Communication and Language Personal, Social and Emotional Development Physical Development

 Create a forest-themed small world using logs, plants and
pieces of bark. Add some story spoons or these Owl Babies
Stick Puppets. Encourage children to retell the events and
repeat key phrases as they play.
 Introduce Bill (the baby owl) and explain that each day, he will
drop off a picture of different animals and their young for children
to find out more about. This can be used as an opportunity to
introduce new vocabulary.
 Initiate a discussion on where the children think the owl mother
went and what she was doing. Model how to communicate
thoughts in well-formed sentences.
 Play a hiding game with the children. Ask one child to close their
eyes while another child hides an owl toy. When the child opens
their eyes, they need to search for the owl. The other children can
give sound clues by saying ‘twit twoo’ loudly if they are close to
the toy or quietly if further away.
 Begin a discussion about staying safe and talking to trusted
adults. Pose or role play different scenarios, such as what
children should do if they lose a parent or carer when they are
out. Share ideas of the safest options to help them, explaining
the reasons why.
 Consider the feelings of the young owls in the story and invite
children to draw a picture of what makes them feel scared or
worried and add it to a worry tree. Then, encourage children
to share and reduce their worries by talking about them.
Remind the group to show sensitivity to other’s feelings.
 Support children to understand that the baby owls are
nocturnal and have an opposite sleep routine to us. Talk
about why a good night’s sleep is important and invite
children to share strategies of what helps them to sleep.
Create a large class poster or leaflet for children to take home
and use the ideas to help them at bedtime.
 Set up some benches or long planks with safety mats and
pretend they are tree branches from the story. Invite children to
be baby owls and explore moving across the branches in
different ways (such as on tiptoe, side-stepping or jumping).
 Attach feathers to pencils and prompt children to complete
these Owl Babies Pencil Control Sheets.
 Draw a large tree with three branches of different sizes. Hand
children some beanbags to throw at the branches. If the
beanbag hits Sarah’s large branch, children get one point. If
they hit Percy’s smaller branch, they get two points and if they
hit Bill’s tiny ivy branch, they receive three points.
 Create some owl-shaped snacks using crumpets, spread and
sliced fruit (such as blueberries for the eyes and half a
strawberry for the beak). Encourage children to practise using
cutlery effectively to spread, cut and eat their fun and healthy
snacks.

Literacy Mathematics Understanding the World Expressive Arts and Design

 Hide some individual letters or CVC words
around the room and dim the lights. Prompt
children to use their special ‘owl eyes’
(torches) to find and read the letters/words.
 Provide large strips of brown paper for
children to write words on to describe an owl.
Arrange the strips onto a large owl template
as feathers to create a display.
 Create some branch cut-outs with pictures of
CVC words on. Provide some owl images with
letters on. Encourage children to build the CVC
words by sitting the owls on the branches.
 Provide this Owl Babies Caption Writing
Activity to prompt children to write phrases
linked to the story.
 Invite children to place some leaves onto
branches in a large tray and select the
correct numeral to match. Extend learning
by adding one more leaf to each branch or
taking one away, exploring the change in
number.
 Leave a trail of different-sized owl
footprints, feathers and branches for
children to collect. Then, compare the
sizes of each item and decide which owl
they belong to.
 Explore the composition of three by
moving three forest animals around a
small world area. For example, there are
two owls in the tree and one on the
 Look at the owl family in the story then invite
children to talk about their own family by sharing
photos from home. Compare similarities and
differences between families.
 Organise a scavenger hunt outside to find
natural items from in the story, such as leaves,
feathers and twigs. Invite children to look closely
at each item then draw them.
 Encourage children to stand outside and pretend
it’s dark by closing their eyes. What can they
hear nearby and far away? What can they feel
around them?
 Learn about owls in different habitats (e.g. the
Arctic). Compare these places to the local
environment.
 Encourage children to create representations
of the story using natural resources, such as
feathers, leaves, pine cones, bark, logs, twigs.
 Make the room dark and prompt children to
make movements to pretend to be nocturnal
forest animals while holding glow sticks or
battery-operated candles.
 Organise children into small groups and
choose an Owl Babies Sequencing Card. Each
group can act out the story event or create a
freeze frame for others to guess which card
they have recreated.
 Provide white paint and a variety of tools for
children to explore producing different artistic
textures to create fluffy looking owls on black
Owl Babies ground. Add a mother owl to look at the paper.
composition of four.