Owl Pellets Where: Home Science Tools Cost: $4.20 each Time: few hours - more if very detailed

We dissected owl pellets as a side project for the homeschool group, really because I've wanted to do them since I found them in the Home Science Tools catalog. R8 and M6 were involved. Each had their own pellet to dissect.

We talked about food chains, and I reminded them of an owl/mouse/grain art project we did a few months ago. We talked about owls specifically and what the pellet was and why the owl produced such a thing.

Then the boys dove in. Most of the pellets (10 for the class) contained a skull or 2 or 3 skulls even, several leg bones, some pelvis bones, ribs and vertebrae. There were many more tiny bones (feet, hands, and fractured pieces) that a detail oriented older student may find too.

The hour at group was just enough to break the pellet apart, find the biggest bones, and determine what sort of animal they came from. At home, we continued to clean the bones, search through the fur and finally glue the bones onto a skeleton worksheet.

M6 was quite studious about his endeavor, a bit more than I expected. R8 was a little let down that he didn't have quite as many bones in his specimen, but was thrilled with his final glued exhibit after borrowing an extra skull from his brother.

We did this as a side project, though we will be studying woodland biomes soon and I'll remind the boys about this project and include it in our work there. I would definitely recommend this CHEAP!!!! project as a fun side science/biology project or as part of a larger study on woodland biomes, birds, backyard nature, food systems, anatomy, etc.