[jlulu]

Does anyone have great hands on ideas for teaching the human body systems?

[Teach4]

One that comes to mind for how germs spread from person to person and then infect the body systems.

1. Divide kids into groups of 3-5.
2. Place a container of flour in front of one person.
3. Put a back sheet of construction paper in front of that person and everyone else.
4. Person one dips their hand into the flour.
5. Person one then shakes hands with person two.
6. Person one now smacks their hand onto the paper.
7. Then person two shakes hands with person three.
8. Person two smacks their hand on the paper.
9. This goes on until all group members have shaken hands and everyone has smacked their hand on the paper.

The flour represents germs. The kids should notice that each person had some "germs" left on their hand (and transferred to the black paper) after shaking hands with another "infected" person.

If you've got magnifying lenses, pass those out. Some particles of flour are hard to see depending on how large the group turns out to be.

[lucilu]

I just finished up teaching the FOSS human body kit. It has some really great activities. One that the kids loved was performing thumbless activities. We taped their thumbs to their first fingers. Then they had to perform various everyday tasks (write me a letter, make a paper clip bracelet. tie their shoes, cut out a smiley face etc) thumbless. It was a great way for them to see how important just one appendage is.

[jlulu]

Thanks for the great ideas.

I taped a map of the heart and the digestive system to the floor. The kids could walk through the process for both. With the digestive system we put together a "ball" of food and at each new stage, what student standing at that location had to describe what they were doing to the food and then do it.