Is a sheep skull 'appropriate' for show and tell?

[Blu]

DS and I have just returned from the Lake District, where DS saw sheep dogs at work, lambs being rescued, farmers catching lambs with a crook, lambs feeding...and collected a selection of skulls, horns and jawbones from the fells. He LOVES show and tell, and we brought a selection home for him to take to school along with his cuddly sheep-dog and leaflet about breeds of sheep. I have bleached / disinfected the bones, but DP says it is totally inappropriate to send bits of sheep corpse into reception, and his teacher will be appalled.

MN opnions please!

I think bones aren't at all macabre more sculptural and interesting

I borrowed a skeleton (real, not plastic) from the basement of our lab at work and took it into school for the children. Dd1 was in Y4 and ds in Reception -- I did a little session for each of the classes, and all the children were completely fascinated and spellbound by it. Though I did have to correct the Reception teacher who maintained you could tell the difference between a male and female skeleton because the female one had an extra rib...

I think ds has taken a skull in too on one occasion, and dd1 has definitely taken a pickled larynx (sealed in a perspex block). Wouldn't give it a second thought, tbh. It's science, it's educational, and if kids start being prissy about it they need to learn to get over themselves.

Considering some of the things that dd's Reception teacher has brought in for the children to look at and touch without letting the parents know (a large dead fish, an equally large, equally dead eel, and owl poo being three of them) I wouldn't think there would be any problem at all with him taking some bones in! The topic for dd's first half-term included looking at bones and talking about skeletons, so it's not as if the children have no understanding of the skeleton as structures, and most of them will have some understanding of death. It doesn't have to be "morbid fascination" to find such things interesting.

at tallmummy! Don't you worry about them catchign somethign? Surely the bones must be full of bacteria?

They'll LOVE it! Mine'd be fascinated.

Anyway, my dd was about 6 when they did dinosaurs at school and that was all about bones. It was one of her best topics.

She also took in a stinky old cuttlefish when they did mini-beasts. Her teacher did a really good job of looking thrilled and interested

unless you're a vege household then you have bones and dead fish in the house..I doubt it gives the children nightmares..aren't owl pellets sterile? I should think most bleached bones are cleaner than the school toilets.

Not sure, but I took a hen's foot in one day. From one of our chickens.

Fantastic! and much better than a load of lpastic crap. I'd prime the teacher that your ds intends to bring it in, she could do all sorts of things around it, how the skull protects the brain, all sorts!

my ds has gone in with a Welsh flag and the story of Gelert the dog....very tame in comparison!

Frogs at the extra rib cobblers!

my ds wants to take an old birds nest in

birds nest are supposed to be full of parasites and bacteria

oh

Probably Kelly1978 but there are bacteria and nasties everywhere. My kids practically live in the garden, they are filthy nearly all of the time and also very healthy. I have seen them handle things far grubbier than some sun bleached mouse bones. Owl pellets are regurgitated anyway - not pooh - as if that makes a difference.

could you microwave it?

That would zap most of the little bastards

Shouldn't that go under the recipes topic mb? Or the What's for tea Tonight thread

itd look liek shredded wheat then

Microwave an owl. Oh I think you meant the birds nest

freeze it?

oh god this has reminded me we have hundreds of owl pellets in the cellar! Ah well that's ds2's first show and tell sorted :o

You can microwave loo roll inners before giving them to kids to make models with . If you feel you must

jj, how have you got owl pellets in he celler? Are you in some Alan Garner demi world???? Do you have a red shift in your spair room, a weirdstone in the downstairs loo?

microwave a bird's nest
I've heard it all now

Nope just hundreds of owl pellets and mouse bones. Left over from the PhD.

I also used owl pellets for my undergrad project. Took them home, left them in my parents kitchen and buggered off to new zealand for 15 weeks. When I got back my dad had had the floorboards up trying to locate the funny musty smell :o

That must have been fun for your folks!

So you were looking at mouse genetics based on mouse remains in owl pellets were you???? The mind boggles

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