Dissecting Owl Pellets

Sometimes Science Projects are more fun with friends.  One of our upcoming hands on projects for Science was to dissect an owl pellet.  Our Art Class was cancelled for today so we decided to get together with another homeschooling family and dissect our owl pellets.

We had 3 pellets and split up into three teams.  I was thinking of putting older children with younger children but that is not the way it worked out, which was ok because the children did just fine.  First we did a small review on owls, their habits, and what they eat.  Then we talked abut exactly what an owl pellet is.  Then we got to work.  We used tweezers and toothpicks to dissect the pellets.  The children found many, many bones in their pellets.  I think they were very interested and learned from this activity. The younger children were really amazed that these were actual bones from a real animal that an owl ate.  Anthony (6) and our friend Logan (7) were the most interested.  They worked for a long time getting out every last bone and then took their bones and glued them onto a piece of construction paper.  Chelsea really was not that interested and thought the pellet smelled bad, but it still was a good learning experience for her.