A Little bit of Zoology...

Who Pooped? is a totally gross, yet strangely beautiful activity from the Minnesota Zoo.

The graphics and interface are gorgeously simple in this interactive about animal digestion- it's sort of like a pop-up book about poop. As much as we might want to say, "Oh, gross...totally inappropriate," fact is, zoology has not a little to do with animal waste, and this is part of the curriculum. I know my district isn't the only one that does an owl pellet dissection unit in 5th grade. You know your kids will be enthralled; hopefully you can stomach it!

Thank you to Larry Ferlazzo for mentioning this resource.

Language lens:

• Clear cause-effect and seqential relationships are embedded in the information about animal feeding and digestion.
• The interactive aspects (dragging sun across the sky, feeding animals) are likely to make it easier for students to remember facts about the featured animals.
• This could be a good jumping off point to make an art project or book about...uh, other aspects of animal description. "Who shed?" or "Who passed by?" could be used with animal coverings or locomotion, for example.