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We have been learning so many fascinating facts about the human body. Recently my co-op class of K-2nd graders learned about the heart.
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| This hands-on model of the heart came from Scholastic’s Human Body Project Book. |
We learned that the heart is a muscle–a very strong muscle! Though from pictures the heart looks solid, it actually has four chambers or “rooms”.
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| Free Heart House Printable from Spell Outloud |
The heart pumps blood throughout the body through these chambers.Oxygen-poor blood comes into the right side of the heart. From there it is pumped to the lungs, where it picks up oxygen and returns to the heart’s left side and is pumped out to the body.
It gets a little confusing–especially for younger children to understand oxygen-poor blood and oxygen-rich blood flow — and how it moves through the body via veins, arteries and blood vessels. This hands-on printable gave the kids an idea of how blood moves through the body. This project was also in Scholastic’s Human Body Projects Book.
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| Edible Heart Model from Apologia Anatomy Book |
Our class joined the older group and we all made edible heart models. The directions for this experiment are listed in the Apologia Anatomy book. The blobs of pink and blue are white food coloring dyed as close to red and dark blue as we could get. This was a messy project but the kids loved it!
Before eating, we talked about the four “rooms” of the heart and their names. We also reviewed how oxygen-poor blood enters the heart and it is sent to the lungs to pick up some more oxygen. The oxygen-rich blood is pumped out to the rest of the body. Other Heart Activities: * We took our resting pulse. Then the kids ran around the gym for several minutes. We took our pulse after all the exercise. We discussed our results. * We made stethoscopes out of toilet paper tubes. They worked ok. Next time we will make the stethoscope with plastic tubing and a funnel (directions in the Apologia Book pg 147) * My kids love when I add a video to the lesson. We watched the Schoolhouse Rock video on Circulation:
We also watched this short video on the chambers of the heart:
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Another great anatomy unit. Your posts are actually making me want to start looking at that book for next year.
Sooo cute! I LOVE the lacing cards for showing the flow – I will have to remember next time we do this study. Here is a post of what we did when studying the heart: http://sonshinetotschool.blogspot.com/2012/02/week-1-hearts-and-love-review.html
~Bekah @SonshineTotSchool.blogspot.com
AWESOME ideas! I am teaching a class for k4-1st graders in my co-op next year and will definitely be incorporating a lot of what you have shared on your blog. THANK YOU!
I want that Scholastic project book! On Amazon it's $40 up to $119! (Don't you love when they do that?) May I ask where you found yours? I love the yarn heart thing and want to teach the heart thoroughly. My kids are particularly interested in it since my youngest had open heart surgery at 40 hours old. That project looks perfect for my kids!
Thanks
Never mind I found it! Took a few more searches and I got the pdf for $1.
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/easy-make-learn-projects-human-body
THanks for introducing this book. 🙂
How did you find it for $1? I went to your link and cannot find it????? Please help. Thanks! 🙂
When the post was originally up, Scholastic was having their Dollar Days sale. They usually have this 1-2x a year. It allows you to purchase the book as an ebook download.
Kori, yes! Don't buy that book from Amazon. Whenever they don't have it they list a ridiculous amount. The reason I link is so that people can see the cover and know what the book looks like. Thanks for posting the scholastic link.
I love this series. I am very excited to be adding this to our homeschool curriculum for the summer. THANK YOU!
Thanks for all the resources! As a mom who homeschools, I’m always looking for new ideas and recommendations. This looks great!!