*Warning: if you are easily grossed out, you might not want to read this. But, now that your curiosity is peeked, why don't you just go for it? It's not that bad, really. I promise!
A couple months back, my friend asked me if I wanted to have an owl pellet dissection party for our kids. I first had to ask what in the world an owl pellet was and when she informed me that it was owl puke I thought, "Uh, why not??" All in the name of science, right?!
I had no idea that owls generally swallow their prey whole and then regurgitate the fur and bones into these lovely little balls. Oh joy.
So let me tell you about our party. It started off just about right for this city girl. I can definitely handle having the kids color and make bug jars, which they really enjoyed.
But from there, well, it was time to pull on your rubber gloves folks and get busy dissecting! In the picture below, there are three owl pellets on the tray. The rest were bones that they found for the kids to look at. The older kids did a great job dissecting each owl pellet and then trying to figure out what the bones were or what animal they came from.
Carter and his friend working on an owl pellet
When I first started working on a pellet with my daughter I was slightly grossed out, but got over it soon enough and we were able to discover a lovely little skull in the midst of the fur. The kids recorded their data on these cute owl pellet lab sheets.
I cannot take any credit whatsoever for this party. My friend did all of the work, but we were very appreciative! She showed the kids a picture of the actual owl that the pellets came from and they watched a video about an owl expelling a pellet. (I know, you're so sorry you missed that.)
We ate lunch before all the science activities came into play and this is what we had. Pretty cute, huh?? Pinterest has so many awesome ideas out there and once again came through for us. (My friend and I have this slight obsession with making even the food a part of the theme.)
And my awesome friend pulled together these cute flowers in dirt cakes for dessert. We also made Owl S'mores, but I didn't get a picture of those but you can see what they are like as well get some other owl themed ideas from the party I did for one of our children's birthday parties.
After all of that we headed out for a nature hike. Each child had a clipboard with a checklist of things to look for in the woods and they each got a bug net. TOO FUN!
Carlee working hard checking off things on her nature scavenger hunt checklist.
Some of the Gang!
Something I had never seen before while on our walk. Beautiful!
So there you have it. We survived our first owl pellet dissection party and we had a great time!
2 comments:
That looks like it was an amazing day. So much fun!
Blessings
Diane
Yes, we had a great day! :)
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