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!

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