incorporate art into our lessons. It's not a art lesson, rather it's a science lesson that's artistically depicted. Sometimes art is the perfect medium for a lesson and when it comes to nature science, I can't think of a better choice. Each spring, we pull out our nature units, and I find that our main lesson books are either wholly empty or filled with magnificent watercolors.
-
Owl Unit Study Review
At the end of most units, I like to share which resources we used, liked, and didn't like and share the projects we did.
Owl Unit Study
Owl Unit Study
Check out the video on how I put this unit together.
Are you looking for a small unit study on owls? I’ve got you covered! I know my unit studies tend to be long, involved and contain a lot of books, but this one is small, with a few beautiful books, a couple projects and a game to start off the lessons. I didn’t create a lesson plan for this unit, rather, I did more of a unit study ‘to do’ list. But first, let me show you how I purchased materials for this unit as well as other units in my homeschool haul video. These videos show you the materials I purchase for our homeschool as well as the materials that will become our unit studies and main lesson blocks.
Here's what we bought for this unit: Owl Babies by Martin Waddell Owl Pellets Field Biology Kit Birds of North America by Professor Noggin's The Barn Owls by Tony Johnston Owls by Zoobooks Owls Strange and Wonderful by Laurence Pringle Owl Moon by Jane Yolen Owl Felting Kit by WoolPets Animalium (optional) Animalium Postcards (optional)
These are the materials that made up the main content for this mini unit study.
When putting together unit studies, I generally start with a topic, in this case, owls. Next, I go to one (or several) of my favorite homeschool vendors and begin to build our unit by seeing what materials are available. One of my long standing favorite vendors is Rainbow Resource. I love that their material is carefully selected for the homeschooling family. I generally just search for the topic I’m creating the unit study for. In this case: Owls. I simply type that in. I don’t sort for type of material or grade level. I look at everything! I don’t create units according to grade level. Our units work for all grade levels KG-8th grade and in some cases even 9th or 10th grade. I also like sourcing science material from Acorn Naturalists and Nature Watch. Both vendors cater to out-of-the-box learning and homeschoolers. I love their selection as well and honestly get more excited about these units than my children! Lastly, I check Barnes and Noble and Amazon for books. And lately, I’ve been purchasing a lot of material from Amazon even though it’s not my first choice.
Chalk Drawing
Not every new unit or main lesson blocks gets a new chalk drawing and in some cases, one chalk drawing serves for several units as this one does. This chalk drawing has the image of an owl, the life cycle of a frog and a bee and beehive. While it's not my favorite chalk drawing, I think it serves the purpose of inspiring us throughout this unit and adds beauty to our homeschool space. Collected around the chalk drawing are the books and resources we'll be using for this series of units.
While this part of the chalk drawing only took 20 minutes, the owl took 65 minutes and the life cycle of a frog took 20 minutes bringing the grand total for this chalk drawing at 1 hour and 45 minutes. That may not seem too bad for a 4' by 6' drawing, but compared to other images, it was. Also, I can't say I love the bee part!! I do wish I would have made a hexagon pattern with a bee in the beehive. But there's always next time!
For this drawing, I used by Sargent Art Square Chalk Pastels as well as a number of resources as drawing inspiration. Materials for this unit were purchased using charter school funds and were purchased from Acorn Naturalists and Nature-Watch. Art materials were purchased from Waldorf Supplies and A Child's Dream.
How to Make a Felted Owl
WoolPets are the best kits for beginners looking to try wool felting. The kits are also an amazing value, you can get at least 4 owls from this kit (the package says 2), and if they are a bit smaller, you can get 6 adorable owls :)
Check out our Owl Unit Study for more projects and activities:
You can this kit and others at A Child's Dream.
You can also find them at Rainbow Resource.
The wool in this kit is the softest I've used. The projects are as mentioned, with this intermediate project really being for someone who's tried needle felting before.
The only thing you'll want to buy is a foam pad. It can find them at Jo-Ann and other fabric stores.
Give this project a try! It's perfect for a cold winter day :)
Though we didn’t pick up this kit with our supplies we got for our kindergarten curriculum recently, we did intend to add it to the KG schedule. Originally I had intended to make these owls with my 10 year old 5th grader for my kindergartener to play with, but before I had completed the set up for this project, my five year old had removed the directions, and make her own! I was really impressed. She did fantastic! So even though the package indicated this project is for 10 year olds and up, you can certainly modify it for a younger child.