Week 11 at Home Learning Grade 4 ELA Day 5 • Imagine Language

Week 11 At Home Learning

Grade 4 ELA

Day 5

• Imagine Language & Literacy or Lexia – 20-30 minutes three times a week. o Log in through Clever

• Reading- Read for 20 minutes each day (Fiction Text)

Title______

Author______

Throughout the week while you are reading your book think of the following:

Before Reading – Make a prediction, what do you think will happen in the book? What will

the problem be and how will the characters solve it?

During Reading – Were your predictions correct? Can you make any personal connections

to the story?

After Reading – If you could be like a character in the story who would it be and why?

Reading Comprehension and Writing

• Read the articles Snowy Owl and Great Horned Owl. • Use the attached Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two owls.

Speaking and Listening Activity

• Organize and gather the information and activities from this week. • Now it’s time to show what you have learned! • Present your information to your family members; this could be in person or via technology! • Ask your audience to tell you three facts they learned while listening.

Name: Date: Venn Diagram

Scientists don’t know why these owls sport tufts of feathers on top of their heads, but they do have a few theories. The tufts might help members of their own species to recognize each other among the forest around them, or they may use the tufts to blend into their surroundings, making them look more like broken tree branches than a tasty meal.

The great horned owl is one of the most common owls in North America, found in a range of habitats that includes forests, swamps, deserts, tundra edges, tropical rain forests, cities, suburbs, and parks. If you live in North America, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the deep, soft, stuttering hoots of this owl: hoo-h’HOO-hoo-hoo. This owl uses this hoot to advertise its territory. It can also make a variety of other sounds, including whistles, barks, shrieks, hisses, coos, and wavering cries.

You are most likely to hear an owl hoot at night because they are nocturnal birds. They have big eyes and wide pupils that allow them to spot their prey. Unlike people’s eyes, their eyes don’t move in their sockets, but the owls can swivel their heads to look in any direction. Their short but wide wings allow them to fly through the forest, and their soft feathers help them approach prey very quietly.

Great horned owls eat a wide variety of prey—from small rodents to skunks and geese. Like other owls, these birds sometimes swallow their prey whole and later regurgitate pellets composed of bone, fur, and other unwanted parts of their meal.

These fierce predators are also great parents. Mated pairs will find a nest—usually a disused nest from another large bird species—and will defend it from intruders at all costs. Baby great horned owls are ready to fly at between 10 and 12 weeks old.

These large owls mainly live in the Arctic in open, treeless areas called tundra. Snowy owls perch on the ground or on short posts. From there they patiently watch for prey. Their favorite target is lemmings—small mouselike rodents—but they also hunt for other small rodents, rabbits, birds, and fish.

Snowy owls have excellent eyesight, but they obviously can't see their prey when it's underneath snow or a thick layer of plants. To capture those meals, the owl relies on its other keen sense: hearing.

In flight, snowy owls generally cruise low to the ground. Once they spot their prey, they approach it from the air, and snatch it up using the large, sharp talons, or claws, on their feet.

Check out where snowy owls live. National Geographic Maps Most owls sleep during the day and hunt at night, but the snowy owl is active during the day, especially in the summertime. They tend to be most active at dawn and dusk.

Snowy owl pairs usually mate for life. Female snowy owls lay from 3 to 11 eggs at a time, in a nest built on the ground. When there is plenty of food available, snowy owls tend to lay more eggs than when food is scarce.

Lemmings make up the main part of the snowy owls' diet, and lemming population numbers rise and fall naturally. Sometimes, if there is not enough prey around to feed baby owls, the adult pair won't lay any eggs at all until the supply of food improves.

The female snowy owl sits on her eggs until they hatch. The male feeds her while she keeps their eggs warm and safe. After about one month, the eggs hatch.

Babies are covered in soft white down when they hatch. As new feathers replace the down, the birds become light brown.

The young leave the nest less than a month after they hatch. By the time they're about a month and a half old, the young owls can fly well, but their parents take care of them for another ten weeks or more.