Owl Moon

This week we read the book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen.  In the story, the boy and his father go owling and are hopeful to spy a Great Horned Owl.  What is hope?  What does it mean to you?  I asked our children and they created a wordle to reflect their thoughts. 

Further Exploration

At the end of the story, the author, Jane Yolen, uses a beautiful metaphor to describe hope.

"The kind of hope that flies on silent wings under a shining Owl Moon."

Use these questions to guide a discussion

• What is the topic of comparison?
• What is it being compared to?
• What characteristics do they have in common?
• Does hope have real wings?
• Why do you think the author chose to compare hope to an owl?
• Does the comparison change the way you think about hope in any way?

Go to Bubbl.us and create a new thinking map.  Brainstorm what the book, Owl Moon, has to do with the idea of hope.  Use thoughts from your discussion above to spark your imagination.  Now, dive deeper into your thoughts and think about what the story has to do with change, specifically the change associated with growing up.

As you think about hope and the idea of change, relate this to your own life.

Activity

Take a sheet of paper and fold it into thirds.  Label the sections past, present, and future.  In the "Past Section," draw a picture of yourself as a baby or younger child.  List the things that you think were important to you then.  In the "Present Section," draw yourself as you are now.  What is important to you right now?  Make a list under your picture.  Finally, in the "Future Section," draw yourself as you think you will be when you grow up.  Think about what you HOPE to be and what you HOPE to accomplish.  As you look back over your trifold, think about how you change as you grow and how what is important to you changes.  Glue a piece of construction paper to the back of your trifold to make it sturdy and stand it on your desk in front of you.

**Note: You could take this same activity and use Scriblink a free, online, interactive whiteboard.

Writing Connections

Think of a time in your life when you have experienced a change, for example, maybe you have had to change schools or play soccer on a team where you were the "new kid on the block."  Using bubble.us, list details associated with this change.  Using these details write a story about this event using either a fictional character or yourself as the main character.  Upon completion, you can bring your story to life by publishing it on TikaTok complete with your own illustrations.  Have fun and be creative!

**The main idea for this lesson was taken from Beyond Words, a literature study focusing on the idea of change created by the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary.

There are lots of other great resources for this Thirsty Thursday!  Check it out!