October Decoratons and Activities

Ack, the days are going by too fast! Decorations/books are up this month for Yom Kippur, Columbus Day, Diwali, Halloween, and Days of the Dead.

The last two Fridays I’ve been lucky enough to have a parent helper at lunch recess. He’s been supervising the dissection of owl pellets with the very eager students. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area barn owls roost in the tops of the date palm trees which are like fast food stations for them. Rats and birds feast on the dates and owls feast on the rats and birds. Students can identify the eaten animals by dissecting the pellets (which are the undigested parts that the owls regurgitated). You may order owl pellets online if you can’t find your own. If you do collect them yourself be sure to wrap the pellets in aluminum foil and heat-sterilize them at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.

Students wear latex gloves and use tweezers and bamboo skewer sticks to pick through the fur and hair in order to find the skeletons. I found identification charts online or the DK Eyewitness book Bird has excellent pictures and information about what they might find. The students were so enthusiastic and have been asking every day to repeat the activity but it really requires adult supervision.