Dissecting Owl Pellets

Friday was the day many of the giraffes had been waiting for throughout our entire New Hampshire Animals unit, for it was the day we got to dissect real-life owl pellets! Owls, like most birds, eat their food whole because birds do not have teeth. So, when an owl catches its prey, it swallows it and later regurgitates (or spits up) the parts of the animal or insect they cannot digest, such as bones, fur, feathers, etc in the form of a pellet.

Prior to dissecting our pellets, we make predictions as to what kinds of things we would find in the pellet. These predictions included:

• Bones from mice, rats, snakes, other birds, deer 
• Fur
• Feathers
• Dirt
• Grass

While we didn't find everything we had predicted in our pellets, we did find many of those things, especially bones! We used this bone identification key to help us figure out what exactly our owls had eaten:

After measuring our pellets in inches, everyone worked carefully to dissect  their pellets using their hands and toothpicks for the more delicate bones. We were amazed by what we were able to uncover! 

When we had finished dissecting our pellets, we identified which animal bones we found and counted  the total number of bones in our pellets. Some friends uncovered over 40 bones! We also talked about whether or not we thought the bones all came from one animal, and many of us inferred that we had pellets with bones from a few different animals because there were more than 1 skull in some and others included fur and feathers. 

We saw that the skulls had quite a variety of teeth in them. Ms. Riley made sure to tell us that the Tooth Fairy would NOT accept these teeth and to please not leave them under pillows for her to find :) 

This was a great way to wrap up our New Hampshire Animals unit! We would also like to extend a big thank you to our parent volunteer who shared in this awesome learning experience with us and who also helped us clean up the classroom once it was over! 

If you would like to join in on the fun, there is an awesome website you can visit where you can virtually dissect an owl pellet! 

Move over, Gail Gibbons, the next big non-fiction writers have published their first non-fiction collection!

In addition to writing our fiction stories during Writer's Workshop, we've been working extra hard to collect facts to write and illustrate our first-ever classroom book on New Hampshire animals! 

Just like the authors and illustrators who have come before us, we made a dedication page at the beginning of our book. We wanted to thank everyone (and everything) that made writing this book possible and we also wanted to encourage future giraffes to go out and learn about the animals of the Granite State :) 

Yesterday, we were able to check out our final product and share it with the class. We each took turns sharing our paper collage illustrations along with the facts we wrote about our animals. 

Today, we even had the opportunity get up close and personal with a domesticated New Hampshire animal: Welcome to SMS, Summit!! And thank you for stopping by!

Shadow Puppet Fun in MakerSpace!

During our last few visits to the MakerSpace, Mr. Gagnon has asked us bring along the information we've collected for our New Hampshire animals to use with an app called Shadow Puppet. This app allows the user to create custom videos that are easy to share, and the giraffes used the app to create short informational videos about their animal. Click on the links below to watch! 

Great White Shark

Geese

Lobster

Bobcat 

Red-tailed Hawk

Fox

White-Tailed Deer

Hammerhead Shark

Humpback Whale

Coyote

Purple Finch

Black Bear

Wild Turkey

Moose

BONUS: Kittens! 

Busy Beavers!

Over the weekend, one of our giraffes went hiking with his family on Mt. Agamenticus and found this awesome beaver dam! This giraffe has been working hard to research the beaver, who is his New Hampshire Animal, and we are so glad he got to get up close and personal with some of their handiwork! 

Creating Our New Hampshire Animals

Over the last few days, we have been using our Image-Making Paper to create illustrations of our New Hampshire animals.

We've been drawing and cutting out shapes from our paper to create our animals and the habitats where they live. We've also incorporated a few other facts about our animals such as their diet, sleeping habits, jobs, and homes into our photos! 

Lobster

Humpback Whale

 Next week, we will continue to learn more about our animals and begin creating our class book! If you would like to learn more about your animal at home, check out these awesome websites for more info:

New Hampshire Fish and Game

A to Z Animals

Discovery Kids

National Geographic Kids