[bebe]

We are about to begin a science unit on th human body. As usual, our science text doesn't have enough and needs to be supplemented. I began to browse through my files and was wondering if anyone has some newer material or activities they were successful with out there.
Thanks !

[HryPotter]

We get the bulletin board paper and draw each other, of course we have to do this in the gym because there isn't enough room in my classroom. After we draw our bodies we place the parts in the body, the hear, lungs, muscle, part of a skeleton, of course I had to find all these things and just blew them up on the copier, they color it and paste, it's fun but they are learning too.

[tweet]

We break it down into systems--skeletal system, circulatory system, etc. For the skeletal system, one thing I do to show how important joints are, is to tape popsicle sticks to the fingers of the children's dominant hand so they can't bend their fingers. Then we TRY to complete some of our routine tasks, like putting their names on their papers, sharpening pencils, tying shoes, etc. They love it, but also get very tired and frustrated after about 5 minutes. They are always grateful to remove the sticks and be able to bend those fingers! I have also played bingo with the names of the bones. The kids love to hear me call out phalanges! That word just cracks them up!

When I teach about the heart, I give them a stress ball to squeeze with one hand, as we try to squeeze the actual number of times their heart beats in a minute. Then we try it with the heartbeats of other animals. Try the hummingbird!!

[salem]

We only do the skeletal and muscular systems. One thing I did this year that turned out really well was to have the students make skeletons out of pasta. We do this unit in October around Halloween, so it goes along well with that!

You can go this website for more info and a picture:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/cra...pastaskeleton/

I gathered all the pasta and put all the pasta shapes on a paper plate in the middle of their tables. I then asked for suggestions as to which pasta they thought should be used for which part of the body. I modeled the skeleton form by putting the shapes on the overhead projector, which makes it show up really well!

They followed along with me and glued their shapes down onto black construction paper (the small size)--be sure to use Elmer's white glue, not a glue stick! They titled their papers "My Skeleton" and then they had to label the parts of the skeleton using a white pencil or crayon.

I am new to my school and 3rd grade this year, and several of the other teachers loved the result and used it with their classes--which I thought meant it must be good!

You can use the suggestions on the website and go to your grocery store and find other different pastas to use as well. I substituted a bow tie pasta for the pelvis rather than the two beans they used on the site. Spaghetti works well for the fingers and toes and the small elbow macaroni is great for the ribs.

The kids had fun doing this and it was a great assessment tool for me to use!

[JanetL]

Scholastic makes a great book with fun activities: "Make and Learn Projects: Human Body". The kids have a blast doing them. ($10.95)

Hi there looking for ideas for children to use with the human body