Owl Craft - Learn Heart Shape
Preschool Lesson Plan Printable Activities
Valentine's Day | Teacher's Appreciation

Themes

Instructions and Suggestions

Materials

Review the activities, printable materials, theme accessories for the hearts owl craft and learning links below to decide on what sequence or materials works best for your needs.

This craft is appropriate for the following holidays, events and themes:

** Valentine's Day:  The heart theme lends itself to decorate the owl in Valentine colors to make a cute greeting card or decoration.  Accessories:  Heart balloon with message or blank black and white version - make a large greeting card.

** Graduation Theme -  many preschoolers, kindergarteners and first graders will have their first graduation experiences or they can make this for an older sibling or relative that is graduating.  Accessories:  Write a short greeting inside diploma pattern, write name of child on graduation hat.

** Teacher's Appreciation Week, Child Care Provider's Appreciation, Back to School or Community Helper Theme:  include with a gift or attach to gift bag.  Accessories:  write a greeting inside the apple leaf or the center of the owl body.

*Halloween or Nocturnal Scene:  The owl is often depicted in "mysterious" night scenes looking out of his "home" in  a tree or on a tree branch because it is generally nocturnal -- active at night.  The craft can be used to create an easy nocturnal scene with a branch as depicted in the illustration on the right column.   

Ideally, plan for a couple of days of activities for older children and keep it simple for the 2-3 year olds.

Activity:  Hearts Owl Craft  Ages 2.5+ (10 pieces without wings)

Tell the children they are going to have fun with a craft related to a unique bird:  the owl!

The children will have fun making an easy and fun craft of an mostly assembled heart shapes (except for the eyes and legs) and during the crafting process many skills can be addressed.   
 
Review printing and assembly options that best meet your needs. Before assembly conduct some of the learning activities suggested below:

Tips:
*Eyes template can be easily substituted by large sized wiggly eyes (size 25 mm) and the rest of the pieces can be cut from foam sheets.

*Choose template accessories for Graduation or Teacher/Child Care/Back to School Theme in the materials column - available in color or black & white.

Tips for accessories:  Print the apple, heart & leaf template using black and white version directly on red paper, cut out the leaf pattern and trace onto green paper to save on ink.

Owl Craft Printing and Assembly Options:
Option 1:  Print color template,  (owl wings template are optional to make the craft easier on the youngest children)  cut out, conduct learning activities below and assemble (see below for suggested sequence).  
Option 2:  Print black and white template (optional wings template) Children can color, paint or decorate first,  cut out and proceed as above.  
Option 3:  For Large Groups:
Print black & white template on card stock and use as a master template.  Trace the patterns on folded construction paper or left-over paper to obtain pieces needed in each color.

Assembly:  Each template has a small illustration of the finished owl craft to help children have an idea of how it looks when assembled.  For large groups it may help to have a cut out craft and place small pieces of tape behind each piece and show on a board a sequence of assembly.  Help children with location of accessory theme pieces.

Other options, decorations and ideas:

1.  Tape a ribbon or string to back of head to use as decoration or ornament.  
2.  Make a greeting card for other occasions (St. Valentine's, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparent's Day:  Fold a piece on paper or card stock in half and attach on the front. Write greeting message inside.
3.  Nocturnal Scene (can be used for Halloween theme also) Older children can make a large greeting card or poster by making a  landscape of the owl perched on a tree branch or a nest inside a tree or cactus (elf owl).  

Materials and suggested instructions for the Nocturnal scene :  1 piece of blue construction paper, 1 piece of brown construction paper or grocery bag material, small white paper circle for the moon.  
To create the branch, cut a letter L shape on the brown paper material the lengh of the blue construction paper and invert it.  Cut wavy patterns of the letter L to make it more realistic.  Glue the branch to the blue construction paper.  Glue the finished owl craft,  and glue the moon in place, add some easy face features to the moon.
4.  Add craft feathers (two on the sides for wings adds a realistic touch.

Learning Activities to conduct before craft assembly:
Choose those activities that meet your curriculum needs and children's age group:
Shapes & Colors Activity:

1.  Ask children to identify the shapes and colors on the template if using the color template.  

Numbers/Pre-Math Activities:
To conduct these activities pieces should be decorated and cut out.

1. Sorting & Sizing:  Have the children sort the hearts by color and size (smallest to largest)

2. Counting:  Count how many of each  size there are.  You may want to write numbers on the blank side to acquaint the children with printed numbers.  In this activity you may want to also count the eyes.

Proceed with craft assembly.  Show the small image provided in the template to help the children see how the finished craft looks and to aid them in positioning the pieces.  After completing the craft the children can hold their finished craft while conducting some of the activities below.



Activity > Science and Social Studies: Learning about Owls: Animal facts and various activities (offline and online) Ages 2.5+

Activity > Alphabet Activity:  Letter O o is for Owl printable activities

Activity > Homemade Puzzles or a simple art activity with a coloring page:

If you are short on time for a craft or want to suggest a take home activity:
1.  Homemade Puzzle:  For reinforcement, print a coloring page with a large owl coloring page  on sturdy paper (print directly on a solid color - brown, orange, etc. or glue to thin cardboard and cut into basic shapes - rectangles, squares, triangles (4 - to 6 pieces for children 2-3 years old and more pieces for older children).

2.  Free Style Art -  Create a Forest Landscape:  Have the children decorate the image, layering  materials for texture, use craft feathers.  Cut out the image and have the children create a forest background -- the trunk of a tree or branch with watercolors, tempera, glue real or dried leaves, twigs and small branches, create a nest with pine needles to bring in a touch of real nature.  When the background is done glue or tape the owl on top.

Online Puzzles:  Letter O Owl

Make sure to include story time.

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