Owl Pellets

What's For Dinner? 

How Does Energy Flow?

I wrote a grant that was funded by Donors Choose for owl pellets last September.  It was the perfect addition to my unit on Food Chains & Webs.  It was my first experience doing this activity and it was a huge success.  We spent three days dissecting, sorting, identifying, graphing and diagraming.  

I put the students in groups of 2.  The students worked together and were so engaged in the activity. We found mostly mice and a few shrews and moles.  Some pellets contained more than one skull.  Make sure you stock up on gloves, sanitizer and wipes.

We sorted the bones and created a class graph on the types we found.

One patient student tried to create a skeleton...she wants to be a paleontologist or archeologist.

  I think she is on the right track!!!

My students enjoyed this video...

warning the song will get stuck in your head!!!

Here is the company that I used, there are many places to order them:

All About Owl Pellets- fact sheet on Carolina.com

Pellets -  ordering info on Carolina.com

I have a subscription to Superteacher and I used their sheets for the lesson.

Here is a free resource that I used for owl adaptations.
 They also have info on Owl Pellets and Food Chains.
Barn Owl Trust

TPT Sale

What is on your TPT wish list?  

I put things I like on my wish and then go through when there is a big sale. My wish list has LOTS of clip art, a few STEM projects and a Project Based Unit on Geometry.  I will have to narrow down my purchases over the next two days.

TPT is having a sale.  My store is 20% off.

Enter the Code Start16 when you check and save an

 additional 10% off. 

 

Don't forget to leave feedback on any purchases you have made in the past.  You can save more $$$.  I just went back and completed all mine!

I just uploaded my latest product:

Animal Kingdom

  Click here for the link. 

There are animal cards for sorting activities and posters for the

 5 types of mammals and 6 major types if invertebrates.

Weather Prediction Maps

One of our fifth grade culminating activities is creating a weather map and use it to predict the weather for a specific area.  

We started by designing our map keys.  I projected the national weather map on the board from the Internet using weather.com and cnn.com.  (CNN lists specific cities)  I had the children choose at least 5 cities and record the city and temperatures. (I would recommend taking a screen shot for future use during the lesson) It took them more than one period to record and shade the maps.  We talked about the temperature changing during the day, so we also added the time.  

The next step was to add symbols to their maps using their key.  We shaded the maps using the legend.  The children could create their own but were encouraged to use images from real maps.  They had to include a Title and compass rose.

The final step was to write a weather report using the data on the map.  They had to predict the weather for the next three days.  We live in New England, our weather blows in from Chicago. 

My science block is 45 minutes and this assignment took most students 4-5 periods.  I thought it would take only 2, so plan accordingly.  My students love coloring but needed a lesson on shading. 

Here is another option from a colleague.  

She had her students create a chart for three days instead of writing it out. 

(The chart is not in my unit)

This project is part of my Atmosphere and Climate Unit.  

You can purchase it on TPT or design your own.

Click for Link

Wild and Wacky Weather Lap Books

My students did an outstanding job on their Wild and Wacky Weather Lap Book Projects.

They had to choose one type of wild weather to research:

blizzards

hurricanes

floods

tornadoes

thunderstorms

The project required:

definition

location

causes

damages

interesting facts

safety tips

illustration

weather warning report

I had them share the weather warning report to the class.

You can create your own templates and rubric or purchase mine.

This project is part of my Atmosphere and Climate Unit available at my TPT store.

Click here for TPT Link