I recently came across an interesting resource for learning about animals in Arizona. It’s called the Bone Box, and it’s an educational resource from the Arizona Game and Fish Department. My children loved it! It enhanced our nature study about the Sonoran Desert because we were able to examine animal skulls, feel their pelts, observe their tracks, and analyze their teeth. The website said that the trunks are in high demand, but since it’s summer, it was easy to get a hold of one. This is a resource that is perfect for homeschoolers in Arizona, especially homeschool co-ops.
The Bone Box resource trunk comes with a teacher’s guide for high schoolers and one for elementary age students. We used the elementary teacher’s guide book to get us started.
Skulls
The box contains eleven skulls for kids to touch and look at. We spent a week looking through the contents in the box. The animals that are included in the bone box from the Arizona Game and Fish Department are a beaver, a black bear, a bobcat, a coyote, a deer, a gray fox, a jackrabbit, a javelina, a mountain lion, a raccoon, and a ringtail.
The first day we looked at the skulls and examined the teeth. Some animals had all sharp teeth, some had both, and some had only flat grinding teeth. We organized the animals into carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores. My three-year old had no idea of skulls before this. She was fascinated that these were bones of animals that once walked around. Ordinarily, I would not get the bone box for a preschooler, but since she has older brothers, she gets to join in with their learning. She felt the teeth and talked about how they were sharp and some weren’t sharp. We talked about how the sharp teeth are for animals that eat meat, and the flat grinding teeth are for animals that eat plants. That was her lesson.
Pelts
The Bone Box contains pelts for ten of the animals (the jackrabbit was not included). It was interesting to feel how soft some animals fur is, like the beaver, and how prickly others were, like the javelina. We also talked about the color of the fur. The black bear skin looked big when it was laid down flat on the floor. They do shed, so either do this outside or be willing to vacuum a bit afterwards.
Some of the pelts included the skins from the legs and tail, but not all. When you see the whole pelt with arms, legs, and tail, then it gives kids an idea of how big an animal is and how small some animals can be.
Tracks
The Arizona Game and Fish Department also included molds of the animal tracks. Some were a little worn, but we could still figure out what they looked like. There’s also a grizzly bear footprint included. Yikes! It was huge. Apparently, grizzly bears used to be here in Arizona. The last one was seen in the wild was in the 1930s. Today you can go to Bearizona and see black bears and grizzly bears.
The teacher’s guide came with pictures of different animal tracks. Since my kids love to trace, we used tracing paper and copied the tracks. The bone box also includes a sheet with painted tracks of three animals. Children have to identify the tracks, and figure out what animal come along first, and what happened afterwards. My kids enjoyed solving the puzzle.
Lifespan
The teacher’s guide includes a lesson on lifespan. I adapted it by looking at the reference sheet with the animals’ lifespans and asking my kids to say how long they think a certain animal lives. Then I gave them the answer and we talked about why. For example, a packrat lives between 2-3 years because they are small and are easily hunted. Whereas a black bear can live for 18 years in the wild because he is at the top of the food chain.
Online Resources
If you click here you can see some more resources that go along with the bone box. They include coloring pages of animals in Arizona, videos, a crossword puzzle, decoding track page, and word searches. There are also some book recommendations.
Last Thoughts
We loved the Bone Box! It was worth the drive to go pick it up because I know that my children will remember touching the skulls, pelts, and looking at tracks. Arizona has some unique animals here, and the Bone Box is an engaging resource for learning about them. Did I mention that it’s free? The Arizona Game and Fish Department have a number of office locations across the state where you could potentially get access to a bone box. Find the closest office to you and ask if the bone box is available.
Carly from DesertHomeschoolDays
