owl pellets

I think most educators find themselves involved in this activity at least once in the schooling career. Dissecting owl pellets. Owl pellets, you say??? You know, that stuff that owls puke out after they eat another animal and then someone goes and gathers and then sells online to science freaks like me. Yep. Owl pellets.

It goes with our bird study (HERE) and it actually was really interesting. I found a good source online for extra large owl pellets. HERE. They contain a lot of little bones and skulls and fur. The girls started off with their gloves on but pretty soon ditched them and got serious with finding things. (Don't worry, the pellets are sanitized).
We had our science lab in our basement (great place for icky things...much better than the dining room table). Some new friends came over who were up for digging through owl puke. It really was a fun time.
And the kids were able to identify the different bones and group them together. Tristen hit the jackpot - I think she found 6 or 7 skulls.

Now if I could just figure out how to store their treasures. =)