The HOOK!On returning to the classroom from playtime the children found a mass of feathers in Bumblebee class. They were very shocked and

concerned as to where and what these feathers could have come from.

The children followed the trail of feathers through the school…to find a real life Owl!

Troy and his owner popped into school to tell the children all about different kinds of Owls and focused on ‘The Barn Owl’.The children asked lots of questions about Owls and birds of Prey and learnt the meaning of lots of new words including ‘Diurnal and

‘nocturnal’.

Lou from the Hawk Conservancy taught the children all about where Troy the Owl lived and his eating and sleeping habits. They learnt the not all owls are nocturnal and that no owl will ever say ‘Twit – Twoo’.

Some of the children were able to get very close to Troy and had the chance to hold him.

OWL PICTURES

English

English was one of the Lead subjects for this project. The focus was story writing and the story focus was ‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark’. First the children were introduced to the story and were asked to look at it in a variety of different ways. For example, they listened to the story intently and discuss each character that was mentioned. The children carried out different activities involving the characters. They acted out different scenes from the story and were able to take on the role of Plop the Owl well. They focused on different emotions that plop would have felt throughout the story and showed this through their body language and facial expressions.The challenge for the end of the project was for the children to be able to rewrite their own version of the story ‘The Owl who was Afraid of The Dark’. They enjoyed completing this task and based their stories heavily on the Pie Corbett version of the story we acted out (using different actions for the words) as a whole class.The children had a heavy focus on adjectives and how to describe different settings and scenes. They described different characters from the story and created a character profile for Plop the Owl. This profile consisted of Plops feelings and what kind of an Owl he was.

INSERT CHILDRENS WORK

ScienceAs the second subject, Science was key to this project. The children were very interested in this element. Our key focus was looking at the different habitats of owls and Light and Dark.Owls: Initially, the children completed a bubble diagram to show all of the things that they already knew about owls. They then worked as mixed-ability groups to decide things that they wanted to find out about owls and presented these back to the class. The children were good at asking questions, which is a direct result of the last project where there was a focus on questions. These ideas were then put up on the working wall in each classroom so that they could be referred to during the project. The children then used their geographical skills of using globes and maps to identify places where owls come from. These were also skills taught during the previous project. Many of the children were able to identify key countries that owls live in and enjoyed carrying out this task. Some of the children could even say why particular owls were like they were e.g. snowy owls are mainly white because they live in the snowy countries. This is so they can be camouflaged into the snow. Light and Dark: The children looked into a variety of different light sources and how they create light in different ways. For example, glow in the dark spaghetti and light up – glow orbs. The children investigated these resources and were encouraged to use key words to describe the light sources. All of the children were able to use vocabulary such as light and dark. Some of the children also used terms such as shadow, reflect and glow.Following on from this, using the globe, the children experimented with torches to create day / night in the world. By the end of the session, most of the children could talk about dark being the absence of light and say that when it is night time in Australia it is daytime in England.

Following on from this, using the globe, the children experimented with torches to create day / night in the world.

By the end of the session, most of the children could talk about dark being the absence of light and say that when it is night time in Australia it is daytime in England.

Animals/ humans: The final element in the science that was covered was looking at the parts of the human body and comparing these parts to animals. The children were already very knowledgeable about the human body parts and could say which each part was. They struggled on some of the more difficult parts such as elbow, shoulder and wrist. However a small group of children were even able to label waist and chest accurately and independently. The children, particularly the boys, enjoyed comparing a human body with animal bodies and talking about the skeleton and the bones. Some of the children related this to their own personal visits to the hospital when they had been injured. One child recalled the skeletons that he saw on his trip to the National History Museum in London.

ArtDuring the Project the children were looking at different ways in which to use clay.

During art, the artist that was the focus was Barbara Hepworth as she is a sculptor. The children enjoyed looking at her pieces of work and discussing and evaluating them. They

were able to use simple reasoning to say if they liked them or did not. The children then looked at different techniques in order to create effect on the clay and

how to mould it in different ways.The children used a piece of clay and divided it into 4 sections. The children were then

taught how to create different techniques on their clay. They talked about which technique they could use for different parts of the owl e.g. to create feathers by adding

‘texture’ to the clay using the tool.

Learning Values: Emotional IntelligenceName their feelings, talk about them in an open way and recognise how these can affect their learning.Recognise emotions of other people, show empathy and respond appropriately.Manage their feelings productively, in a positive manner and show self – control. During Circle Time, the children talked about different feelings (happy, sad, excited, angry, worried, frightened) and situations that make them feel this way. If it was a negative feeling the groups talked about what they did or what somebody else did to make it better. How did they feel afterwards?They then brainstormed some other words to describe similar feelings and wrote them on cards. The children came up with words such as excited, joyful, frightened, worried and petrified. In mixed ability groups, the children sorted out pictures of faces from magazines into happy and sad. The children looked closely at facial expressions and body language. The adults asked the children why they had put particular faces in a particular group. ThinkingGenerate and use criteria to evaluate and judge the quality of their learning and achievement.Seek meaning through reflecting on their own experiences and feelings, asking philosophical questions and challenging own ideas. At the end of the project, the children completed an evaluation form about their experiences of this project. They talked about what they enjoyed, didn’t enjoy and what they would like to learn about owls.

Year One went to the Hawk Conservancy in Andover for their school trip in relation to the ‘Twit – Twoo’ project. Whilst we were there, the children were acquainted with a variety of birds of Prey including a Peregrine Falcon and lots of different types of Owl.The children were very excited to see the wild birds and listened intently to the bird keepers when they were explaining all of the key elements to the birds habitats and how to care for them. The children completed a bird trail where they found lots of different stamps with birds of prey on them. Under each stamp was a fact about the bird. The bird show took place before lunch time and the children were all eager to see which bird was going to be shown next. The birds were let off to fly and swoop over the heads of the children whilst going to catch their food from their handler.

During this time every child was allowed to hold an Owl if they chose to. Some of the pictures below show the children’s excited faces when they were allowed to hold the Owl.

OutcomeThe children planned their own outcome for this project and they decided that they wanted an owl exhibition. They wanted to present their written work about owls and also show their Pie Corbett version of the story The Owl Who was Afraid of the Dark. The children created some beautiful pictures of owls, using pencils and paints and they wanted these to be displayed in the classroom for the parents to see. They decided that their parents and families would find it fun to play with the light sources that they had used in their science sessions.

Family attendance at outcome: 58%

Home LearningThe children’s home learning task was to create (with whatever materials they chose) a 3D Owl. The children, parents and families worked very hard on this home learning project. The Owls came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some were made out of egg cups, cereal boxes and even balloons. The children were very proud of their efforts and were excited to see them on display!

I enjoyed hearing my child read their own version of the story they learnt in class. The children enjoyed the project.

My child enjoyed completing their home learning task and was able to tell some facts about Owls whilst we were doing it.

My son is now obsessed with Owls and how made me buy him an Owl book.

It was lovely coming to see the children’s art work and to hear what they had been learning about this half term.

It was a shame the project was well supported by other parents.

Parents Feedback

I enjoyed going to the Hawk Conservancy and I liked everything about the project. Jessica W

I have learnt lots about Owls and about a Peregrine Falcon. I enjoyed learning all about our Project.Morgan

The thing I enjoyed most about the project was looking at the Owls and learning the names of different Owls.Leena

I enjoyed learning about the story ‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark’ the most.Daisy - May

The thing I enjoyed most about the project was the Outcome!Jessica J

Children’s Feedback

Staff EvaluationsOverall the project was not as successful as it could have been. There were a lot of good elements but our main problem was time constraints.The children enjoyed the project theme and were motivated and excited to learn new things about different Owls. They were very excited to go to the Hawk Conservancy however; we feel this should have been done at an earlier time during the project instead of towards the end.We would like to take the children on a similar trip again as it was an enjoyable and educational day for all involved.The majority of children were able to articulate what they had been learning and were eager to find books about birds of Prey and Owls in the library and research them in their own time. The story element to the project enticed the children to use build on their story knowledge from previous projects. By the end of the project the majority of the children were able to describe different animals, settings and habitats in which those animals lived. Further implications:To have less English incorporated within the project and include more science eg. More information about birds and lessons based on researching.The children would have benefited from having more Drama incorporated into their learning. This would have helped them when playing in the role play area and understand the story of ‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark’ better.