January 2024

Owl In the City

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Academic Standards

Reading Objective:

Students will identify ways an animal’s body helps it survive its habitat.

Next Generation Science Standards:

K-ESS2-1: Patterns in local weather conditions

K-PS3-1: Effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface

K-LS1: What animals need to survive

1-LS1: How animals use their external parts to survive and meet their needs

Vocabulary:

Arctic, survive, sunset, talons

Check comprehension and inspire discussion.

 

1. Where do snowy owls usually live?
(in the Arctic)

2. Where did Snowy go and sit on a roof? 
(a hot city)

3. What helps keep snowy owls warm in the cold Arctic?
(thick feathers)

4. What do snowy owls use to grab their food?
(talons)

 Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

  • How did Snowy end up in L.A.? Bird experts say she might have gotten caught in a storm, hitched a ride on a ship, or just flown the wrong way because she was young and inexperienced.
  • Male snowy owls are all white. The females have brown on their feathers. This helps them blend in against the snow and mud when they sit on nests on the ground.

Materials: A coat or jacket for each child, pencils, copies of the skill sheet.

Overview: Kids pretend their jackets are a snowy owl’s coat of feathers as they explore how to trap heat and release it.

Directions:

  1. Kids pretend their jackets are a snowy owl’s coat of feathers as they explore how to trap heat and release it.
  2. Kids pretend their jackets are a snowy owl’s coat of feathers as they explore how to trap heat and release it.
  3. Kids may begin to feel warm as they wear their jackets (feathers) inside. Did the jacket or feathers make heat? No, their bodies did! The jackets (feathers) just hold the heat from our bodies close. This is called insulation.
  4. Blow some air, telling kids it’s a cold Arctic wind. To stay warm in the wind, would an owl hold its feathery wings in tightly or flap them around?
  5. Snowy owls also shiver in the cold. Shivering warms up our bodies. Let the kids try it. (Eating lemmings helps too, but don’t try that!)
  6. Now your owls have landed in a hot city! How to cool off? (Flap jackets to release heat.) Record observations on the skill sheets.