Owl Lesson and Pellet Dissection

Everything you could ever need for a comprehensive owl experience is at your fingertips in this resource! This resource includes all the necessary components of a well-planned and organized set of lessons that take kindergarten, first, or second grade students from reading about owls to thinking and writing about owls, to engaging with owl pellets in a follow up science lesson. It does not end there, however. There is a recording sheet and one more writing component to tie all of the pieces together.

Do you want to engage your students in active learning? Do you want to meet multiple standards across content areas? Do you want to hear squeals of delight as your students find bones from pellets and identify which bones they are and what animals they came from? Then this is the resource for you!

What's Included:

(14 total student pages)

- a non-fiction article about barn owls

- an owls can, have, are chart to organize the students' learning and understanding after reading the article

- owl writing paper coming in multiple tiers that connects to the can, have, are chart (paper with all lines or paper with lines and an illustration box for most able writers; papers with "Owls can," "Owls have," or "Owls are" in dotted print, lines for further writing, and an illustration box for middle level writers; papers with "Owls can," "Owls have," or "Owls are" fully typed, lines for further writing, and an illustration box for writers who need the most support.

- 2 page recording sheet for the owl pellet dissection (2 options for support for early writers)

- 1 Scientist's Log for students to write their observations after the pellet dissection- this follows the format of a CEI (Claim, Evidence, Interpretation), but without the Interpretation component for such young scientists. They write what they think and why they think it (claim and evidence).

(9 total directions pages)

- links to various sounds and videos to support instruction on barn owls

- links and helpful ideas for where to purchase or find barn owl pellets for the dissection

- links to bone charts for comparing bones found in the pellet to animals from which they came

- lesson plan guidelines and tips for carrying out both the article/graphic organizer and writing components of the lesson and the owl pellet dissection

- this lesson is activated in TPT easel so you can project necessary components in the student view for ease of use during instruction

Items you will need to make this lesson successful:

- owl pellets (suggestions for finding or purchasing them provided in the resource)

- plastic classroom tweezers or metal tweezers (suggestions for what to use and how to obtain them for free or cheaply are provided)

- wooden manicure sticks (not 100% necessary, but helpful)

- disposable or easy to wipe vinyl table cloth

- black construction paper (1 piece/child to make seeing the bones easier)

- hand lenses (helpful, but not 100% necessary)

- pan balance

- centimeter cubes

- Unifix cubes

- pencils and crayons