Fun Friday: Owl Pellets

My class needed some motivation last year to make sure they had all their work done and behaved well during  the week.  After a schedule change in March, we had a 30 minute block at the end of the day on Friday that was too short for a lesson, but too long to not do something productive.  We called it “Finish Up Friday.” Students with everything finished were rewarded with a fun project related to our 5^th grade standards.  Click on the tag “Fun Fridays” to see other ideas you might want to try.

Owl Pellets

The class had a great time opening up the owl pellets and trying to figure out which animal the bones belonged.  The kit I purchased at Amazon.com (click here to see it) came with the bone chart you see in this picture.

In case you aren't familiar with owl pellets, it's what the owl regurgitates after it digests all the usable parts of an animal.  An owl cannot digest bones or fur, so those can easily be found in the pellets.  Most purchased pellets have been treated to cut down on bacteria, but I did have my students use plastic gloves just as a precaution.  Plus, some of my students were a little grossed out at the idea of touching owl vomit with their bare hands.  

We were able to use these owl pellets to discuss two of our science objectives:  digestive system and animal adaptations.  The whole class had read a text about owl pellets prior to this activity, but only those students who had finished all their work were going to get to actually try it themselves.  I didn't have a single missing assignment this week!  Everyone wanted to be part of this!