While my 1.5 year old is not old enough to really understand the concept of nocturnal animals, it was a fun topic to focus on for a day. He loves animals and making animal sounds, so it seemed like a perfect fit. We read two books about nocturnal animals - Little Owl's Night by Divya Srinivasan and Stellaluna by Janell Cannon.
Little Owl's Night was a perfect book for this theme. It talks about all kinds of things that an owl would see at night, including many nocturnal animals. It was a great length with a small number of words per page and had cute illustrations. An older child who can understand the concept of nocturnal animals would benefit from the way the book describes the nighttime for animals who stay awake at nigth and fall asleep in the daytime.
I expected that Stellaluna would be a bit long for my young toddler. The pages tend to have a lot of writing and the illustrations are not particularly elaborate, so I didn't know how well it would hold his attention. But for some reason, he found it really interesting! In fact, he keeps grabbing it and bringing it to me to read again and again. I suppose there is just something about this classic story of friendship and a mother's love that is appealing to everyone.
Paper Bag Owl Puppet
T has gotten really into puppets lately. He's learning a lot of animal sounds and enjoys making the puppets make the sounds. So when I saw this craft to make an owl puppet from a paper bag, I knew it would be a hit with him.
All the craft requires is:
All the craft requires is:
- A paper bag (I used a smaller sized bag)
- Construction paper (brown, green or yellow, black, orange)
- Glue
- two eyes from yellow paper (I traced a cup)
- two pupils from black paper (I traced a ring)
- An orange triangle for the beak
- Two brown wings (I folded the paper in half and cut them out so they matched)
- Brown ears
From there, the craft was quite easy to assemble. Thought it was focused on the product, it was a product I knew my toddler would love. So it was more about the end point than the process this time. But T was able to help with the glue, which he thought was very fun. And he promptly ran around with his paper bag owl on his hand yelling "whoo! whoo!" after it was finished.
I also had a fun bat themed craft in mind, but I think I'll save that one for Halloween ;-)
Nocturnal Animal Songs
We sang a few songs related to owls/nocturnal animals throughout the week:
Mr. Owl
Late at night when you're in bed,
Mr. Owl perks up his head.
He looks left and he looks right,
In the dark all through the night.
Hear him hoot when you're in bed,
When Mr. Owl perks up his head.
Five Little Owls
Five little owls,
On a branch by the shore,
A squirrel scampered by,
And then there were four.
Four little owls,
Perched high up in a tree,
The wind shook one off,
And then there were three.
Three little owls,
With nothing fun to do,
One got very bored,
And then there were two.
Two little owls,
Just having some fun,
A bear came along,
And then there was one.
One little owl,
Winked at the setting sun,
Flew into the forest,
And then there were none.
And One Little Owl, from the YouTube Video linked here. I liked how repetitive this one was, it was easier for my toddler to catch on to. We just sang it without the video. You could add other animals too, such as bats that say "squeak squeak."
Mr. Owl
Late at night when you're in bed,
Mr. Owl perks up his head.
He looks left and he looks right,
In the dark all through the night.
Hear him hoot when you're in bed,
When Mr. Owl perks up his head.
Five Little Owls
Five little owls,
On a branch by the shore,
A squirrel scampered by,
And then there were four.
Four little owls,
Perched high up in a tree,
The wind shook one off,
And then there were three.
Three little owls,
With nothing fun to do,
One got very bored,
And then there were two.
Two little owls,
Just having some fun,
A bear came along,
And then there was one.
One little owl,
Winked at the setting sun,
Flew into the forest,
And then there were none.
And One Little Owl, from the YouTube Video linked here. I liked how repetitive this one was, it was easier for my toddler to catch on to. We just sang it without the video. You could add other animals too, such as bats that say "squeak squeak."