Friday Night at the Roses - Dissecting Owl Pellets

Well, it started as a simple study of birds for science as part of our My Father's World curriculum Exploration to the 1850s .





We looked at feathers under a microscope.
Then we drew diagrams of a birds digestive system.

This one is Joish's

We learned that the bird's crop allows it to eat alot of food really fast and then the crop sends the food to the stomach at a steady rate. The stomach breaks down some of the food, but the gizzard does the grinding. Some birds eat things that cannot be fully broken down like bones, fur, and even some seeds and beetle casings. These form a pellet, which the bird expels through its mouth.

Okay, are you grossed out? Well, anyway, I decided to order 3 such pellets. These came in the mail, and as a reward for finishing all school work for the week, the kids and I got to dissect them. Theron and Josiah worked as a team.

But before we did that, each of us tried an online dissection to help us get a feel for what we would be doing.





It's a cool site. You can find it at www.kidwings.com . It can be used as a prerequisite to the actual dissection or as a cheaper, less messy and easier alternative. We are going with the former this time.

We were ready to be "real" scientists! We carefully opened the foil-wrapped pellets, measured them, and inspected them. We determined that they are most likely from a barn owl by referencing our DK book on birds.



Next, we used toothpicks and tweezers to break apart the pellet and see what's inside.



There was alot of fur, tiny bones, and each pellet had at least one skull and a set of jaw bones.

This was my first exciting discovery - a jaw bone!

It was very tedious work and took alot of patience, being careful not to break the small bones. The interesting things we noted were that my pellet had alot of dried grasses in it. Hannah's had black fur as opposed to the gray fur of the others.
It took a good hour or two to complete. We were so tired. We tried to identify all of the different bones. They were all from some type of rodent.

I laid my bones out on the diagram provided. Notice the huge skull and jaw bones with one really overgrown tooth.
In front of the huge skull is a tiny skull and jaw bones along with some leg bones.
The pelvic bone probably goes with the smaller skull also. It seems a bit small for this big fella.
 

These are Hannah and Josiah and Theron's trays. There are some nice bones in there, too. Now, to just get them sorted. Wanna give it a try?

GHEA 2012

Another great event! Not as crowded this year, but we saw alot of our friends, and heard some good speakers.
Friday, I spent most of my day in the Used Book Sale, as usual.
These are my Used Book Sale finds.

Financial Peace Jr., Spelling Power books, Design a Plate kit, Writing Strands 4 + 5, Five Finger Paragraph,
Jump Start Typing CD, State Sticker book, Penmanship books, bird stickers, flag stickers,
and planet stickers (those we can use now in our Astronomy Notebooks).

It's alot of work being a volunteer at the sale, but I actually enjoy it. I get to shop an hour earlier than non-volunteers and I get to choose one free workshop CD.
I also sale some of the things we aren't using anymore and that usually pays for the things I buy each year in the sale, plus some.

We use to just give the kids a certain amount of money to spend at the conference. This year we did things different. The kids have been earning money doing things around the house, so they could spend their own money. Josiah bought some things in the Used Book Sale, too. He was so excited.

Animal books, stickers, and a windbag

In the Vendor Hall, he bought an eagle pen made of wood.

After finding what I could in the Used Book Sale, I went to the Vendor Hall and purchased our MFW curriculum for next year - Exploration to the 1850s. As soon as I get home, I like to open up the box and see everything. Well, not just that. I like to touch it and smell it, and organize it. Is that weird?

Teacher's Manual and history books

Science books

Read Alouds and Bible Study

Music

After a full day Friday of shopping, working, listening to speakers, and the kids going to a children's program (oh, and eating and talking to friends), we come home, sleep, then go back again on Saturday. Josiah did the children's program again, while Hannah attended some workshops with us (her own choice). Then more shopping, eating, talking to friends. Can't wait for next year!