Friday, October 14, 2011

Owl pellets and skeleton art!

Hi Friends, Kerri here...
Isn't Lindsay's baby the CUTIEST CUTIE EVER?? And he is HUGE! Already 13 pounds and 24 inches. I told her he is going to be a linebacker for sure! 


Well, I survived another week of strange, weird weather! Last week, it chucked down buckets of rain for 2 days straight, which, for us here in Cali, is MAJOR NEWS. You woulda thought the kids had never seen it before, seriously, they were whacky!  This week, it was close to 100 degrees for 2 days straight, and then today, during afternoon recess duty, the fog LITERALLY rolled in from the ocean, it got chilly and windy, and it started misting on us. CRAZY, WACKY, WEATHER!


In other news, we dissected our owl pellets today, and it was the BOMB DIGGIDY!! I ordered the owl pellets from Discount Owl Pellets for only $11 (and this was more than enough for the class). After I stopped gagging in my mouth while passing them out to my kiddos (not even joking), and got past the initial ugliness of the pellet itself, the whole process was totally RAD! Thanks to my 7th grade science teacher husband, who provided tweezers, sorting worksheets, and some scientifical knowledge...and about 8 fantastic parent helpers, we has THE. MOST. FUN. EVER. finding all of the little bits of bone in our pellets. Check out our pictures!
Super Scientific Bone Sorting Worksheet. I told my kids that these were from my husband, the "scientist" and they got all stoked!

Gotta love the teamwork with these 2 little pumpkins! 

Over-exposured photo of one of the skulls on the paper plate. Doesn't it look cool??


After that, we made our skeleton art to go with our skeleton facts writing that we did yesterday. I read them an old school book about the human skeleton (still cute, but from the 80's I think?) and then we made an anchor chart to remember all of the facts we learned. (BOO...I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was NOTHING fancy schmancy) 
Yes...I did attempt to both of these activities in one day, *due to the extreme heat yesterday skeleton art was out of the question*, and YES, I did question my own sanity by the end of the day. My mom, who helps every Friday, also wondered about my questionable lesson planning. Oh well, we survived, and the kids rocked the FACES off their skeletons! Yes...they are completely anatomically incorrect, I know, but still darn cute!  These guys have been around forever...I think we have been making them for about 8 or 9 years now? Anyway, EVERY YEAR I hate hate hate cutting those Q-tips in half...what a pain!
This one is waving!

This one has ballerina toes and a HUGE smile! Love it!
If you would like a copy of the skeleton writing paper, click on the skeleton below...


What do you all do for skeletons and bones?? I would LOVE to know!! Leave me a comment and give me the deets!
XOXO Kerri

4 comments:

Rebecca said...

We are going to dissect owl pellets soon too. Ours haven't arrived yet but we've been on a two week Fall Break. The kiddos can't wait though. Thanks for the "gag warning". lol I'll post our experience when we do ours.

absees123s said...

I love the owl pellets! I think we're going to do it during the spring..strange, I know..when we talk about birds/chicks/etc. It is soooo cool! Can't wait! We make a large (over 7ft.) tall skeleton with paper towel and toilet paper rolls..label them in interactive writing and then write our facts. My kids are so excited! Thank you for sharing your fun times!

Kristen said...

I laughed when reading about the weather! At least you had the fog on Friday. On Wednesday and Thursday we were over 100 and Friday was 95! It was in the 90's yesterday and today. So much for a nice, cool fall! It's the only season I don't like in So Cal. There is no fall!

Lori Woodman said...

I do place value with the skeletons. The entire qtip is a 10 and I cut the very tips (also HATE cutting them) and they are the 1. then the kids have to count and make a number sentence like 80 + 19 = 99. I teach 1st so the numbers are high...but they get them right everytime because is so visual!! Going to use your writing paper tomorrow! love your ideas
Lori :-)

Post a Comment