"Owl" Sorts of Fun! On Friday!

I think I've mentioned a million few times that I. Love. Fall. I love the weather, the leaves changing and even the fun activities that can go along with Halloween and Thanksgiving.

I mentioned in a previous post {here} that my mom comes about once a month to do fun crafty activities with my class. :-) Hooray for amazing moms! This week, she came again for a fun owl-themed craft.

We do live in the age of standards and pacing guides, however, so I worked out a way to help it connect to our learning!

For read aloud that day, I picked Owls by Gail Gibbons. She's a great nonfiction author...I love her books!

Click the picture to get yourself a copy!

Before we read, we used sticky notes to write down facts we already knew about owls. We have been discussing making connections to background knowledge as a reading strategy! 

As we read, they wrote down facts they learned about owls from the book. They used the small stickies again. I used the Sharing Board from Laura Candler's Graphic Organizers for Reading to help them organize and keep track of their sticky notes.

This is a great ebook! Click the picture to get yours!

As a class we had a great discussion about how new information links to old information in your brain and that's how it sticks!

Later that day, we used our sticky notes and transferred them onto a "Just the Facts" graphic organizer that I got from Christina at Bunting, Books and Bainbridge. It was perfect...the first part asked them to write what they already knew. The second part asked them to write what they learned! And the last part was to write a question they still had. It fit perfectly with this activity. :-)

These are amazing graphic organizers...go get yourself a copy!

Finding more facts to add to the graphic organizer....

After we got all the research and reading strategies out of the way, the really fun part could begin. (Although who can argue that reading strategies with awesome graphic organizers aren't fun?)

We made walnut owls! :-)

Aren't they cute??

When they finished their owls, they put finishing touches on their graphic organizers. I taped the graphic organizer to the owl...

I added a very boring title...

and we have our Owl Bulletin Board!

We had a great time...my kids love when my mom visits! :-) A happy (and successful) day in 4th grade.

Now for Fun Friday...a great linky party hosted by Kelly at Teaching Fourth. This linky party fits perfectly with my fun Friday owl activity! Check mine out and then go link up yourself!

Fun Pin, Ms. O Reads Books

One last thing...my 100 Follower Giveaway is coming...tomorrow! Make sure to stop back by and check it out!