Painting Chickadee Eggs

Dodge and I had a great time painting chickadee eggs together the other night. He was endlessly fascinated by flicking the paint on the eggs with a tooth brush. Being a perfectionist it drove him a little crazy not having control but it was fun one on one time after the littles went to bed. We used the materials and activity card 1 from our Nature Study Cards Bird Set #1, cream paint, brown paint, a tooth brush, and small brushes.

He really liked taking video of me flicking the paint and you if you could hear his expressions "uh huh, ooo, yeah..." you'd see he was really focused on learning to do it himself.

That seemed to be the theme of the night actually:

I just love seeing him learn new skills. It's amazing what you learn about somebody just by being with them and I love getting to see my boys shine the way they do only when we are one on one.

I bet James would have loved this one too though so I'll have to have him join in on more of our activities. He sure got a kick out of measuring wingspans (activity from bird set #2) when he heard that he had the same "wingspan" as a duck he started quacking and giggling.
Man I love these boys!

Owl Pellet Activity

Owl Pellets for kindergartners? I don't know how this will go but I'm excited. My son is insatiable with his questions and I may just be opening a can of worms for my self but it's worth ago since curiosity is kind of our thing.

I'll start our study with our owl fact card from my nature study card kit. (Available for purchase on my Nature Study Card Purchase Page to at the top of the column to the right) After we look at that we will go on a hike looking for owl homes and signs. There is one tree on Centennial Loop towards the sports center side in Soldotna, AK that I swear I saw an owl in last time we were there so I'm excited to go back with a pair of binoculars.

We have an Usborne beginners book about owls (my boys are obsessed with the beginners series) for the rest of the introduction  before we dive right in to learning about what they eat by dissecting an owl pellet! Using these directions (Also found on the nature study activity card 6 for birds)

1. First there is this really cool video on youtube that explains what an owl pellet is: 

2. Gather your materials: Gloves, Owl pellet (ordered off amazon of all places!), tweezers, magnifying glass, small paint brush, and this free bone identification chart from Carolina Biological Supply Company.

3. Carefully pull apart pellet, being aware of any skulls you may find. Once it is broken up into smaller pieces you can start to exhume the bones with the tweezers. As you find them clear them of fur and debri with your fingers/small paint brush before setting them aside.

4. Once you get the bones separated and cleaned match them to your bone identification chart to discover what type of animal your owl ate.

This is also a great way to to lead into food chains, predator/prey relationships, how different adaptations of the owl help them hunt, or what their prey's defenses are against being caught.