Turkey Anatomy Lesson

     Today, while getting a turkey ready to pop in the oven, I had an Ah ha! moment, and realized that I had a fantastic teaching opportunity in front of me.  Inside that bag of giblets, that I never know what to do with, and so therefore ends up in the trash, were organs!  What a great way to learn some anatomy! 
      I have a confession.  I have never actually opened the giblet bag, and I thought it contained an organ called a giblet.  I wasn't sure what this was, only it was obviously something turkeys had, and we don't.  It turns out that giblets are not an organ, (OK, don't laugh or wonder how I could have not known that.) but are actually the heart, liver, and gizzard.  I've eaten all of these before, and they are quite tasty and not at all gross, but we weren't going to eat them today.  We were going to dissect them! 

These are the neck, heart, gizzard, and liver.

     Anna thought it was cool getting to touch, feel and cut open the organs.  She was impressed at how smooth and slippery the liver was.  "Like wet silk."  
     We also talked about what the different organs were used for, and what was similar to ours, and what was different.  Such as what a gizzard is used for and why we don't have one. 
     We then looked up some info online an examined the bird diagram below.