Birds of a Feather: An Owl Thematic Unit Grades 1-3

Get a jump start on units for the fall! 

Owls That Students Have Made for Home Project

In the fall, I like to teach a thematic unit on owls. During this unit the students learn about the owl life cycle, force and motion, heat, light and sound energy, realistic fiction and fiction stories, the owl food chain, and types of owls and their habitats. They are engaged in many hands-on activities that allow them to experience owls first hand. They LOVE this unit! 
At the beginning of the unit, I send home a letter to the parents telling them about our monthly home project. This home project is to research an owl and make a 3-D model and bring it back on the assigned date. As you can see in the picture above, these are some of my students' owls they have made in the past. I also display them in my theme center if they donate them to the class. Here is the template that I use for my students to research their owl: 

Owl Research Template

The students learn so much from this research and the best part is that they get to spend time with their family at home making it! 


There are many different science investigations that go along with this unit. My favorite one is learning about all different kinds of feathers. I bring in 8 different kinds of feathers from birds I have collected over the years: Turkey, Chicken, Owl, Ostrich, Falcon, Sparrow, Peacock, and Hawk. I put these feathers in a baggie and put a number on them. Here is a picture of my feathers: 

Bird Feather in Baggies... and my daughter holding some! 

I lay these feathers around the classroom in stations. The students travel around the room with their clipboard, pencil and feather template and illustrate the feathers and label them. This gives the students a chance to move around while still investigating.  Here is the template I use for "Birds of a Feather". 

Birds of a Feather Template

Another investigation that I LOVE is investigating Owl Pellets. Each year I order owl pellets and the students pick them apart to see what the owl has eaten. They build the skeleton together and then I hang them in the classroom. Here is a picture of my skeletons from owl pellets.

Skeletons from owl pellets

For our interactive notebooks, I teach a lesson on force and motion. Since owls can fly, this is goes perfectly with this skill. The students practice flapping their arms in the classroom and pretend they are owls. We practice going zig-zag, side to side, up and down, fast and slow. These are all examples of types of motion. Then, the students complete a science fold-able called: How an Owl Moves. They glue it into their science notebook:

Force and Motion Fold-able

Another interactive notebook activity we do is learning about energy. We discuss heat, light and sound and brainstorm ways that people use these types of energy first. Then, to extend our thinking, we brainstorm how the owls use energy. This really gives the students higher level thinking skills. These questions are open ended, so the students may think of not one way the owl uses this type of energy but three or four ways! Here is the template that I use:

How Do Owls Use Energy?

I also do some craftivities with my students. (You know how I LOVE using art in the classroom!) During this unit we learned about fiction and realistic fiction books. We compared two different owl books and made a craftivity. We used a Venn Diagram to compare and then make an owl with labels. Here is a picture of the craftivity:

Craftivity: Comparing Fiction and Realistic Fiction Owl Stories

Another craftivity we do is the owl life cycle. Here we learn about how the owl life cycle is similar or different than our own. I have my students write a sequence of the life cycle to put with it. Here is a picture of my life cycle craftivity: 

Craftivity: Owl Show You the Life Cycle 

My favorite part about this unit, is that the students have an owl book that they can research a different owl each day. I read them a story about a specific owl and we brainstorm facts about the it, then the students can complete their page in their owl book. We talk about where it lives, how it builds its nest, what it eats and if its endangered. Here is the lesson plan that I use for each owl. There are 21 days of lesson plans in my unit.

Lesson Plan 

For the student owl book, there is a cover page, table of contents and owl research pages for:
The Barn Owl
The Snowy Owl
The Elf Owl
The Great Gray Owl
The Northern Hawk Owl
The Barred Owl
The Burrowing Owl
The Spectacled Owl
The Short Eared Owl
The Great Horned Owl

There is also a page at the end for students to illustrate their favorite owl and tell why they like it the best.

Here are some pages of the student book:

Owl Show You About Owls!

If you are interested in checking out more of my owl thematic unit, click below.  I hope you got some great ideas on how to teach owls in your classroom! Have a "Hoot" with this one!

Cover Page of Packet

Birds of a Feather: An Owl Thematic Unit Grades 1-3

Love, Kara

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