My 10 year-old granddaughter loves nature and my 6 year-old grandson had recently studied owl pellets* in school... and I live to sew. So, I organized some supplies in an old muffin tin and began to add details to fabric owls that I had stitched on my sewing machine. Black button eyes and ivory-colored embroidery thread beaks for the barn owls. Yellow button eyes and black embroidery thread beaks for the great horned owls. Dark brown button eyes and yellow embroidery thread beaks for the barred owls. Oh, yes. I had done my research. Because my grandkids would surely know these things. *What are owl pellets? Owls lack teeth so large chunks of prey are swallowed. The meat is digested and the bones, feathers, and fur are regurgitated in the form of a pellet. By examining the bones, it is possible to determine what rodent the owl ate.
Tree branches were strewn about my floor as one owl after another began to perch upon them, clinging to twigs by their embroidery thread "talons," in preparation for their cross-country trek to their new home. Strung onto a piece of jute to form a garland, I suggested to my grandkids that they might want to cluster some of the owls into groups of two or three, then hang them across a window and add a tree branch for authenticity. (Enlarge for a closer view.)
My owls are an adapted, flattened version of plump ones created on the Moonstitches blog. You can find the plump owl instructions here and a variation of my flattened version here. Are you familiar with the book Flat Stanley? The story is about a boy whose bulletin board flattens him one night while he is sleeping. At first he is sad, but then he finds all sorts of things he is able to do because he is flat. One thing he can do is fit into an envelope and travel through the mail to visit friends in faraway places. When my granddaughter was in kindergarten, each student was instructed to send "Flat Stanley" to someone for a week's adventure then he was to be mailed back to the kindergarten class with a letter (and some optional photos) telling of his adventures. Because they are flat, these owls can be easily sent through the mail on an adventure just like Flat Stanley. If you receive an invitation from your child's or grandchild's class to take part in a Flat Stanley activity as I described, wouldn't it be fun to make some of these flat owls to incorporate into Flat Stanley's adventure at your house? What excitement it would generate with the kindergarten students when the envelope was opened to discover that not only had Flat Stanley returned from his adventure but a "parliament" (group) of owls had accompanied him!