Science - The Human Body "The Liver"

This week the boys learned about:

The Liver!

The liver has so many functions, we just barely scratched the surface!

Here's a look at what we did...

First Isaac put the Liver on our poster from the kit:

The Magic School Bus: A Journey Into The Human Body.

We went over our lesson,

and the boys worked together to fill out their workbooks.

We used a graphic organizer to list 3 functions of the liver.

Here's a very cool game I found this summer at a thrift store

called Some Body.  The boys placed the re-usable stickers onto

the body.  This was great for review!

We are just about done with this unit study.

The boys are already excited to dive into the Outer Space Unit

I have planned for after the Christmas Break!

Next week:  THE KIDNEY'S



Science - Human Body "Digestive System"

The boys are cruising right along with our first science unit study:

The Human Body.

This past week they learned about the

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM.

We started off by adding the digestive organs to the poster

from our kit: The Magic School Bus: A Journey into the Human Body

Isaac added the Stomach...

Nate added the Intestines...

We went over our lesson, a very basic one on how food is digested.

I drew out a picture of Digestion Man, to show the order

of how food moves through our body.

Then the boys filled out their workbooks.

We have been doing these together as a group,

since a lot of the words are difficult to write.

We finished off by reading the book

Pee-Ew! Is That You, Bertie?

which is a funny, but gross book about flatulence.

The boys LOVED it, of course!

Next Week:  THE LIVER



Science - Human Body

This week we learned about:  The HEART

We continued reading in our Human Body book.

We learned that the Heart is a pump and it's job is to

pump blood through our body.

I also drew a picture of a heart and how the blood flows through it.

The boys learned how to feel their pulse...

And listened to their heartbeat with my stethoscope...

We talked about the rest of our circulatory system:

our blood vessles - Arteries and Veins

and drew a Venn Diagram for what job each of them has.

We talked a little about blood, mostly that blood carries oxygen

that we get from breathing through our lungs.

We must have oxygen to stay alive.

We also read The Magic School Bus Has a Heart.

The kids always love these stories!

Later that day we did an experiment.

The kids each felt their heartbeat at rest,

then ran a sprint, and felt their heartbeat afterwards.

We talked about the reasons our heart beats faster when we exercise.

Overall it was a great week!

Next week:  The LUNGS



Science - Human Body

We are still plugging away at our first science unit, The Human Body.

This week we learned about:  The BRAIN

We talked about the different parts of the brain:

the brainstem

the cerebrum

the cerebellum

They filled out their workbook...

We did the brain puzzle from our Big Block Body Atlas.

After that I wrote out some of the vocabulary words from the lesson onto

a dry erase board.  Then they had to tell a story using those words correctly.



Science - Human Body

This week we learned about:  MUSCLES

First we read from The Human Body to learn about our muscles,

how they work, and what they need to stay healthy:

Exercise and Protein!

We talked about what kind of food has protein in it,

and what activities are good exercise.

We talked about the different kinds of muscles:

Voluntary

Involuntary

Cardiac

Then they filled out their workbooks.

Then each of the boys got to do a muscle movement experiment.

As they moved specific body parts, they felt as their muscles

contracted and relaxed.

We finished off by doing some exercise together!

Next week:  The Brain



Science - Human Body

"I praise you because I am fearfully

and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well."

Psalm 139:14

We had a fun week starting our first science unit, The Human Body.

I found some fantastic learning tools this summer, a few of them are pictured here:

Magic School Bus book, and Looking Into My Body book.

Skeleton Floor Puzzle

Big Block Body Atlas

Somebody Board Game

Magic School Bus Science Kit

Trixy and Troy Body Parts Pocket Puzzles

I made each of the boys their own packet for our study. 

There is a short lesson and a basic Q and A page after that.

The idea is to introduce them to some basics about how our bodies work,

and what we need to do to make sure they keep working well.

Our approach for this unit will be mostly hands-on,

with very little "book-work" to do.

For our first week we learned about BONES...

The boys put together the Skeleton Puzzle.

Then compared the length of the bones with their own...

They learned the names of a few of the bones,

and talked about what bones do: 

they are our "framework", help with movement, and also protect our organs.

We also looked at what a bone looks like on the inside,

and I explained that parts of our blood is made in our bones.

They both found this fascinating!

After our lesson and bookwork was done,

we played a game to see what they remembered...

                                    That pretty much sums up our lesson for Bones!

                     Next Week:  Muscles