Regurgitate

You are probably wondering why I would ever title a blog post "regurgitate." You might be wondering why I am thinking about throwing up, because, after all, throw up is not a typical or amusing topic of conversation...unless you are a third grader.

This past week, my kids learned about Barn Owls and how they swallow their prey whole and regurgitate the material (bones, teeth, fur) that they can't digest. It comes up in the form of a pellet. Cool, huh? Come on, just consider the coolness of this for one minute.

My kids worked in pairs and dissected an owl pellet to discover: a: what animal their Barn Owl ate (rodent, bird, shrew...) and b: to identify bones. They compared the bones in their pellet to human bones. Next week, they will compare them to chicken bones.

I swear...the grosser the experiment, the more 3rd graders like it! I mean, I don't blame them, really. I think I have just as much fun with this dissection as they do! Take a look at some of my kids in action. (Also, the other adult you see in these pictures is Jackie, my amazing and wonderful student teacher.)

Finally, you might be curious how I have my kids learn the main bones in the human body. See, it's very simple...through music. Be careful, though. If you click on this link, you might be singing the bone rap all day!

In case you were wondering...the pellets were sanitized prior to being delivered to the schools!