Human Body Unit (Cut Short by Covid-19)

This year I wanted to try a new unit of study about the human body.  There are so many projects, experiments, and hands-on demonstrations that keep children engaged.

Our first weeks we learned about the nervous system.  We labeled parts of the brain on chart paper and discussed what each part was responsible for.  Our activities included making a brain hat and outlining a student and drawing the nerves in her body.

We discussed some major bones in the body. 

I laminated some large bone cut and paste sheets

to create floor puzzles.

Then we made macaroni skeletons.

I purchased a used copy of this book...

and that is where I got the muscle activity (below) from.

The circulatory system was a favorite because we were able to make a blood model out of water, marshmallows, red and purple licorice. Created a brace map of the parts of blood.  The younger students were only responsible for drawing pictures of the parts.  The older students were asked to label the parts.

This project was really fun and easy to do.  I purchased some thin blue and red yarn from Hobby Lobby.

Then I used clip art of a body outline and heart to printed on cardstock to create the printable. Students colored the heart and glued on the pieces of yarn.

You can grab this if you would like to use it as well.

Printable Circulatory Project

This is a vest that is from Lakeshore Learning. It was part of a large kit about the human body.

The kit also had a model of the digestive system that was clear so we could see how the contents moved through it.

We made our own model of the digestive system (below).

Here is a word problem that I made to tie math into the unit.

Here is a blank copy if you can use it.

Digestive Math Word Problem

This was going to be the next part of the unit.  I was going to tie in prevention of respiratory illnesses with the respiratory system.  I was hopeful that students would have a good understanding of why we ask them to cover coughs and sneezes. Ironically, the respiratory illness (Covid) prevented us from finishing the unit.

Here are some sites I used for inspiration:

Preschool human body printables by Living Life and Learning

Human Body Organ Printables by Totschooling

Have fun with this!