Read the touching and hilarious novel Hoot by Carl Hiaasen.
Roy Eberhardt teams with Beatrice and her brother, Mullet Fingers. They wish to stop Mother Paula’s All-American Pancake House Corporation from building a pancake house on a vacant lot. The lot has become home to a group of endangered burrowing owls. The three scheme to prevent the corporation from bulldozing the owls’ home.
Hoot Activities
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen Unit Samples
You will find the following in this novel study sample:
- Comprehension Questions for Chapters 1-2
- Constructed Response Question – Setting
- Constructed Response Question – Characters
Teaching Idea #1 – Owl Figurative Language
Students practice with figurative phrases about owls including:
- as wise as an owl
- I wasn’t brought up in the woods to be scared by owls.
- a night owl
- bring owls to Athens
This link goes to the handout for all owl activities including the figurative language, context clues, and mixed practice exercises.
Teaching Idea #2 – Teaching Context Clues with Burrowing Owl Facts
This practice includes a printable or Google Slide digital version with 14 facts about burrowing owls. Students must fill in the missing words in the sentences using words from a provided word box.
Here are a few sample facts.
1. Burrowing Owls live in the lower _________ United States and Florida.
2.The small, sandy-colored owls have bright _________ eyes.
3. They live in burrows that have been abandoned by prairie dogs, _________, or desert tortoises.
4. They prefer open _________, where they hunt mainly insects and rodents.
Teaching Idea #3 – Mixed Practice with Owl Facts
This practice includes an article about owls. Students read the article and answer 10 questions. The questions center on word usage and meaning.
Here is a sample.
Reread the first paragraph. What does timorous most like mean?
Owls begin to be especially lively toward night, only they make no noise as they fly about. Very soft, fluffy plumage muffles their flight so that they can drop upon a meadow mouse creeping through the grass in the still night before this small, timorous creature suspects there is a foe abroad.
a) risky
b) lively
c) brave
d) fearful
Another Sample
Complete this sentence with the correct words.
Bolting entire all the food they ______, head first, they ______ only the nutritious portions of it.
a) catch, digests
b) catches, digest
c) catches, digests
d) catch, digest
Teaching Idea #4 – Compare the Movie to the Book
In 2006, Walden Media created a movie based on the book Hoot. The film is short, just 90 minutes. This makes it great for showing in class.
This free printable contains organizers to help students compare any book to its movie. Students complete T-charts and Venn diagrams to see similarities and differences between the two.
Teaching Idea #5 – Owl Crafts
It is difficult to read about owls without creating a craft project or two.
I love this simple owl bag. This idea came from Sweet and Living Simple. You will find step-by-step instructions on her site.
Below is a YouTube video for creating a book corner that looks like an owl. Students will love using these to mark their pages while reading Hoot.
Teaching Idea #6 – On the Web
- Scholastic
- readwritethink
See the product that inspired this post.
Hoot Novel Study includes vocabulary practice, comprehension questions, constructed response writing, and skill practice.
