Hooray for the Humans...Part II

Since our little angel was born I have been busy with returning to teaching half-day, adjusting to life as mommy and teacher, and settling into our new home.  My third graders and I recently had a blast learning about the Human Body.  We used the Human Body Book that I created last year, 

  

and of course displayed the Human Body System Posters I created. 

Plus we added lots of fun new things to our learning! 

Unlike last year, we didn't have access to real-life skeleton so we had to settle for this little guy that the 6th grade let us borrow:

Like most, my kiddos love everything hands-on.  They were so fascinated with the human body and all of it’s amazing systems and I wanted them to have the opportunity to CREATE something to help solifidy their understanding of each system and its parts so I created this Human Body System Craft Book.  We used common household/classroom items to represent the different parts of the system (for example – little pink water balloons for the lungs, gold pipecleaners for the nerves, and a sponge for the brain).  When we finished learning about all of the systems we bound them in a book and wow, they look fabulous!  What a neat learning souvenir. 

 

You can purchase the Human Body Systems Craft Book here.  It includes a materials list and instruction page for each system, as well as a template for each body system, covers for the book and pictures of the completed crafts.

Of course we also made our little body system paper dolls (the kids LOVE them) before we took our test.  

Want a copy of the study guide and test I used?  You can download it for free here:

 And I had a wonderful TPT follower ask if I could provide her with the Human Body System Posters so she could translate them into Spanish.  Well… since I work in a school with a Spanish emphasis and LOTS of great Spanish-speaking teachers I went ahead and did it myself (with their help of course) and you can purchase those here if you’re interested.  They are PERFECT for Spanish-speaking schools or Spanish-immersion schools where science is taught in Spanish.  I hope somebody finds a good use for them!

Egypt anyone? + ancient civilizations and I LOVE my lamp!

Egypt anyone?  Do you teach it?  Do you kiddos just EAT it UP?  Mine certainly do.  They love it.  They are so fascinated by everything about it. What fun activities do you? (Leave me a comment or if you have a blog post about it leave me a link! I want to see!)

 We teach the Core Knowledge Sequence, so we learn about several ancient civilizations in first grade...so... each student creates one of these ancient civilization pocket books.  (We actually do one pocket for each civilization and put them all together when we've covered all of them.)  If you teach ancient civilizations and are interested in creating a similar book you can snag it here. It also includes the the vocabulary flapbooks you can see below.  

 Here are some of the activities and things we do when we learn about Egypt:  (click here for TPT and the image for TN if you're interested)

A few weeks ago I saw a lamp similar to this on Pinterest.  I loved it!  And of course I had to make one instantly.  I actually already had the $2 lampshade from the thrift store just waiting for me to put it to good use and a goldish/bronze lampstand that I just wasn't a fan of.  Lucky for me I already had blue spray paint too.  The only thing I had to buy was the ribbon. Using a 50% coupon and my 15% discount at Joann's that didn't cost me much. And here's the final product.  What do you think?

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 If you want to see more of my classroom you can see pics here.

And if you followed Becca's great linky party over here looking for a February freebie... well here it is!  A valentine/february sentence sort. If you like it, follow my blog! :)  And join the linky!

Hooray for the Humans! {Human Body Systems}

We spent the last 3 weeks learning all about the Human Body.  I love to teach it and the kids really love learning about it! As part of the Core Knowledge Sequence we learn about 5 major body systems: Skeletal, Muscular, Circulatory, Digestive, and Nervous.  We started with the skeletal system:

Don't their dancing skeletons look adorable?  (Sorry the hall lighting is not so great...) We labeled most of the major bones and the kids loved singing 'dem bones' along to a youtube song video.  

We also labeled all the bones (and later the organs in the digestive/respiratory/nervous systems) on this awesome velcro felt board that a student's parent sent.  I tried to find where I can buy one but was unsuccessful. If you know, PLEASE tell me.  I must know.

While digging through old files from my parents I found these x-rays of my own teeth when I was 8 years old.  The kids thought it was pretty fun to see my permanent teeth hiding beneath the roots of my baby teeth.

We were SUPER lucky since our school is a K-9 charter school the Jr. High Science teacher happened to have a real human skeleton that we borrowed for a week.  I was worried that the kids might be creeped out, but they were really mature about it and even nick-named him Bob.  I couldn't help but chuckle when they would grab their writing paper and walk past and say "Hi Bob."

A parent picked up these 36" RCWilley tape measures for free which made measuring our bodies MUCH easier.  I highly recommend.  Snag some at your local furniture store (IKEA also has them) and laminate and they are PERFECT!  So much easier than end-to-end rulers. We recorded all of our measurements including the circumference of our heads, the length from our hips to our toes in a little booklet about our body measurements.

I also had this great medical flip chart straight from a Dr.'s office.  It has AWESOME realistic diagrams.  Next time you visit, ask your Dr. if he has one you can have! :)

Here are a few sample pages from my newest TPT & TN products.  First is our Human Body book containing a picture and writing page for the Skeletal, Muscular, Digestive, Circulatory, Nervous, Respiratory, and Urinary Systems.  We added a page to our book as we learned about each system. It also includes a the human body systems paper dolls (a favorite with the kids) pictured below and few 5 senses things as well. Check it out here (TPT) or here (TN).

I also created these Human Body Posters for each of the systems. You can see those here (TPT) or here (TN).

What fun things do you do to teach the Human Body?  

Leave me a comment or link to your blog post about it.  I would love to hear and see!

 **update 3/6/14 I have added two new Human Body System products to my shop - One is Spanish Human Body System Posters



and the other is a book of Crafts for each of the Body Systems

Cheap Puffy Paint & Glossy Goo Maps & Geography Unit

We survived!!! Last week was our second week back to school and it was (phew!) slightly less exhausting than the first!  Is anybody else counting the days until their little kiddos are used to listening!?  Man, I sure am.  However, that being said, they did really well on our Continents & Oceans world map crafts.  They turned out SUPER cute too.

 First we labeled the oceans.  (We did the continents the day before).

  For the water we dyed corn syrup blue.  It is a sticky mess, but a neat one when it dries.  It looks glossy and wet and it's transparent, making it the perfect medium to represent water!

For the land we made made a mixture of one part glue and one part shaving cream, plus a little green food coloring.  I've also used colored paint when I didn't have dye on hand.  It dries soft and puffy to the touch and the kids LOVE it! My kiddos were SO excited to take them home. Only six kids of my 26 (I know!!  26-6 year olds, crazy, right!?  Does anyone else have that many first graders?) let me hang them up on our bulletin board.

 We had a LOT of fun with our Spatial Sense/Geography unit in the first two weeks of school.  It's always a fun one.  I created a whole bunch of resources to go along with it. We teach the Core Knowledge Sequence by E.D. Hirsch, but this unit could be used in the primary grades at any school.  Click the image if you're interested in downloading on TPT!  

Or you can get it on Teachers Notebook here. 

A Man of Many Hats

It has been a busy few weeks!  This past week we had our first grade program and my was it a big production!  One of the teachers on my team let me use her son to model all of the darling hats we made. Our school has an emphasis on history, so we sang various different songs that highlighted our history curriculum and used these hats to match. The kids looked SO cute!  You can see the program below.

Paul Revere Style Hat

Revolution Style Hat

Columbus/Sailor Style Hat

Native American Style Hat

Colonial Woman Style Hat (bowl w/ doilie & ribbon)

Queen Crown

King Crown

Next up.... FLAT STANLEY!  My kids are in love with him.  Our history curriculum includes learning about several different ancient civilizations, so a few months ago we read Flat Stanley and the Great Egyptian Grave Robbery.  A few weeks ago when I saw the entire 9 book collection of Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures in our Scholastic bookorder I couldn't pass it up.  My kids are hooked.  They beg me to read it and complain when it's time to stop and go to lunch or recess!  Haha.  We're just finishing the last chapter of Flat Stanley and the Japanese Ninja Surprise.  So... I created a Flat Stanley inspired unit.  I know a lot of people are already done with school, but we still have 2 weeks left, and we're pretty well through with our curriculum and testing, so we are going to be having lots of Flat Stanley fun!  I've integrated the unit with several subjects (reading/writing/grammar/math/social studies/geography...) so it'll be a great review and culminating unit for us. Next year (now that I have all the books) I think I'll spread it out and read/teach them throughout the year.  Anyway, here are a few preview photos.  I'll be posting the unit a little later today.

Thanksgiving in April? Freebie*

 

It's true... we have been learning all about Thanksgiving IN April, but it sure has been a lot of fun.  My school teaches the Core Knowledge Sequence, and we just finished a unit on Settlers & Explorers. Our next unit is From Colonies to Independence.  The kids and I have learned SO much.  Do you know the story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke?  What's YOUR theory? 

Anyway, we reviewed Christopher Columbus, then focused on the English settlements of Roanoke, Jamestown, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay.  My little ones (boys especially) just soak history right up!  They love it.  Our school has a history emphasis too, so I love that it's such a big part of the Core Knowledge Curriculum. 

I made a few resources to go along with the unit and I wanted to share them with you!  I use a TON of music in my classroom, and I couldn't live without my CDs from Classroom Classics.  I usually make a PowerPoint with pictures and lyrics to accompany whatever song I'm teaching  (Next week we'll be doing one on The Ride of Paul Revere)! It's great for integrating reading practice and vocabulary.  The kids get practice using the words through singing, it increases their retention, and reinforces their reading and spelling. Plus the kids are always asking PLEASE, can we sing it one more time?! Please!!! I also let a student point to the words with my pointer, and another student is the designated clicker.  Oh how they love it. I just can't say enough about how great I think it is (obviously)!

....However, without further ado, here are two FREE worksheets I created for the unit.

 Here are the title pages of the PowerPoints. They are wonderful for telling the story of Jamestown the The Pilgrims.  Click the images to grab them on TN or find them in my TPT store!