Owl Babies

Martin Waddell, Patrick Benson 

• Fun facts about owls: Owls are nocturnal, meaning they are awake and active at night and sleep during the day. They eat bugs, snakes, and small animals like mice. Owls cannot move their eyes, so to see things on their sides they have to turn their heads—almost all the way around in a full circle. Owls have very good hearing. A group of owls is called a parliament.  

• Short video of owls and their calls (they sounded very different than I expected!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezaBqCf0hv0  

• Go for a walk after dark, or at dusk, and see what animals and insects you hear and see. Bring a flashlight (one per child, if you have them)—they are so much fun to play with! 

• Retell the story: print images of owls and tape them to popsicle sticks (or regular sticks, like in the story), and let your child use them to retell the story. Your children can also play the parts of the owl babies and their mother, or use stuffed animals to be the characters. 

• Make a bird’s nest: you can make a nest and eggs with playdough, and if you are ready to be done with some of your playdough (it will not be reusable after this), you can add sticks, leaves, and grasses to it to make it look more realistic. You can also try making a nest purely out of natural materials. Is that hard? How do you think birds do it? 

• On a walk through the woods, look for signs of bird and animal homes—holes in trees (are there owls living there?), nests, holes in the ground. 

• Tell stories to/with your children about times they were sad you went away, or times when you were a child and you were sad that your parents left. Children love to hear stories about themselves and about their parents as children, and telling these stories helps children process their big emotions. 

• Other books about separation, worries: I Love You All Day Long, When I Miss You, When Mama Comes Home Tonight, Wemberly Worried 

• Other owl, nocturnal animal books: Owl at Home, Owl Moon, Little Owl’s Night, Flashlight, Night Animals, Bats at the Beach, nonfiction: Owls by Gail Gibbons, Where are the Night Animals?, Forest Bright, Forest Night