Designate an area of the classroom for studying owls. Decorate with student artwork created on an owl theme. Create papier-mache animals, including owls, their prey and predators, and hang them from the ceiling to demonstrate the life cycle within an owl's ecosystem and environment. Task students with drawing an owl's prey from various perspectives, beginning with the wider viewpoint of when an owl first spots prey from above to when it swoops down to grab the animal. Set up stations for listening to owl sounds or watching owls in action. Hang pictures of various types of owls drawn or collected by students.
Dissect owl pellets, which are the indigestible clumps of bones, feathers and exoskeletons that owls regularly regurgitate. Order owl pellets through a science supply store. Give a demonstration before allowing students to dissect their own specimens. Place the pellet on a sheet of newspaper and pick apart with tweezers. Set aside the bits of fur, bones and other animal parts found within the specimen. Provide instructions on what students should look for in the pellets, such as bones, fur and exoskeleton part). Identify the various bones embedded in the pellet, such as the skull or pelvis. Organize or group the bones by animal or type of bone. Study the ecosystems within the pellets, including the lives of the mice and other rodents consumed by the owl, as well as the caterpillar larvae that produce cocoons out of the discarded fur. Instruct students to wash their hands after handling the pellets and cleaning up the project. Ask students to measure and record what they find and hypothesize about the owl's diet based on what they find.
Check out books about owls from the school library, including both fiction and nonfiction, and display in the designated area. Read chapters from Harry Potter books featuring owls and ask students to respond by writing a vivid description of a real or imagined owl. Challenge students to design an owl habitat for a zoo or create a comic book teaching younger children about birds of prey. Watch or read portions of Legend of the Guardians and encourage students to reflect on the characters and make links with other stories about myths or heroes and to identify myths and heroes in their own lives.