Owl Pellets Part 2

Last Friday we wrapped up our owl pellets experiment. Not only was it EXTREMELY interesting to discover all of the creatures our owls had eaten, but we also learned some important lessons about scientists. It became obvious pretty quickly that we had to take our time and be quite careful as we were opening our owl pellets. If we went too fast we could break or damage bones, or we could have missed some of the smaller bones completely. If we went too fast, we could also break pieces off the larger bones, especially the skulls.

Bronsyn and Rommel examining their bones

Steph and Hunter working slowly and carefully to discover bones

We all really wanted to see the skulls to try and find out what types of animals we had. By looking at the shape of the mouth and seeing the location of the teeth we could determine whether we had a mole, a shrew, or a mouse.

A pile of bones including a skull, left side of pile, and a hip bone (alone at the top)

After uncovering as many bones as possible none of the groups found remains of birds. Many of our owls had eaten either mice or shrews, but we believe we also found the bones of another small creature, a vole.

It was easy to see why it takes scientists to long to make new discoveries. In order to be safe and use the tools properly, without messing up the experiment, it takes a lot of time and perseverance to complete a task. We are really looking forward to working on more experiments to use tools and hone our scientific skills.

Owl Pellets

Last week we began our unit on the tools and processes scientists use to conduct experiments and learn new thing. We very quickly realized that doing an experiment is more about learning something new rather than actually having the experiment work out the way you thought it would.

In order to put our brand new knowledge into practice, we starting conducting our first experiment that focuses on using tools safely and correctly and following the standard scientific process. We are dissecting owl pellets!!!

Ask your child to tell you about his or her owl pellets, and the steps we took to begin dissecting the pellets. We'll be continuing to explore our pellets the next two days, but to keep you all in the look we wanted you to enjoy these pictures from today!

Social Studies Presentations

Throughout the month of January, we have been researching and learning about the physical regions of Pennsylvania. The students got to choose which region they would most like to learn about, and then they worked together to get information about the location, physical features, natural resources, and climate of that region. Today, all of that hard work culminated in our presentations, and we would like to share those presentations with you!

Next week we will take those presentations, and we will use them to help us learn about informational writing, main ideas, and compare and contrast as we write essays to compare the different regions.

We hope that you enjoy our presentations!


The Atlantic Coast Plain - you can also view their Show Me Presentation by clicking here!

The Ridge and Valley Region:

Ridge and Valley poster

The Allegheny Plateau:

Allegheny Plateau poster

The Erie Lowland Region:

Erie Lowlands poster

Plant Questions

Here are the answers for our science study guide questions tonight:

Understanding Government

Over the last few weeks, we have started our unit about what makes Pennsylvania a unique state, and we started by talking about our state's government. We learned the interesting fact that our state government was the model for the United State government and other states' governments. Since we learned about the federal government last year in third grade, that made things pretty easy for us!

One thing we talked about was the concept of checks and balances. All of the branches of our government have equal power because they each have special jobs to keep the others from getting too much power. Unfortunately, we've also talked about how people don't work together, and then we have problems like our current budget situation here in PA.

To really highlight how the branches of government have to work together, we did an activity where three friends had to balance a marble on a triangular piece of paper. It doesn't sound hard, but we very quickly learned that it was REALLY challenging. There were marbles bouncing all over the room! Eventually we figured out that we had to work together and hold the paper equally to get the marble to balance. It took a while, but we it really helped us understand how the branches of government have to work together.

Is this how we're supposed to do it?

I think we've got it!

Dropping the marble to see what happens

Uh oh! Watch out!

A Goodbye

Last Thursday the Bair's Den had to say it's first goodbye of the school year. Our friend Katie is moving on to a new school, so we sent her off with a bang. We did a compliments car wash for Katie, and each of us let Katie know all of the things we noticed about her that made her a kind, caring person. It was a sad day, but we know that Katie will make us proud!

The Bair's Den with Katie one final time

The required silly picture

Finally! Ag Day!

On October 15, we had the opportunity to experience 10 different stations taught by students taking agriculture classes at the high school. These students worked diligently to put together small stations that helped us learn about agriculture business topics and environmental topics. We got to see and pet animals, climb into a tractor and combine, and participate in games and activities to help us learn topics important to us and our community. Some of us also got to see our siblings, as well!!

We were very excited to spend time with the high school students. Check out the slideshow below to get a glimpse of our experiences that day!