For third grade, STEAM week was an exciting time! We had many exciting workshops, from superhero animals to math magic. But STEAM reached into our every day math, reading, and writing in the class. Inspired by our favorite read aloud, Poppy by Avi, our class had an interest in owls. One of the main characters, Mr. Ocax, was a great horned owl and the things he was able to do were fascinating. So we embarked on a research project to learn more about these fascinating animals.
We started by learning about the different adaptations owls have, such as being able to turn their heads almost completely ar
ound. Small groups researched a specific owl to find out more about the amazing adaptations they have. We discovered they are perfect hunters, and made posters to demonstrate our knowledge. We will be collaborating with the second grade to teach them about our findings.
Next we wrote poetry about owls. We used facts we found and studied other poems to get an idea for our own poems. We made these extra special by placing them on paper bag owls we made. We then u
sed our paper bag owl puppets to teach Pre-K all about owls. This turned into drawing owls, making owl perches out of blocks, and showing the Pre-K how owls hunt using the stuffed animals in the room!
Lastly, and in my opinion the most fun, we dissected owl pellets. Even though it seemed gross to many, everyone dug in, and found skulls, leg bones, and teeth! We reconstructed skeletons of their unfortunate victims to display.
h one facet and, through both a written and creative presentation, they will share the information that they have gathered with the rest of the class. As you can see from the photos, even though the students just learned their partners today, they have already begun to research the information. Look forward to hearing and seeing more about this in the coming weeks!