Owl books and friendship

I'd love to share some of our favorite owl stories with you today. This post contains some Amazon affiliate links. 

 Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise by Sean Taylor is a lovely fun and engaging story. I loved the humour and subtle irony in the text and my son Sam adored the illustrations and gentle silliness of Hoot Owl. This book is perfect for introducing some basic figurative language. 'The night has a thousand eyes and two of them are mine', for example could be used perfectly as a mentor sentence and unpacked to understand metaphors. 

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell would be ideal to read accompanying a lesson on the comprehension strategy of making connections. This story is very relatable for most children who would be able to recount a time in their life when they missed their mother or someone else with whom they share a close bond. It would also provide an opportunity to introduce the skill of inferring. I noticed that Sam kept track of the details emerging on each page of the three little owls and how they gave clues to their personality, particularly Bill. He inferred from the illustrations and Bill's dialogue that he was the baby, or the more needy of the three and by the end of the story was anticipating or making predictions about him.

Owl Bat Bat Owl by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick is a wordless story, providing opportunities for students to find meaning in the illustrations and perhaps tell the story themselves. I would suggest giving them plenty of time to study the pictures.

A bat family arrives on the home branch of the owl family and at first it appears that things will not end well. Themes of friendship, acceptance and tolerance can be explored. Flip the book upside down to consider things from a different perspective too!

Sam and the Firefly by P.D Eastman was perfect for us this week. Of course Sam loves that his name is featured in this story but he has become so confident in his reading that he was able to read this one to me (cue huge big fat mumma tears). There were lots of sight words to reinforce and rhyming words to encounter while still uncovering quite an entertaining story. Sam the owl longs for a friend and he finds Gus the firefly. Antics ensue, which are appealing to little ones like my Sam who is beginning to be very interested in writing words, playing tricks and making new friends.

Reading this story provides opportunities to stop and discuss friendship and how the actions of each character impact their relationship. Sam the owl enjoys the tricks of Gus initially but soon notices that Gus' behaviour is worrisome. He shows admirable friendship qualities by:

• encouraging his friend to have fun, but to do the right thing
• telling Gus the truth - 'Stop your tricks', 'Stop, Gus! Stop!'
• standing by Gus and being loyal  - 'Sam was there too'
• encouraging him to do the right thing and use his talents in a positive way
• forgiving him and reestablishing the friendship after a disagreement 

All of these qualities can be discussed and related to personal experiences of the children in your class too.

Make an anchor chart of qualities of a good friend and some behaviours that good friends demonstrate. Ask some of your students to role play how these look and sound to an observer. Talk about strategies for friendship when things are not always happy and positive. 

Friendship is a complex and at times abstract concept for little ones to understand. Remind them that sometimes friendship is 'up' and sometimes it is 'down' and that this is very normal. 

I've prepared a worksheet that you can use following on from a story about friendship. Ask your students to draw or write 4 things they can do as a good friend. 

Find it in Google Drive HERE

If you need some visual reminders of friendship qualities in your learning space, we have just added a new printable pack to our store. Find them HERE

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