KidWings

Science for Children of All Ages.

Map the Menu

Claim, evidence & debate

Claim, evidence & debate

Map the Menu

Bonus: Ask students to include a “confidence level” (high/medium/low) and explain what additional evidence they’d want.

Small mammals & preyBarn owls
  • No prep
Run with a class

Same owl. Different map. Completely different menu.

Activity: “Where Would This Owl Live?”

  • Give groups 3, 4 “diet profiles” (rodent-heavy, insect-heavy, bird-heavy, reptile-mixed).
  • Students match each profile to a geography:
    • farmland edge
    • desert grassland
    • tundra breeding grounds
    • island seabird colony (with a clear invasive-species respect note)
  • Students write a CER:
    • Claim: This diet profile fits ____ geography
    • Evidence: prey types suggest ____ habitat
    • Reasoning: prey availability/vulnerability explains why an owl would switch

Bonus: Ask students to include a “confidence level” (high/medium/low) and explain what additional evidence they’d want.

Questions to ask

  • “Where Would This Owl Live?

Where it comes from

We tend to think of owls as “rodent machines” and, yes, in many places they are. But move an owl to a new landscape, change what’s abundant (or vulnerable), and you’ll see owls do what top predators do best: adapt.

Sometimes that adaptation looks ordinary: mice instead of voles.
Sometimes it looks downright shocking.

Read the blog post ↗ The Wildest Owl Diet Swaps by Geography · 2026-04-23

Workspace

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    This activity has no numbered steps, so use the notes box.

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