MSLF Children Support the Owls

One year ago, one of the Montessori School of Lake Forest’s Primary classes, lead by Montessori trained teacher Monica Pearson (Lake Bluff), crafted a Great Horned Owl’s nest out of natural materials. Ms. Pearson’s 3, 4, and 5 year-old-students created the nest as their class contribution to MSLF’s Big Possibilities Benefit 2009. MSLF parent Jill London (Lake Forest), who works for Lake Forest Open Lands Association, visited the class to teach them about Great Horned Owls, which are native to this area of Illinois, and help them to build the nest. The students learned that since Great Horned Owls are “recyclers” they will move in to empty nests. The class constructed the nest by weaving grapevines together and sewing a lining made of natural fiber into the nest, as well as placing leaves in it to make a soft bed for baby owls. Once the nest was completed, the entire class and all their families watched an arborist from Care of Trees (Lake Forest) place the nest in a tree at the Lockhart Family Nature Center on Open Lands property in Lake Forest. One year later, this great experience of learning about owls and nature and conservation expanded to fulfill the children’s dreams: currently, a mother Great Horned Owl is nesting in the children’s nest, caring for two owlets.