A book-inspired preschool owl craft is just what you need for your list of fall activities for preschoolers!
It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for another #PLAYfulpreschool theme! Thus far, we’ve delved into apples, family, farm, harvest, and fall colors. This week the focus is on nighttime, which led to my nocturnal preschool owl craft.
It started, as it often does, with a book! In this case, it was Little Owl’s Night by Divya Srinivasan. The book has beautiful illustrations and tells the story of a baby owl’s nighttime forays. Little Owl passes other nocturnal owls, like bats and hedgehogs. The owl also flies over diurnal animals (those that sleep at night and are awake during the day). The book lends itself to a great discussion of nocturnal versus diurnal animals, as well as day versus night.
Based on this book, I came up with two different owls for the kiddos to create. I couldn’t decide which preschool owl craft to share today, so I’m going to explain both!
Feathery preschool owl craft
This owl was inspired by the chick art we made for a previous farm theme.
Materials
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Brown tempera paint
Neutral craft feathers
Googly eyes
Orange construction paper
Directions
1. Using a sponge paintbrush, create a brown owl’s body. I just pressed the brush down twice, but some of the preschoolers did a lot more!
2. Once the paint’s dried, add some googly eyes, and a beak made from construction paper.
3. Add feathers! I went with 2 on each side, but my students varied greatly in their feather usage!
Shape preschool owl craft
This owl was inspired by Little Owl from the book, with a focus on learning shapes. It can be done as a guided craft, talking the kiddos through the differently shaped materials. To focus more on the process, give the child all the elements to create the owl and then step back.
Materials
Construction paper – black, green, white, brown, orange
Oil pastels – brown, green, yellow
Directions
1. Cut out the following shapes – 1 brown oval, 1 brown half circle, 6 brown triangles, 2 white circles, 2 green circles, 2 black circles, and 1 orange diamond. I did this free-hand, but children can cut their own out (depending on their scissor skills).
2. Glue the half circle down, then add the oval on top.
3. Glue three of the triangles to the upper right-hand side of the oval. Do the same on the left-hand side.
4. Create the owl’s eyes by gluing the green circles on top of the white circles. Then glue the black circles on top of the green. Affix the eyes to the brown oval.
5. Next up is the orange diamond for the owl’s beak.
6. Add a tree branch and leaves with the oil pastels. Add feet for the owl.
Which preschool owl craft did you like the best? If you’re looking for more owl-y fun, be sure to check out my collection of 24 more! Even better, share some of your favorites in the comments below.
For MORE Playful Preschool Nighttime Activities:
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What fun! I haven’t read the book yet,but it looks like a perfect one for preschool nighttime theme!
I wrote a post about our favorite nighttime books and Little Owl’s Night was our top pick! I really like the simplicity of the crafts because my son would actually have the patience to do them. 🙂
We will have to read Little Owl’s Night. You have me feeling inspired. I cannot choose between the two Owl crafts. I love the texture of the feathers in the first craft and I love the utilization of shapes in the second. It’s a tie! We will have to try your owl crafts and read the story. Thanks for the inspiration.
This is one of our favorite books! We will be trying these crafts out this week! Thanks for the ideas.
What a cute little owl. I think I’m a fan of the one with feathers
We have not read this book! I always love when we find new titles to explore.:) The owl crafts are adorable – so much fun!
o my! these came out super duper cute!
I love both of the crafts! One has such fun textures to explore and the other is a great opportunity to talk about shapes!
Ohhh fabulous owls – our favourite owls are our pinecone owls although we did a cutting activity and bottle tops for the big owls eyes that kids loved.
This is just what I was looking for! I’m preparing to read Little Owl’s Night at my preschool story circle next week.
So glad I could help, Barb! 🙂