- nonfiction books about animal families
- owl pictures (in their environment)
- brother
- family
- father
- feel
- mother
- owl
- pet
- sister
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.4: Describe personal experiences; tell real or imagined stories.
Social Emotional/Family 6.1: Describe different types of families, addressing membership and social influences, and the functions of family members.
Social Emotional/Family 6.4: Identify what parents do to provide a safe, healthy environment for their children.
MA Draft STE Standards:
Life Sciences/Ecosystems/LS2.4.B: Using their experiences in the local environment and other evidence, raise and discuss questions about the basic needs of familiar organisms and how they might meet their needs. (Clarification statement: basic needs include water, food, air, shelter, and light for most plants)
Head Start Outcomes:
Logic/Reasoning & Problem Solving: Uses past knowledge to build new knowledge.
Language Development/Expressive Language: Engages in communication and conversation with others.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts 2: Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Science and Technology 10: Observe and identify the characteristics and needs of living things: humans, animals, and plants.
Health Education 20: Describe members of their family and discuss what parents do for their children to keep them safe and healthy.
Talk Together: All Kinds of Families
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Review the discussion you had with children about families. If children bring in drawings or pictures of family members, talk about each picture. Then help them hang the pictures on the “Our Families” wall.
Display nonfiction books about animal families. Think aloud and say, I wonder if animals have families, too. Ask, Do you know any animal families? Remind children that they watched a story about a lion family yesterday. Ask,
- Do you think real animals have families?
- Does anyone have a pet that is a brother or sister? A mother or a father?
Display owl pictures as you tell children that today you are going to read a book about another animal family—an owl family. Explain that in this story, the mother owl has to leave her babies so she can find some food for them. Ask:
- Where do you think owls find their food? What do you think owls eat?
- What other story did we read about a mother who had to leave her children and go away?
- Do you think the owls will feel the same way Leona did when her Mama went away? Why do you think that?