Owl Day

Today we had a play date! We went to Oak's house so that Kingston could play with his two little friends Oak and Olivia. We declared today "Owl Day" because we planned on doing owl related crafts and activities! Kingston got all dressed up in his Mama-made owl pants and matching bib and his sweet Old Navy owl hoodie!

We went for a quick walk and then got down to business making our owls. This is a really cute handprint craft that can be found via Pinterest or Google. Erika, the hostess, provided us each with colored construction paper in which she had already crafted a sweet little branch with leaves for us to place our owls. We inked the babies hands with brown (WASHABLE..I made sure of it today!) ink and pressed their hands down so that the fingers dangled down from the branch.

After we cleaned the babies, we were given an orange beak, two orange claws, and googly eyes to complete our creation. They came out precious!

After we made our owls, we read the book Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. This was our first time listening to the book. It is such an adorable book and the pictures are beautiful. I love the personalities of the little owls. I will definitely be adding this book to Kingston's library. I will be scouring the Used Book Superstore looking for it at the next sale!! It is a longer book compared to most baby board books, but very well written.

By the time we were done, K was more than ready for his afternoon nap. We went home and continued our owl activities there!!

Kingston loves his Skip Hop Hug & Hide Owl toy that his Aunta gave him, so I thought this would be an opportune time to let him play with it and talk about owls with him!

This owl toy is a sensory activity in itself! It has crinkly wings, squeakers, rattles, multiple teethers, tons of different textures, and even a mirror. We love it! It is very cool. I "flew" the owl over to Kingston saying "Hoot Hoot". I told him that this is the sound an owl makes. I then let him play and explore his owl. I explained to him that the big owl was the "mommy owl" and the small owl was the "baby" just like in the book we read. He was very interested in the baby especially when he realized that it squeaked!

We talked about where owls live. I used a lot of owl related words like: hoot, forest, night, flap, fly, and wings.

Then he tried to show me his owl flying demonstration ...

I was very impressed with his accuracy. He must have been paying a lot of attention to my owl factoids! Then I talked about the parts of an owl and showed him how to flap the owl's wings. He was really fascinated with them and thought they looked tasty!

When K tired of his owl, we read the book Peek-A-Who? by Nina Laden. This book is so fun!! I love the different plays on the word "peekaboo". Kingston's favorite part is the last page with the mirror that says "Peek-a-YOU!" He likes to grab the book and really get a good look at himself! (Our copy is totally beat up!)

Finally, we took out a bunch of Kingston's animal books and found the owls in each one. I pointed at the pictures and told him "Owl". Then I let him touch the page. We even got to see a mama owl and her owlet!

Kingston had a great time learning about owls today. The outfit, the craft, the books, the pictures, and the toy all helped to reinforce the concept with him. Seeing all of the different owls and hearing the word over and over was a great introduction to this bird of prey! I can't wait to do more baby-school learning days like this with him.