I love animals - Reading, videos and questions for small kids - Part 36 Owls
Very few people will not know this answer. What makes this sound? Hoo-hoo. That is off course the sound an owl makes.
These 'birds of prey', meaning they are birds that hunt their prey, are magnificent creatures with their huge eyes, seeing everything.
Some people have superstitions about owls, meaning they believe that if you see one, bad things will happen to you, but this is not true.
Lets learn some more about this beautiful birds.
You will find about 200 types of owls on earth, which differ in size and what they eat, but all owls are nocturnal which means they will be active and hunt at night. For this they need excellent eyesight. Not only to see in the dark, but also to spot their prey moving.
They can swoop down on the mouse or the insect they are hunting and glide so quietly through the air, that you will not even hear them going over your head.
Their strong feet called tallons will also help to grab and hold onto the prey.
Even though they have great eyesight, their eyes are just good for spotting things further away from them. They cannot see very clearly if an object is too close to their eyes.
They can turn their heads around for 270 degrees, that is almost a full circle.
The feathers of the owl will be such a colour that the owl are camouflaged into its area - if they live in the woods they will have brown feathers and if they live in the snow, they will have white feathers.
Owls are a symbol of wisdom (being clever or knowing a lot) in many cultures.
- Find pictures of some different types of owls and find at least two facts about each of them.
- Watch the story (or read it) on the owls and the crows and answer the questions.
- What do you call a group of crows?
- Were the crows and the owl friends and how do you know this?
- Did the crows trust the owls and how do you know this?
- Why did the crows not want to move?
- What idea did the old crow have?
- This is a sad story but you can learn a lesson from it. What is the lesson?
- Re-tell the story in your own words.
- Practice some more reading by yourself.
Definitely a great way to engage children in the topic of owl. You actually activated their prior knowledge and lead them into participating in the lesson of owl in a good natural course.