The Owl Diaries Books are so great for children ages 5-8, or anyone that enjoys early chapter books. They appeal to our imaginations as we read Eva's diary entries and enjoy her doodles.  

Eva's Treetop Festival is a great early chapter book with a lot of vibrant illustrations.  Your learners will love seeing the ways that Eva organizes her thoughts and reactions in her diary.

The kids will create their own journal entries starting out with lists and prompts inspired by the book, and developing into original entry ideas.  Keeping a diary helps us lean into our feelings and fosters self awareness.  Diaries can be so many things.  Don't let your kiddos be pigeon holed (or owl holed) into thinking all writing needs to conform to a single structure.  We will be exploring bullet lists, doodles, collages, and comic panels. 

Learners will have the option to share their journal entries and artwork with their classmates in the Outschool classroom and through a Flipgrid page.

Each week I will post a video lesson in which I will discuss characters, vocabulary, and deep dive into story points.  Each video will conclude with me asking a thoughtful question and encouraging learners to answer the weekly question as a comment in the Outschool classroom.  

 My hope is that we will leave the kiddos with a thirst to continue the series, or any series because every book a child picks up is a win.

In our last video lesson we will have a culminating project and create our own fabulous owl characters on hanging paper lanterns, inflated balloons.

Our weeks will look like this:

Week 1:  
Our first video lesson will include a tutorial for making an owl theme bookmark.  We will also discuss some things we notice about the cover of the book and the pictures we see as we flip through the pages.  We will use our observations make predictions about the story. and I will invite all learners to comment in the classroom about any predictions they have about our story
-Homework will be to read the first 27 pages (mainly illustrations) of the book, and to begin working in your journal.
-Journal prompts will be posted in the classroom 3 times a week, and students will have the option to share their entries on a flipgrid page, or right in the Outschool classroom.

Week 2:
Our video lesson will focus on making observations about the main characters.  I will supply a printable graphic organizer that can be filled out while you watch the video lesson. 
-Homework will be to read pages 28-50 and to continue to write in your journal.
-Journal prompts will be posted in the classroom 3 times a week, and students will have the option to share their entries on a flipgrid page, or right in the Outschool classroom.

Week 3:
Our video lesson will include additions to the character graphic organizer we started in week two.  We will also discuss the use of speech bubbles and thought bubbles in Eva's diary.
-Homework will be to finish the book and to continue to write in your journal.
-Journal prompts will be posted in the classroom 3 times a week, and students will have the option to share their entries on a flipgrid page, or right in the Outschool classroom.

Week 4:  Our video lesson will cover the end of the story, and an overview of how to write a book review.  We will then move on to a tutorial for our final project, a paper lantern owl.  Printable templates will be provided.  Learners will be encouraged to share photos of our artwork on our flipgrid page or in the Outschool classroom.  
-A Kahoot link will be provided in the classroom, as well as a printable crossword puzzle.  These activities are optional, but fun.