Owl Moon, Five in a Row

(October 10-14)  Last week we rowed Owl Moon by Jane Yolen.  I loved this book.  It is a very quiet book, but yet powerful and speaks loudly to your heart.  The words are poetic and tender.  It is also beautifully illustrated.  It is set in winter and is about a father and daughter and their experience together as they go owling.   

“When you go owling you don’t need words or warm or anything but hope.  That’s what Pa says.  The kind of hope that flies on silent wings under a shining Owl Moon.”

SOCIAL STUDIES

Maturity, Self Control—“But I never called out.  If you go owling you have to be quiet, that’s what Pa always says.”

We discussed what being mature and having self control means.  This couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.  Joe has been having some problems lately with temper and anger towards me and his siblings.  We talked about how exercising self control in situations when we become angry can have positive long term outcomes.  I gave examples, both positive and negative of self control consequences/rewards and also had Joe come up with some of his own from real life experiences.

Rules—“It was late one winter night, long past my bedtime, when Pa and I went owling.”

We talked about rules—rules at home and rules at places out and about—the importance of following rules, but also that sometimes it is ok to be flexible and make exceptions to a rule, but that you need to be mature to do so.  Joe came up with a real life example of being flexible with rules—his bedtime is 8pm, but we let him stay up late on Saturday nights for our movie/game night and slumber party.

Language Arts

Similes and Metaphors

“There was no wind.  The trees stood still as giant statues.”  “The moon made his face into a silver mask.”

Owl Moon is packed with similes and metaphors.  I explained to Joe what each of these is on our first reading of the book.  Each day following, after I’d read the book aloud I had Joe go through several pages (different ones each day) picking out the similes and metaphors and telling me what each one was.  Even Jack caught on by the end of the week—that was an added bonus!

Silly Sentences game

Joe played Silly Sentences each day of the week.  In this game he had to roll a number on the dice, choose the appropriate numbered envelope full of adjectives, pick out two, choose from a stack of sentence strips, then, write a new sentence using the two new adjectives and illustrate it.  He really enjoyed this game!  Joe enjoys anything that is comical.

Math:  Units of Time

We talked about units of time—hours, days, months. 

“For one minute, three minutes, maybe even a hundred minutes, we stared at one another.”

Joe completed notebooking pages on time, and also played the game ‘Time Is Up!’.  I printed the game and laminated it, then circle punched matching time disks.  This was great practice!  Art:  Trees

All throughout the book there are trees, bare, as they look in the winter.  Joe completed an art project from our Usborne Art Treasury book by the artist Hendrick Avercamp.  Since Hanna had done this project the end of last school year she took over teaching it to Joe.  She did a great job teaching and he did a great job completing it! Jack made a shapes owl. I Hanna had everything pre-cut and he glued it all down.  I was impressed by how well he glued the owl together—he was into taking his time this particular day :-). Science:  Moon, Woodland Habitat, Great Horned Owl

We studied moon phases, what makes the moon’s light and the moon’s orbit. Both boys enjoyed eating Oreos while we learned about moon phases.  While Joe worked on a couple notebooking pages about the moon, Jack was busy having way too much fun with his homemade puff paint :-).  He LOVED making his puff paint moon.  This is the best puff paint we’ve ever made!  It dried wonderfully and still looks just like this a week later.

Jack completed activities throughout the week on things that were Fall related…

How many leaves?Fall Leaf Fingerprint Tree Shadow Leaf Match

Fall Size and Sort Falling Leaves Tree Craft

Here are the boys finished lapjournal pages from this row—Jack’s:

Here are Joe’s:

This was another fun row.  I enjoyed it just as much as the boys.  I love Five in a Row!!  I am also enjoying tying these books into what we are doing in our every day lives, as well as special seasons, holidays and times of the year.

Inspiration, ideas and printables I used for Owl Moon can be found at: 

• Five in a Row Manual, Volume 2
• Homeschool Share’s Owl Moon unit
• Silly Sentences from The First Grade Parade
• Time is Up from Mrs. Bainbridge’s Class
• Shapes Owl from Delightful Learning
• Falling Leaves Tree Craft
• Fingerprint Fall Tree Craft
• Puff Paint Moon
• Usborne Art Treasury
• Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations
• Preschool Pack from 2 Teaching Mommies
• Fall Size and Sort
• Moon Phases
• Evan Moor Great Science Resource Book