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!

We've got a piranha head drying out ready for ds1 to take to school. He caught it fishing at Christmas while we were on holiday but it didn't dry out in time to bring back with us. So we're going to pick it up next Christmas when we go back. He's very excited about showing everyone the teeth.

A couple of years ago he took a whole insect collection to nursery (insects from South America so quite impressive and large). The kids loved it but some of the workers were freaked out.

We also have a bird's skull propped on the dashboard of my car like a mascot. I didn't notice the kids had put it there for ages. Looks charming!

Sari that sounds difficult to top

My sister collected animal skulls as a child, and I think they are fascinating. There is a horse's skull and a sheep's skull (complete with fantastic curly horns) at my parents, and my two are fascinated by them. They have never given them nightmares (I can't think why they would). My dd is in reception and they did skeletons a few weeks ago, so I think entirely appropriate. Anyway no one bats an eyelid if you take in shells, and really what's the difference? Not sure why you felt the need to bleach them though - once they go creamy white from the sun they should be fine (otherwise you should boil them - but only if they still have bits on them!)

or boil them then pop them in biotex and put in a warm place (again if flesh is still on them). Anything thats been outside for a while will be clean anyway.

My sister used to bury the interesting corpses she found (mostly birds) and then we would have to remember where when it came to dig them up again! I don't think my mother would let her boil them - although she did do us a bit of home biology whenever she ran over rabbits (my mother, that is) so we knew what went where.

I dont see a problem with it - pretty sure most of the children will have eaten something sheep or lamb based at some point, unless they are veggie so what the different between a roast leg of lamb & another part from a sheep? I'm all for being honest with kids & telling them about where things like meat etc come from - otherwise they will grow up thinking meat comes from Tesco & plastic wrapping . I am reminded of the song in Friends that Phoeobe sang to the kids at the library..."The cow in the meadow goes moo...& the farmer bops him on the head & grinds him up & thats how we get ham burgers...". We often sing an extended version of that to DS (22 months) adding all the other farm yard animals

When my SIL was in reception she wanted to dig up the hamster they'd buried several weeks earlier so that she could take it in for the class project on skin...

Boyblu and the bones will be the stuff of show and tell legend, I am sure.:) great thread.

I am a reception class teacher (inner city v. sheltered children who scream when they see and ant) and would be very happy if a child brought in a sheep's skull. My (3 & 5) children went to a thingy from a zoological museum where there were frogs skeletons and python skins and a stingray's jaw and were absolutely fascinated. Go for it!
BTW, why would you need to microwave loo roll tubes? I don't geddit.

h and s, may have nasty 'germs' Load of old toffee in my view, but there you go!

LOL at all this putting of bugs and germs into your kitchen microwave! Now that DOES make me go 'yuk' - but irrationally, I know!

I have no idea why I paid any attention to DPs doubt - or why I soaked the bones in Milton - we used to try and wire bones found on the fells together to make entire skeletons, or strange mythical beast skeletons - and never even washed our hands before our sandwich tea.

DS's teacher is delighted by the prospect of some matching jaw bones and skulls with horns...I fobbed DS off this a.m with his small red squirrel toy and a print out of facts about the lovely rare red squirrels we enjoyed in the woods. On the way home, about 6 of DS's friends were all vehemently discussing violent and gruesome ways of despatching the 'bully' greys....

Sari - I am VERY jealous of your pirhana head - when it has been exhibited at your DS's school, could we all perhaps start a 'skull swap' thread?? Like the swaps, but have dead moles and skulls and owl pellets and nests changing hands all across the land?

Go for it - a great talking point and a good teacher will be sensitive to the needs of the class so no one should get upset.

Is this a record? A necrobump from more than five years ago!

Take it, the kids will love it, I am currently drying pelts for my DD she loves anything to do with biology, she wants to be a surgeon.

OP's child will now be in year 6 ...

Great show and tell

You will be doing the teacher a favour IMO. My kids would take in a different fluffy toy each week if given half the chance..... and there are many that do actually slip in because I'm too worried about getting out the door on time to to care by that point....

My youngest DS has taken all sorts of disgusting things he's found in for Show and Tell, think the worst were a dead grass snake and his big toenail (in a jar) after he had to have it removed!

A sheep skull would have totally fascinated him!

Have just noticed how old this thread is!

In reception for Show and Tell DD took (and i may out myself here) an ornament she insisted on buying at a carboot sale.

It was a stuffed cat made out of real rabbit pelts but as she explained in class, "that's ok because they ate the rabbits first".

She said the kids thought it was brilliant but i think most of the mothers thought it was pretty disturbing!

aw, I know it's a very old thread, but it's made me an extremely nostalgic MNer. It were all fields round 'ere in them days, you know...

Brilliant show and tell - as a Reception teacher I would be really interested if someone brought in a sheep skull! We got a whole bird's nest complete with eggs, it was very smelly but very interesting.

Sheep skulls used to be easy to find on moorland and marginal land but tighter regulations on dead stock mean that they are scarcer. Sheep skulls can be distinguished from most goat skulls by the convex upper contour of the muzzle ("roman nose"), compared to the generally concave outline of the goat, but some breeds of goat e.g. "anglo-nubian" have arched muzzles so i guess sheep skull is not inappropriate for show and every kid have right to know about the worth of animal as well as their skulls because they are also the creatures of God

Just mention it to the teacher but I think it's a brill idea for the children xx