Learning about owls is great fun, especially when it comes to learning about food. They will swallow their food whole, bones, fur and all and then later puke up the undigested goodies in small little “owl pellets.”
Materials:
- Owl Pellet Kit
- Owl Pellet Lab
Black Tagboard/Foam Sheet or Cardboard
Suggest Resources for a Unit Study:
Owl pellet dissection is an exciting part of connecting your students to nature.At about $3 per student for all the material and resources, owl pellets make a great selection for bringing cost-effective nature learning into the classroom. Students become consumed by what they discover and the fun begins. Click here to learn more
Art Project Tutorial:
Owl Pellet Lab Book
Print up this free owl pellet lab book before dissection.
Step 1
Assemble your minibook, you'll need one for each child. Be sure to take a peek inside the booklet as children are asked to make a prediction beforehand.
Step 2
In your kit you should find some owl pellet and more details about the type of owl it came from. You may even have a chart with illustrations
Step 3
Remove your owl pellet from your kit and observe the outside. Draw a picture of it on the corresponding page in your book.
Step 4
Begin to take detailed measurements, following the prompts in your book. Measure how long and how wide, what it feels like, and your thoughts about it.
Step 5
Start separating your bones from the feathers and fur. Keep track of any you find interesting or different.
Step 6
Once you have all your bones, clean your area of any debri, and try to identify the
Step 7
See if you can start to piece together the bones to form an animal. Look at the shapes of the skull and the different bones to take a guess as to what it might be.
Step 8
When you've put together the bones tagboard or foam sheet. different parts with white
This is a great project for kids to explore watercolors, focusing on hue as well as saturation. Children can discus the emotive qualities of the book “
