Montessori-Inspired Owl Unit with Free Printables and Activities

Owls are an especially fun theme for the beginning of the school year and for fall in general. I placed new owl activities on my shelves yesterday and let my 3¾-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, start working with them. She’s totally in love with the theme! Today, I’m sharing free owl printables and activities in a number of curriculum areas along with my new Montessori-inspired owl pack (subscriber freebie)! There’s even an added page with “ow” phonogram work!

In addition to our new Montessori-inspired owl pack, I have a special instant download from The Montessori Company with a hand-painted great horned owl culture card!

Free Printables Used in the Pictured Owl Activities for Preschoolers-First Graders

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).

Montessori Shelves with Owl-Themed Activities

My shelves with owl-themed activities include a free great horned owl culture card designed by The Montessori Company. You’ll also find Montessori-inspired owl numbers, letters, spinners, and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

I have a number of owl books, both nonfiction and fiction, for our owl unit. We always enjoy the National Geographic Readers, such as this month’s Owls. There’s also a large amount of easily understandable information in Owls by Gail Gibbons. I have some fiction books featuring owls in our book baskets.

Free Printables: Owl Poems and Songs from Owl Babies Lesson Plans and Lapbook at Homeschool Share and Owls Rhyme Song from KidSparkz. I placed these on a wooden tabletop easel on the shelf.

You could mix your owl-themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special owl area something like the one pictured. My shelves this month have a mixture of skill levels. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels.

If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.

Great Horned Owl Culture Card (on Shelf with Owl Books)

I’m happy to share with you this awesome hand-painted great horned owl culture card from The Montessori Company. You can use it on your shelves to introduce an owl unit. I’m hosting the free printable as an instant download at Living Montessori Now. You can always access the free great horned owl culture card here.

The description says: “The Great Horned Owl is a bird of prey known as a raptor. It flies silently and only hunts at night.”

Owl Color Matching and Spanish Color Names

Free Printable: Owl Color Matching by Exceptional Kinders at Teachers Pay Teachers
Free Printable: Color Matching Cards from Montessori Print Shop
Free Printable: Spanish Color Matching Cards from Homeschool Creations.

This activity can be used for a variety  of levels. Young children can work on learning both the English and Spanish color names, while older children can work on learning the Spanish color names if they don’t already know them.

Owl Opposites Game

Free Printable: Owl Opposites from 1+1+1=1

This is a super-simple activity to prepare. The cartoon characters are obviously not realistic, Montessori-style images. They’re just silly, though, and my granddaughter loved them.

I made a game where we went through each card, saying, for example, “Light and heavy are opposites.” Then I had Zoey do a scavenger hunt (such as bringing me something light and something heavy) or performing the actions on a card (such as moving slow and then moving fast). Zoey laughed a lot during the game and wanted to repeat it as soon as we were finished.

Letter G Object Basket

Free Printables: Great horned owl card in manuscript, D’Nealian, or Cursive for Letter G Object Basket (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

It might seem odd to emphasize /g/ when owls are the theme. I didn’t want to use the short or long /o/ sound for owl, so I instead used /g/ for great horned owl and then had a separate activity for the “ow” phonogram. In my /g/ basket, I had a sandpaper letter g, goose (Loosy the Canadian goose Beanie Baby), glass, golf club, golden bead, gorilla, and guitar.

Owl and “ow” Phonogram Sand Tray

Free Printables: “ow” owl font cards (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

For the tray, I used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though. I often color salt with food coloring, but this time I just used some sand and a twig from a tree for the writing instrument. For interest, I added the snowy owl from the Safari Ltd. Exotic Birds TOOB.

I have a post and video on how to introduce words starting with phonograms, even with very young children.

Counting and Stringing Owls Game

Free Printables: Owl Numbers and Owl Spinner (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

For this activity, I used Multicraft tray and a Bambu condiment cup to hold 10 Owl Antique Silver Tibetan Style Charms Pendants (surprisingly inexpensive), and a pipe cleaner for the owls to make the necklace.

Counting and Stringing Owls to Make a Pipe Cleaner Necklace

Zoey just laid out the number cards in order and then spun the spinner. First she got 5, then 9, and then 10. She didn’t want to stop until all the owls were on her necklace. She loved the necklace and wore it until it was time to go home. Then she wanted to take it home. She was finally persuaded to keep it at Grandma’s house to do again!

Owl Number Mazes

Free Printable: Owl Themed Number Mazes by Grace n Giggles at Teachers Pay Teachers

This was another simple activity to prepare. I used a Multicraft tray and a Bambu condiment cup to hold the number of small glass gems needed to complete the maze. I like that the maze doesn’t just have a simple maze. It requires some problem solving. There are also a number of different mazes: 1-10, 1-20, 1-30, counting to 50 by 2s, and counting  to 100 by 5s.

I had Zoey place a gem on each number she used in the maze.

Owl Name Recognition and Building, Reading Activity, or Spelling Activity

Proud of Her Owl-Themed First and Last Name Work

Free Printable: Owl Customizable Name Plates by Pigtails and Pollywogs at Teachers Pay Teachers
Free Printable: Owl Letter Match by Jennifer Hier at Teachers Pay Teachers for Name Writing

I love the owl customizable name plates because they’re so versatile. You could use it for introducing a child’s first name. Zoey is comfortable with her first name, so I included first and last name. For older children, you could individualize reading or spelling words for them to focus on.

Free Owl Printables for Preschoolers-First Graders

Free Owl Printables and Montessori-Inspired Owl Activities

Montessori-Inspired Owl Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Greater Than/Less Than Work, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, “ow” Phonogram Fonts Page, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re al