The Human Body!

This week and next week we're studying The Human Body! Here's what we've learned so far this week...

Our bodies are amazing creations because we have an amazing CREATOR!

"I am fearfully & wonderfully made!" Ps. 139

We read the beginning of The Human Body Magic Skeleton book and learned we have a skeleton (bones) inside our body that gives us shape/firmness so we're not "jello" like D said on Tuesday. He learned adults have 206 bones! The book is very neat because each page has black/white diagram which pulls out to reveal that part in color inside the body.

We also read about the backbone and saw detailed pictures in the book, The Way We Work. D&K made a replica of our backbone/spinal cord (beads, foam circles & yarn) and assembled a milk jug skeleton. (The milk jug skeleton idea came from one the library had made for Halloween and the spinal cord was adapted from an idea in Janice VanCleave's Human Body book - link below.)

Laying out the "bones" on the floor...
Stringing beads & foam circles on yarn to make the spinal cord...26 beads = 26 vertebrae
Finishing spinal cord/backbone...

Complete skeleton...you can barely see the backbone/spinal cord through the ribs of the skeleton...

On Wednesday we learned about digestion by reading What Happens to a Hamburger? And looked at detailed pics in DK's Human Body book about our digestive system and taste buds/tongue/teeth. D was intrigued that his intestines are 3-4 times taller than he is! :o)

D&K did the experiment in the back of the hamburger book using milk, water & lemon juice. One cup had milk/water in it and the other cup had milk/lemon juice in it. The lemon juice represented our digestive fluids in our stomach. We checked it after 1 minute and then again after 2 hours and found the milk/lemon juice liquid to be thicker...like what food becomes in our stomach when the digestive juices mix with it.
When we read about the esophagus we learned that it actually pushes the food down to our stomachs, so we could eat in any position and the food will get down! The kids did this experiment to prove it (from Janice VanCleave's Play & Find Out Human Body book) by laying across a chair and eating a cracker in that position.
We had an early morning "field trip" to our dentist for our 6-month cleanings. D&K were able to tell the dentist a few things they learned about the teeth/taste buds on Wednesday. D&K were also able to see the x-rays (digital ones are so neat!) of their big teeth pushing their baby teeth up! D even told the dentist that he'd like to be a dentist one day.

After lunch today, we read "Why I Sneeze, Shiver, Hiccup & Yawn" and learned about our nervous system. We also stood near one of our windows letting in lots of sunlight and watched our pupil shrink. Then we closed our eyes for 30 seconds and opened them to find our pupils LARGE!

D&K colored self-portraits for part of the lapbook we're making...
D did a great job! I love the plaid shirt & checkered pants. K said she drew a "mad" face because she's mad at D. Then she changed her mind and wanted me to print off another outline for her to color - which I didn't do.

D's spelling words for the unit that he's writing 1x each day...
He suggested I add "esophagus" to the list. Ha! I assured him I would when he's a bit older. I thought it was too advanced for a 1st grade word. ;o)

The kids watched The Magic School Bus Human Body movie at least 4x this past week before it had to go back to the library. They loved it and D is still telling me different things he learned about...red & white blood cells, stomach, eyes, etc.

Can you tell my library bag is overflowing for this unit?! I'm so thankful for the library and the gracious librarians who fulfill the website requests for me so I can just appear at the counter and check out 15 books at once from the request shelf! :o)