Owl Moon

My 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders have been working on our "Owl Moon" project for a couple of weeks now.  In case you didn't know, I persnoally adore owls.  They are my favorite animal (besides my pup Luna) and I have been collecting them in the form of jewelry, figurines, art, and anything really for years now.

In this art lesson, we read the book "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen and assembled our own artwork of an owl on a branch with a moon in the background.

We learned about owls, their habitats, their feather colors, and the food they eat. We also learned that most, but not all, owls are nocturnal (meaning they sleep during the day and hunt and stay out during the night).  We also learned that owls can turn their heads all the way around and look behind them.  We learned that their feathers are natural colors like browns, grays, white, and blacks so that they can blend in like camouflauge.  This is so they can hide from their prey and their preditors.  We learned about barn owls, snowy owls, the great horned owl, and the burrowing owl.  Did you know that most owls don't even make their own nests?  Instead they wait for other birds to move on and they repurpose the nests for their own needs.

Here are some finished art pieces from my students.  First, they cut out a branch and glued it on the bottom of their paper.  Then they drew an owl on another piece of construction paper.  They colored in their owls with neutral colored oil pastels and added details in the form of lines, shapes, and patterns.  Next, they cut out their owls and glued them onto the branch.  To finish, they drew a moon up top!