Before we started our study of the animal kingdom, I asked Tessa for a list of specific animals that she wanted to learn more about. One was owls. I was super excited to hear this because I have long wanted to dissect owl pellets. Owl pellets are essentially dried owl vomit. Owls often swallow their prey whole. Since they don't have teeth to grind up bones, fur, etc. and their digestive systems can't safely pass these parts, they must "gag" them up. Dissecting owl pellets is a fun, inexpensive and accessible way to study what owls eat. Doing so also reiterates the importance of predator-prey relationships and food webs.
I had the idea of tracking down appropriately leveled nonfiction readers for several of the animals on Tessa's previously mentioned list and designing lapbooks around them. I wanted Tessa to have the experience of completing research and the lapbooks themselves with minimal parental guidance. Unfortunately, I grossly misjudged the amount of time and effort it would take me to design said lapbooks. The owl lapbook shown below is the only one I was able to complete in time. I hope to get a couple more done in time for her to complete this summer.
Monday
Tuesday
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| Creating a woodland habitat for an owl was one of Tessa's favorite components. She opted to color it after assembly. |
Wednesday
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| We ran short on time earlier in the week, so we decided to wait until all components were completed before gluing everything down. |
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| Tessa's nearly completed Blue House School Owls: A Little Learners Lapbook. (She wanted to color the cover art after lunch, so we waited until then to glue it on.) This was her first lapbook. It's not perfect, but I think she did a pretty nice job. She's very proud of it. I especially love her drawing of a common screech owl. |
Friday
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| Our Northwest Medium barn owl pellet right out of its foil packet. |
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| Tessa used wooden probes and tweezers (and her fingers!) to dissect her owl pellet. It was like unwrapping a little furry present with lots of teeny treasures inside. I think she had more fun with this lab than any other this year. |
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| A sampling of the bones we found. We ended up with three complete skulls, numerous bones of all sorts and a few pieces of what we think are insect exoskeletons. After comparing the bones to bone charts provided on Owl Brand Discovery Kit's Web site, we concluded that they are either mouse or rat bones...I'm guessing mouse. |
Other Resources of Interest
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