January 2024

Cool Owl in a Hot City

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Academic Standards

 

Reading Objective:

Students will identify adaptations that help snowy owls survive in the Arctic and analyze which of these would help them survive in a hot, sunny city, and which would not.

Reading Level:

490L; GRL: L

 

Next Generation Science Standards:

2-LS4-1: Observations of the Diversity of Plants and Animals in Their Habitats

 

Vocabulary:

Arctic, sunset, adaptations, talons

Use these questions to check students’ understanding and stimulate discussion:

 

1. Where do snowy owls normally live?
(in the Arctic)

2. How did the snowy owl cool off in the city?
(She lifted her feathers.)

3. What adaptations help snowy owls survive in the Arctic?

4. Which of those adaptations would NOT help in a hot city?

Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

 

  • How did Snowy end up in L.A.? Bird experts say she might have gotten caught in a storm, hitched a ride on a ship, or just flown the wrong way because she was young and not experienced.
  • Male snowy owls are all white. The females have brown-tipped feathers. This helps them blend in against snow and mud when they sit on nests on the ground.

Materials: A coat or jacket for each child, pencils, copies of the skill sheet.

Overview:  Kids pretend their jackets are a snowy owl’s coat of feathers as they explore insulation and how to trap and release heat.

Directions:

  1. Kids pretend their jackets are a snowy owl’s coat of feathers as they explore insulation and how to trap and release heat.
  2. Ask kids to put on their jackets, pretending they are coats of warm feathers.
  3. Kids may begin to feel warm as they wear their jackets (feathers) inside. Did the jacket or feathers make heat? No, their bodies did! The jackets (feathers) just hold the heat from our bodies close. This is called insulation.
  4. Blow some air, telling kids it’s a cold Arctic wind. To stay warm, would they hold their feathery wings in tightly or flap them around?
  5. Blow some air, telling kids it’s a cold Arctic wind. To stay warm, would they hold their feathery wings in tightly or flap them around?
  6. Now your owls have landed in a
    hot city! How to cool off? (Flap jackets to release heat.) Record observations on the skill sheets.