Year 6 investigate owl pellets

Not content with improving their snail knowledge whilst in France, Year 6 have been finding out more about different wildlife relating to their class novel, Skellig.

Skellig is a wonderful book, which deals with family, friendship, angels and owls. Lots of scientific ideas are explored in the novel, and the children have discussed evolution, pneumatisation of birds’ bones, and the Archaepoteryx. In the book, Skellig is fed by owls, and, just like owls, regurgitates pellets. This week, the children had the opportunity to dissect and analyse some owl pellets and enjoyed picking apart the bones to discover the remains of voles, shrews and other animals.

Using a virtual pellet (http://kidwings.com/virtual-pellet/), the children practised putting together the bones to make a complete skeleton, and then put together their own, real life, versions using the bones they had found.

They will be incorporating their owl pellet facts, together with other owl research, into a non-fiction information leaflet about owls over the next week. It has been a brilliant opportunity to work in a cross-curricular way across the Science and English curriculum. Mr Bridges was so impressed by what we are able to cover in our English lessons that he couldn’t help coming to have a look and join in himself!