Bataan Elementary School fifth graders study contents of owl pellets

Headlight staff reports
·1 min read
The students in Simms' Noriega's and Perea's classrooms each dissected an owl pellet and identified the bones of the rodents inside the pellets the owl's had consumed.
The students in Simms' Noriega's and Perea's classrooms each dissected an owl pellet and identified the bones of the rodents inside the pellets the owl's had consumed.

DEMING – Fifth graders at Bataan Elementary School took on an unusual, but fun, assignment recently. The students in classes for teachers Kim Perea, Gina Simms and Melissa Noriega had just completed reading the book "Skilleg," by David Almond.

In the book, Almond brings up the notion of owl pellets. "In a few different parts of the book, it mentions owl pellets, so my team decided that it would be a great learning opportunity for our students to dissect owl pellets," Perea told the Headlight.

The students in Simms' Noriega's and Perea's classrooms each dissected an owl pellet and identified the bones of the rodents inside the pellets the owl's had consumed.

"The students hopefully learned that owls eat their prey whole and are unable to digest the hair and bones, so a pellet is formed and regurgitated," Perea explained. "Many people mistake owl pellets as poop, but the Bataan fifth graders now know better."

This article originally appeared on Deming Headlight: Bataan Elementary School fifth graders study contents of owl pellets