Homeschool: Owl Moon, Thunder and Tornadoes

I recently bought a book that helps teachers use Caldecott Medal winner books in the curriculum.

We chose to start with Owl Moon.

What a fabulous book.

For art

We talked about the art in the book (of course) and discussed how the artist made each scene look quiet and very still in the winter snow. We felt as though we were really there.

For science/zoology

We learned about different kinds of owls and found that the Eurasian Eagle Owl has a wingspan of 79 inches, while the Elf owl only has a wing span of 15 inches. We used yarn to measure the different wingspans and labeled each string. Then we hung our findings up on the wall to compare them all.

Eurasian Eagle Owl Elf Owl

We listened to owl calls and tried to imitate them.

For Language Arts

We talked about similes and found a few similes in the book.

Then, we each wrote our own poem about climbing tress and used simile (or something close to it).

To add to our study in simile, we decided to describe the super cell thunderstorm we had last night.

Here is what the boys came up with...

• The rain was like tiny hands clapping.



• The thunder was like a bear yelling.



• The lightning was as bright as the stars.



• The rain was like hail hitting the roof.



• The thunder was like a dinosaur stomping.

For more science
and to continue with the flow of the day, we learned what causes thunder and lighting. We checked to see where lightening was striking in the US today.

We learned what causes tornadoes

We watched tornado videos.

As a censor note...I muted this because I did not care for the language used. The video is awesome, though.


This video is much better as far as listening pleasure. lol.


This one shows a Hay Devil (gentle whirlwind)