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Owl Moon, Goodnight Moon: Preschool & 1st Grade Activities

Owl Moon, Goodnight Moon: Preschool & 1st Grade Activities

While following our preschool literature plan for the year has been somewhat consistent, updating here on the blog has been sketchy.

So, expect to see a variety of Five in a Row posts coming your way over the next two months!

Goodnight Moon is a staple in our home, a great bedtime read for little ones.  Owl Moon is a sweet story of a girl and her father observing and learning together.  We enjoyed both books.

I decided to focus on learning about owls and the moon, with a few simple activities – my boys are 7 and almost 3.5 yrs old

The preschooler enjoyed fine motor practice pinning red mittens to a wooden clothesline, just like those in the story.

I simple cut these out of red felt found deep in my stash of craft supplies.

This activity kept him busy for a while, and he enjoyed it for days!

Goodnight Moon Craft

With this simple craft (reproduction of a window in the book), I encouraged the boys to work alone.

I know, kind of a gamble.  But I wanted to see if the 1st grader could figure out the steps by simply looking at a completed project while working.  Yep, critical thinking skills being encouraged. 🙂

I set out materials and gave basic explanations such as the red strips of paper being different lengths, and to watch closely where they should go…

They pulled it off alone for the most part!  Those pesky red strips were some trouble after all.

Then my 1st grader (verbally) narrated back to me the steps necessary to make this craft.  We practiced using transition words such as “First you, Then…Next, etc.”

Goodnight Moon Science

We read and talked quite a bit about moon phases with 1st grade, and I roped in his 4th grade sister for some science lessons.

I downloaded these FREE phases of the moon cards and we all went to work on using Oreos to recreate the pictures.  We watched the night sky several evenings to observe the moon.

The preschooler was the taste tester…

Our favorite activity by far was one I made up and titled Mystery Moons.  A white crayon, white paper and some black watercolor paint was all it took for the science lesson excitement level to shoot through the roof! 🙂

I drew the moon phases on paper, and as they painted, the ‘mystery moon’ came into view, which we then matched to our printouts.

Simple and fun.

As we switched our focus from the moon, I heard a local store was having live animals in for a visit.  Guess which ones?  OWLS!

Just perfect…

Owl Printable

The hands-on learning was much better than a video or book!  So much info gained.

For 1st grade, he documented it on a sheet I created…You can download our printable here.

Preschool Owl Activity

As a wrap up to our row, the boys created simple owls out of Crayola model magic.  A nice & quick activity which only took a few minutes.

Of course, we then had to wait for it all to dry out some.

Instructions as well as other owl and moon related activities can be found on my Pinterest board.   Overall, a great row!

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Other links for you:

 

Linked with Homeschool Creations,  Collage Friday

 

10 comments
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  • Eddie - The Usual MayhemApril 4, 2013 - 9:17 am

    What a great set of activities! I love the sheer joy on your kids’ faces in ever shot….obviously the whole things was a big hit.

    I also love how you encouraged independence with the craft.ReplyCancel

  • KarenApril 4, 2013 - 9:21 am

    Thank you for sharing! What great ideas you used, and such a sweet way for learning to take place. It prompts me to maybe shelve the workbooks/textbooks for a while and just have fun – before they get too big! It has been way too long since we have done this type of learning. Thank you for the inspiration.ReplyCancel

  • Lisa EggersApril 5, 2013 - 12:12 am

    GREAT activities! Love that adorable OREO smile 🙂ReplyCancel

  • LouanneApril 8, 2013 - 3:49 pm

    This is great. Thanks.ReplyCancel

  • Leigh AnnMay 29, 2013 - 10:44 pm

    I just wanted to let you know that I’ve been on your site for most of the day! I had never heard of FIAR until I saw someone pin one of your posts on Pinterest. I followed the rabbit trail and am so thankful! We’ll be doing the sample lesson plan for Goodnight Moon until our Before FIAR book gets here. 🙂ReplyCancel

  • […] Mystery Moons […]ReplyCancel

  • AmyJuly 17, 2013 - 10:08 pm

    I love your blog!! You are doing such a great job!ReplyCancel

  • CharityJanuary 19, 2014 - 10:22 pm

    These are great ideas! Thanks for sharing.ReplyCancel

  • […]  Owl Moon:  such a sweet book, and definitely read often through the years.  Check out our entire unit study on the […]ReplyCancel

  • Goodnight Moon | Curdled Like CheeseJune 21, 2014 - 5:45 pm

    […] we did an activity that I found on this blog that she called Mystery Moons.  I took a piece of white paper and a white crayon and drew […]ReplyCancel

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Daniele Evans