Arctic Animal Fun: Snowy Owl Lesson

Arctic Animal Fun

A month-long unit of preschool ideas 

for different Arctic animals

Welcome to week four of my Arctic Animal Fun unit. 

Each week there will be books I recommend to go with each topic, a craft or two, songs, motion rhymes/finger plays, and a fun game to play. 

This is the tentative schedule:

Week 1: Polar Bears

Week 2: Arctic Fox

Week 3: Walrus

Week 4: Snowy Owl

Week 5: Narwhal, Orca, Beluga Whale

We continue to start each class with the song "Good Morning to You" plus the snowy songs/fingerplays I found in a book I reviewed last year called I'm a Little Teapot!: Presenting Preschool Storytime compiled by Jane Cobb. 

We sang: 

Snowflakes

(to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

Snowflakes whirling all around,

all around, all around

Snowflakes whirling all around,

They are covering the ground.

(The original last line was, "Until they cover all the ground," but it didn't sound quite right to me, so I changed it. We fluttered our fingers all around through the song and spread our arms out for the last line.)

And of course our poem/finger play:

The Snow Fell Softly

The snow fell softly all the night

flutter fingers downward

It made a blanket soft and white

spread arms out

It covered houses, flowers and ground,

make pointed house, finger flowers, flat hands

But never made a single sound

get quieter and put finger in front of mouth

The children are doing a great job memorizing this poem.

Then we got into the actual lesson.

Snowy Owl Lesson

As we did the last three weeks, we started out by skimming through the book, What Lives in the Arctic?. This book gives some brief information for a handful of arctic animals with lovely photographs of each animal. This week I only focused on the details for the snowy owl. 

Our main books for the class were:

A Snowy Owl Story by Melissa Kim is a story of a snowy owl who lives in the Arctic tundra. We see how she is looking for food to eat, but there isn't enough so she flies south. She ends up in a city where she finally finds a building she is comfortable in. The people see her and are worried, so they catch her and take her to a snowy field where she spends the winter. Then she returns home in the spring. 

I used the other two books to share facts about the snowy owl. They both had wonderful photographs on one page of a double page spread, and information given in simple sentences, in large font, on the opposite page. 

The first Snowy Owls book is from a series titled: Animals That Live in the Tundra. The author is Roman Patrick. The second, also titled Snowy Owls is by Melissa Hill.

Craft

We then made our Toilet Paper Roll Snowy Owls that I shared about in last week's Littles Learning Link Up.

Math Lesson

We learned how big a snowy owl was by measuring paper and attaching it to the wall. Did you know a snowy owl can get up to 28 inches tall, and it has a wingspan of five feet?!?

We also compared the children's heights to that of the snowy owl. I think the children were amazed that the snowy owl is almost as tall as they are.

A big hug from the paper snowy owl.

Science Lesson/Activity

We talked about the wonderful sight and hearing of the snowy owl. We learned that a snowy owl can even find prey under the snow. We discussed the fact that the snowy owl's favorite prey are the lemming and the meadow vole. Then they used a magnifying glass to hunt for them among other artic animals on a sheet I created.

I found pictures of arctic animals online and put copied them into my word processing program. Then I shrunk them down to various sizes and spread them across the page.

They were to circle the lemmings and the voles.

Then we used our sense of sight again to match arctic animals to their shadows to make an "Arctic Animal Shadow Match" booklet. 

I just used the pictures I found and printed them out on one side of a paper, then I cut one paper out to use as a template and cut those shapes out of black paper.

As you may notice, I only used the animals we have learned about so far.

Some chose to mirror the animal, others did as I did and had them face the same direction.

Songs

We sang our "Did You Ever See a Polar Bear?" song which we sang the first two weeks, but this week I also added a verse for the walrus.

Did You Ever See a Polar Bear?

(To the Tune of Did you Ever See a Lassie?)

by Karen Waide

Did you ever see a polar bear

a polar bear, a polar bear

Did you ever see a polar bear

Sliding on the ice?

Sliding this way and that way

Sliding this way and that way

Did you ever see a polar bear

sliding on the ice?

Motions to go with first verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then step and slide left and right a few times.

Go back to shrugging for the last line and step to the side one last time.

Did you ever see an arctic fox

an arctic fox, an arctic fox

Did you ever see an arctic fox

following a bear?

Creeping this way and that way

Creeping this way and that way

Did you ever see an arctic fox

following a bear?

Motions to go with second verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then put your hands in front of you and pretend to creep.
Then creep quickly left and quickly right on tiptoes.

Go back to shrugging for the last line and finish off by pretending to creep forward.

Did you ever see a walrus

a walrus, a walrus

Did you ever see a walrus

climb on the ice?

Pulling up with their tusks here

Pulling up with their tusks there

Did you ever see a walrus

climb on the ice?

Motions to go with third verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then put your hands in front of your face with the index fingers pointing down and pretend to pull up
Then do the same to the left and then to the right

Go back to shrugging for the last line and finish off by pretending to pull up with tusks again

Did you ever see a snowy owl

a snowy owl, a snowy owl

Did you ever see a snowy ow

l

flying up so high?

Flying this way and that way

Flying this way and that way

Did you ever see a snowy owl

flying up so high?

Motions to go with fourth verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then put your arms out to the side and pretend to fly. Fly to the left and right while singing "this way and that way."

Go back to shrugging for the last line and finish off by pretending to fly.

And I came up with something that was more of a chant than a song. We had motions to go with this one too.

Snowy Owl

by Karen Waide

Snowy owl, snowy owl

Flap arms like wings

Way up in the air.

Point up in the air.

Snowy owl, snowy owl

Flap arms like wings

What do you see up there?

Shade eyes and look up

Snowy owl, snowy owl

Flap arms like wings

Did you find some lunch?

Shrug shoulder with arms up, questioning

Snowy owl, snowy owl

Flap arms like wings

There’s a lemming to munch.

Put hand to mouth and pretend to chew

We again ended our class time with the following finger play, also from the book I'm a Little Teapot!: Presenting Preschool Storytime compiled by Jane Cobb.

Dressing for Winter Weather

Let’s put on our mittens

put on mittens

And button up our coat

button coat

Wrap a scarf snugly

throw scarf around neck

Around our throat.

Tug one end down

Pull on our boots now

pull on boots with both hands

Fasten the straps

fasten with fingers

And tie on tightly

Our warm winter caps

pull on cap and tie

Then open the door

turn doorknob and pull

And out we go

step through pretend door

Into the soft and feathery snow

look up and pretend to catch snow

Stop by next week for the lesson on whales.