Tag Archives: skeleton

Human Body: Printables

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Our human body project is over. I still can’t believe it! This is a quick run down of all the printables we used while learning about the human body. I will break down the post by systems/sections of the body.  This post has materials for the body chart only- so if you want to do some of the science experiments, click on the title of each section. It will take you to the blog post on that specific topic where you can get more ideas for science experiments, videos, and more.

Before starting, trace your child’s body on a large piece of butcher paper. I used packaging paper from Amazon- we got a ton since we did a lot of online Christmas shopping. After tracing the body- cut out two copies. MAKE SURE that all three body outlines line up. Learn from my mistake! FYI- I will be referring to these cutouts throughout this post as “body charts”.

Skeletal System (click on this link for more ideas)

Materials:

  • body chart
  • child-size skeleton printout from eSkeletons. (I had to make some adjustments- my daughter isn’t quite that tall yet, so I shrunk the size a bit before printing. Due to size issues, I also had to add a different pelvic bone (found here), ribs (found here), and I ended up drawing a skull.
Favorites: The skull and ribs with flaps- designed to add the brain and heart/lungs.
Suggestions: Be prepared to do a little bone surgery- the fingers in the skeleton might not align with your childs handprint on their body chart.
Nervous System (click on this link for more ideas)
Materials:
  • body chart
  • paper cut out of the brain (I did a google search and came up with this one, but there are a ton available!
Favorites: The fact that the brain is inside the skull
Suggestions: We just did the brain, looking back I would do the entire nervous system. This could easily be achieved with embroidery floss for the nerves, and colored cellophane over the spine (or just yarn) for the spinal column.
Lymphatic System (click on this link for more ideas)
Materials:
  • body chart
  • green embroidery floss (lymph vessels)
  • green and white paint (to be used as the lymph nodes and white blood cells)
  • green paper for a spleen
Favorites: the subject material- my daughter is really curious about her germs, and I liked that it wasn’t a  cut and paste activity but we were able to use paint and string
Suggestions: Gluing the embroidery floss on the body chart was difficult- we had to switch to tape, it worked much better for us, and I was able to move it around later on when I had to do some trimming
Respiratory System (click on this link for more ideas)
Materials:
  • body chart
  • lungs (clipart from Kidopo)
  • bubble wrap (air in our lungs)
  • blue paper for a diaphragm
Favorites: we made a model of a lung- by far my favorite part of the activity (click here for more information)
Suggestions: Use 2 pieces of straw as the trachea and upper throat. We didn’t add this until we were working on the digestive system and needed to make an esophagus.
Circulatory System (click on this link for more ideas)
Materials:
  • body chart
  • red and blue embroidery floss (arteries and veins)
  • heart (clipart from Phillip Martin)
Favorites: I really liked using the embroidery floss for the blood vessels.
Suggestions: I tried adding a few capillaries here and there- but it was getting too detailed so I didn’t really pursue it. I also wished I would have invested in a stethoscope.
Digestive System (click on this link for more ideas)
Materials:
  • body chart
  • white, pink, and blue straws (upper throat, esophagus, and trachea)
  • digestive system cutout (I think this is the one I used, but I am not sure…. I did print it in black and white)
Favorites: The Youtube video on the digestive system– it was a WINNER with my daughter
Suggestions: Try the science experiments from our blog, and you could add the vocab word rectum. I just couldn’t bring myself to talking about that word YET, and as you probably know from viewing the rest of these posts, we did leave out a few body systems that were a little mature for my 4 year old)
Urinary System (click on this link for more ideas)
Materials:
  • body chart
  • yellow paper for a bladder, urethra, ureter, kidneys
Favorites: Probably the kidney experiment and the fact that my daughter drew and cut out the different parts of this system
Suggestions: Talk more about the importance of drinking water
Muscular System (click on this link for more ideas)
Materials:
  • body chart
  • red plastic tablecloth (from dollar tree)
Favorites: I love the transparency of the muscular layer, however this brings me to my suggestion…
Suggestions: Using one of the copies of your body chart, glue the muscle layer on the back. TRUST ME- having a plastic layer that won’t stay in place is a bit of a headache.
Eye (click on this link for more ideas)
Materials:
  • body chart
  • clear plastic sheet protector (glue on top of the eye as the cornea)
  • white, black, and blue (or whatever color your child’s irises are) paper
Favorites: The plastic cornea. This is one of my favorite things about our body chart.
Suggestions: We could have done SO much more with the eye- optical illusions, perception, using telescopes and binoculars, etc. A lesson on using all 5 senses would fit nicely here, too!
Skin and Hair (click here for more ideas)
Materials:
  • body chart
  • 2 copies of your body chart (one for the skin, one for the clothes- just cut off the head, hands, and feet)
  • yarn (hair and eyebrows)
  • construction paper, material for clothes
  • red paper for lips
  • paint for skin
Favorites: the eye and mouth openings that show off our teeth and eyes
Suggestions: MAKE SURE that all three copies are the same size. After a month of learning, it was pretty frustrating to find out that our poor body chart was made with three different sizes!
Favorite Reference Books
Uncover the Human Body– we love the 3D model of the body
Human Body Encyclopedia for Kids (I can’t find it online)
Favorite Online Resources
Youtube- check out the schoolhouse rocks science clips
For more ideas on teaching the human body, check out my human body board on Pinterest!
Have a great time learning about the human body! This is a wonderful educational journey that I hope you and your little ones can take… there is so much to learn about!
Happy Teaching!

Human Body: Lymphatic System

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What child isn’t fascinated with germs? Today we talked about the lymphatic system- more specifically how our body gets rid of those germy bugs!

Disclaimer: I am not in the medical field and I hope what I am teaching my daughter is somewhat accurate!! Ha! 
We looked at the lymph nodes in our human body encyclopedia (my daughter refers to the nodes as “beans”, which makes sense because they are so small!). We talked about white blood cells: how they are the guys that fight the germies and that some of these cells are stored in the lymph nodes.  
I then had a visual to show my daughter why lymph nodes get swollen. We inserted white blood cells (aka cotton balls) into the lymph node (aka balloon). The more white blood cells, the bigger the balloon got! 

We then pulled out our body chart.  Lymph nodes were added using green thumbprints- and although they are found throughout the entire body, we just stuck them in a few spots.

We couldn’t forget to add white blood cells- little dots of white paint with a q-tip.

Boo decided it was time for a break…..

 Then it was back to work taping on the lymph vessels using green embroidery floss.

The last thing we added was the spleen. We talked about how one of the jobs of the spleen (referred to as the “big bean”) is to store extra white blood cells. We might go back tomorrow and actually paint some cells on the spleen!

Boo and I played a quick game of Germ Attack… germs entered various parts of the body and the white blood cells (cotton balls) raced along the lymph vessel to attack the germs!

We tried watching the Once Upon a Time video on the lymphatic system– but we only got through the first part (it’s a three part series). This would be much more entertaining for an older child!

Here is a closer look at our body with the lymphatic system:

For more ideas check out my Pinterest board on the human body:

Happy Teaching!

Human Body: Skeleton

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My four year old is a very scientific little girl who is extremely interested in learning about the human body. We just started a fun little mini unit on the body- so prepare yourself for A LOT of posts on this subject!
You can’t talk about the human body without talking about the skeleton. I mean, without it we would be a lump of squishy organs and skin! Ha! To get us ready for our skeleton learning journey I decided to make a child-size paper body chart.

At first I had great intentions of making separate body charts for each of the different systems- muscles, nervous, circulatory, digestive, etc BUT I decided as we learned about each system we would add it to just one paper body.
To make the paper body I traced my daughter on brown packing paper (thank you Amazon for shipping your products with SO much extra paper!!)
I searched online for a human skeleton cut out and was so thrilled to find this child-size skeleton printout. I had to make some adjustments- my daughter isn’t quite that tall yet, so I shrunk the size a bit before printing. Due to size issues, I also had to add a different pelvic bone (found here), ribs (found here), and I ended up drawing a skull.

Skull opens to make room for the brain
Ribs open to make room for some internal organs

The ribs are cut open so I can insert different organs as we learn about them, and the skull is actually two papers taped together at the top so I can put the brain inside. I am super excited about how this project is turning out! We will be adding to this paper body as we learn about different organs and systems.

Putting the skeleton together was a family event- Boo is happily stirring juice while intently staring at the bones as we talk about them. And FYI: gluing bones on a body outline that is not a perfect match is tricky! 

We watched a School House Rock video on the skeleton, talked about calcium, and I printed out some X-Ray cards found at Chasing Marcus. We tried watching the Once Upon a Time series on the skeleton– not my favorite, but someone out there in the blogosphere might enjoy watching it.

Boo watching skeleton movies online–don’t look too closely at my super messy desk!

For more skeleton fun- check out my blog post on skeletons– it is definitely Halloween-ish, but it can be educational! There is also a post on a glow-in-the dark skeleton game that was lots of fun.

Next post will be about the human brain!
Happy Teaching!

Glow in the Dark Bone Recognition Game

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My little family and I spent an evening at the dollar store (fun times- those dollar stores!) I bought a glow in the dark skeleton thinking it would be so cool to hang in my daughter’s room- like a Halloween night light!
Well, you get what you pay for. The dollar store skeleton didn’t GLOW very well. But that’s OK. Because we were able to come up with this fun and very educational activity!

Glow in the Dark Bone Recognition Game

Boo highlighting the femur during our Bone Recognition Game

Supplies:
dollar store glow in the dark skeleton
flashlight
knowledge of bone names

Pregame stuff:
Hang up the skeleton (so your kids can reach the skull- for a non-example look at the pic above!) Tell your kiddo that you are going to play a glow in the dark game with the skeleton! How fun, right! Show ’em how you highlight an area of the skeleton by shining the flashlight directly on top it.  It’s like you are painting the bones with light.

If your skeleton is a cheap one like mine, only the bone that was highlighted with direct light will glow… and not for a very long time, either.

Game:
Have one child step out of the room. Give another child a flashlight, and tell her to highlight the femur (or any other bone) on the skeleton with the flashlight (remember direct light for a few minutes). Bring the first child back into the room and tell her to quickly point to the femur (She shouldn’t be able to tell which one was highlighted). After she guesses, turn the lights out to see if she guessed correctly! Remember to play fast!

There are also game adaptions- 

  • For those just learning the bone names, you can have them highlight a bone and then talk about it. 
  • You can use the everyday names (shoulder, foot, backbone) instead of the scientific names for those young learners.
  • YOU can highlight a bone, turn the lights off, and have a young child state the everyday name(shoulder, foot, backbone) and an older child state the scientific name.
Happy Teaching!
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