Owl Moon Book Companion January Preschool Kindergarten 1st 2nd Special Ed

About this resource

One theme, one week. Read the same book every day at circle time: on a quiet, snowy night, someone

bundles up — a coat, a scarf, boots, a flashlight — and walks out into the woods to look for an owl.

Staying quiet is the whole trick. After the read-aloud each day, pull one simple activity: sort what

you'd wear or carry on a quiet night walk, count the stars, find the letter O, get ready for the

walk in order, then build an owl-in-a-tree-under-the-moon craft. Every student page has one short

instruction with a picture, so a paraprofessional can run the room from it too.

This week pairs with **Owl Moon by Jane Yolen** (or any quiet winter-night read-aloud you already

have). Not affiliated with the author or publisher. You need your own copy of the book; nothing

from it is reproduced here — no human figures are drawn in this unit at all, only an owl, a moon, a

bare winter tree and the snow, every picture our own drawing or a licensed picture set.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (57 pages)

• 1 Start Here week plan: what to do after the read-aloud each day, plus what else it practices
• 1 book-and-words page naming the read-aloud, an original circle-time chant ("Quiet, Quiet,"

written for this unit — no song or story text is reprinted), and the 9 circle-time vocabulary

words

• 9 smartboard slides for whole-group circle time on a projector or interactive board: the cover

art, name the pictures, sort, count (3 slides), the letter hunt, the life skill in order, and the

core word

• 9 circle-time vocabulary cards to cut out and use at the carpet (owl, moon, snow, tree, star,

boot, scarf, flashlight, coat)

• Day 1, Sort (something you'd wear or carry on a quiet night walk, or not), at 3 levels: Level 1

errorless matching, Level 2 the standard two-group sort, Level 3 a third group added (wear or

carry it, a winter thing, or a toy) — 10 cut-and-glue pieces on every level

• Day 2, Count the stars, at 3 levels: Levels 1 and 2 count sets of 1 to 5 with a 5-piece numeral

strip to cut and glue; Level 3 counts sets of 6 to 10 and writes the number, no cutting

• Day 3, Letter O, at 3 levels: Level 1 glues 5 matching O's, Level 2 finds O among 10 look-alike

letters, Level 3 says 10 pictures aloud and glues the 5 that start like "owl"

• Writing, at 3 levels: Level 1 traces the big letters, Level 2 traces letters and the word "owl,"

Level 3 writes the letters and the word independently on primary lines

• Day 4, a life-skill sequencing page: 5 picture pieces (4 real steps for a quiet night walk — put

on your coat, put on your scarf, put on your boots, grab the flashlight — first/next/then/last,

plus 1 that does not belong)

• Day 5, a book craft: color and cut a 10-piece bare winter tree with a low branch for an owl to

perch on (an owl, a moon, a scarf, a flashlight, two stars, two snowflakes and a pair of boots —

every cut a straight dashed rectangle) and glue them onto a quiet night-sky scene

• 2 fine motor pages: a tracing-paths page (owl to moon: straight, wave, zigzag, loops) and a

cutting-practice page (4 strips, easiest first)

• 4 core-word pages for the word of the week, "quiet": a big word card for the talker or core

board, a 12-word find-and-circle grid (6 of the 12 are the target word "quiet"), a moon to color,

and 10 night things to cut out and glue around it

• 1 "Who Did What This Week" data page (one row per student, a prompt-level code for each day —

handy for IEP notes and progress reports)

• 1 family letter to send home on Day 1
• 1 credits page (art and font licenses)
• Ink-saver twins of 19 picture-based student pages (the craft and pure-coloring pages are

color-only) in outline art for a photocopier, so the color pages above are optional, not required

Three Levels On Every Academic Task

Sort, count, letters and writing each come in three levels, marked with a small shape instead of

a number so children don't compare theirs to a neighbor's: a circle for starting (errorless

matching), a square for building (the standard task), a triangle for ready for more (a real step

up — a third sort group, counting 6 to 10 with writing, or beginning sounds).

Cutting Built For Small Hands

Every cutting page carries 5 or more pieces, lined up edge to edge so each cut is one straight

line. Pre-cut them yourself for students who are not cutting independently yet.

Color Or Ink-Saver

Print the color pages, or use the ink-saver twins at the back on a photocopier — most

picture-based student pages have both (the craft and pure-coloring pages are color-only by design).

Who This Is For

Any teacher starting a self-contained preschool or early childhood special education classroom

who wants a whole week of circle time, ready to pull and go: one theme, a different simple

activity every day.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A print-and-go weekly theme unit built around a quiet, snowy-night, owl-spotting theme. It is not a

claim about any student's age or rate of progress, and it does not reproduce any book, its text, or

its artwork — no human figures are drawn in this unit at all; only our own tree, owl, moon, boots,

scarf and flashlight pieces are drawn here. The "something you'd wear or carry on a quiet night

walk" sort is a simple classroom sorting activity, not a scientific or clinical claim, and "staying

quiet" on the core-word page is a vocabulary and listening activity, not a behavior claim about any

student.