easy owl ornament for kids

Good Night Owl! by Pat Hutchins

The first time I saw this book, I knew I HAD to have it for our home library collection. We were at our local library for story time and I fell in love with the illustrations immediately. I have this thing for bird books and bedtime books...and, okay, I have a thing for a lot of books, but THIS one was particularly alluring to me.

I tried to get the library lady to hand the book over afterwards, but she needed it for the next day's story time. Every week after that, I would look for it on the shelves, but it was never there! Finally, I broke down and ordered it online. I was planning on giving it to Juliet as a Christmas present, but I couldn't wait.

We have been reading it a lot lately and every time we read it, Juliet laughs and laughs. It's the story of a little owl who can't sleep during the day because all the other birds make too much noise. Then at night, when they fall asleep and he is awake, he lets out a big hoot to wake them all up. (This is the HILARIOUS part--if you are a two-year-old.)

The only other book by Pat Hutchins that we have read is Rosie's Walk. We liked that one too, but this one is our favorite.

Here's the activity we came up with (this was completely inspired by Zoe from Playing by the Book's adorable parliament of owls)

Juliet glued a beak, "ears", and some wings cut from felt along with two giant-sized googly eyes to a pine cone...

And voila! We have an owl ornament to hang on our tree.

I think next time I might try smaller-sized eyes...he looks a bit crazed. But that's how it is when an owl doesn't get his sleep!