What is Science?

This week, as an introduction to a science lesson about the food web, we read two books about owls. One was Owl Moon, about a father and child who go "owling", one cold winter night. The other, Adopted by an Owl, a true story of an owl that was stolen from its nest and later raised by a person who rescues animals.

On Thursday, the class looked at a chart about the food web of owls. One child proclaimed, "I thought we were going to do science? This isn't science!"

Needless to say, this led into a conversation about how science is learning about animals and their habits. 

After dissecting owl pellets to see what kind of animal bones were inside it seemed a little more like science, but nothing blew up, so there were still skeptics.

Science or not, the children were fascinated to take apart the pellets and discover various small bones and skulls of voles, moles, and mice.

The next morning, the Science conversation continued. I heard a story on NPR about scientists putting devices in geese to learn about their flight patterns. Many children had also listened to the story on the way to school. More children seemed convinced that studying animals might really be science. 
(Side note:
Sometimes, unexpected connections are made in the curriculum. As luck would have it, our poem this week was on geese migrating so it was a great tie in).

Our exploration of Light is also moving along. This week, the children went around the school looking for objects in which they could see their reflections. They recorded their discoveries and shared their results with the class.