I made owl sliders for number recognition and review as well as fine motor skills. I printed the patterns on cardstock paper and laminated them.

Using and x-acto knife I sliced along the two lines on the owl. Taking one of the letter strips I pushed the left end up through the right slice of the helicopter and pulled it down through the left slice.

In this activity children pull the numbers strips through the owl and read the number that is displayed in the center of the owl. Once all numbers have been identified on the strip a new strip is put in. 

As of 2022 this activity can be found in the member's section which is also where I have added owl letter sliders.

I made an eight piece owl strip puzzle that I wanted to share with you this week. I print the pattern on cardstock paper ... cut along the lines and then laminated the pieces.

I attached magnets to the back of the puzzle strips (one on each end)and the children put the puzzles together on a metal cookie sheets. I have also included blank and shadow puzzle guides. Click on the link below to download:

owl puzzles

I made a set of color clip cards to help with color identification and fine motor development.  I printed them on cardstock paper ... cut them out and laminated them.

I set them out in a basket along with twelve clothespins.  You do not have to use a basket or a container but I like to keep everything together.

In this activity children pick a color card and then clip the matching color with a clothespin.  Play continues until all cards have been clipped.  You can grab the patterns here.

Not everyone celebrates thanksgiving so I always make sure to have an alternative theme which is owls instead of turkeys. I made a number match which is great for number recognition and review.  I printed the owl mat on cardstock paper and laminated it.  I made two copies of the number squares and  cut them out and laminated them.

I separated the numbers into two piles and set them out along with the owl mat. I also mixed up the numbers in each pile so that they were not in order.

I attached a self-adhesive magnet to the back of each number square to make the squares easier to pick up and sort through.  The magnets add a little weight to the squares and make them harder to slide around once they are on the mat. 

In this activity the children put a number card on the blank square on the left and then find the matching number card and put it on the blank square on the right.  Play continues until all number squares have been matched.

As of 2022 this activity can be found in the member's section which is also where I have added an owl alphabet match.

If you have followed my blog for a while you know that I love creating activities for fine motor development.  I made an owl cover-up for the first week of November and it is actually part of my new upcoming fine motor cover-up download which will be released very soon!! 

Just print out the owl mat on cardstock paper and laminate.  There is a black and white version ... a part color version ... and a full color version to choose from.  There are also two different cover-up levels.

In this activity children cover up the blank circles.  We used buttons but you can use items such as:

playdough
pom poms
magnets
stickers
flat glass beads
do-a-dot markers
bingo daubers

You can also have the children roll a dice and cover up the same number of circles on the mat for a roll ... count ... and cover activity.

Always remember to use supervision when using small items with children under the age of three and those still in the stages of putting items in their mouth.

You can grab the owl cover-up here and if you get a chance let me know what items you would use with this activity by leaving a comment.
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We made paper plate owls this week to go along with our owl theme. We took two days to complete the project but it can be done in one day if you paint the paper plates earlier in the day giving them enough time to dry so that you can work on them later in the afternoon.

To make this project you will need to have paper plates ... construction paper ... brown paint ... paint brushes ... scissors ... glue ... and sequins (optional).  We used regular sized paper plates but you can also use the smaller paper plates.  Heavy duty paper plates are not recommended for this project.

We started by painting the paper plates brown (two plates per child) and let them dry.  We cut one of the paper plates in half and glued them on each side of the whole paper plate to make the owl wings.

To make the eyes we cut circles out of yellow construction paper and glue them on.  We then cut smaller circles out of black construction paper and glued them on top of the yellow circles.  We put eight glue dots around each eye and pressed on sequins.

We made the owl's beak by folding a piece of orange construction paper and cutting a triangle shape out along the edge so that the beak would look like it was open.

For the owl's feet we made heart shapes with a squared bottom and glued them on behind the paper plate.  We then put small glue dots on body and wings and pressed sequins on.  This was really a great project for developing scissor and fine motor skills.

You can see a video of this project below: