How mysterious is the inside of the body! Children are simply fascinated to learn all about our body-machine that works day and night, without any rest, performing tasks no computer is capable of performing. Our eyelids blink reflexively, our lungs are constantly expanding and contracting, delivering fresh oxygen throughout our body. Our heart muscle relentlessly pumps blood to every cell of our body, delivering life-potent oxygen and nutrients night and day: whether we are asleep or awake. Our nervous system lets us feel, taste and experience whether pleasure or pain. Our white blood cells fight for us whenever an intruder, be it a virus, fungus or a nasty bacteria, attempts to disrupt our equilibrium. The body is an amazing mechanism, and it is our job to keep it strong, healthy and happy! And we can do it better if we know more about how does our body work! By understanding what goes on the inside of our body, which is mainly unseen and performed on a such a small scale, we can truly appreciate the work that the body is doing all the time - even if we might not know it.
The DK Visual Dictionary of the Human Body book [top-left] is an amazing comprehensive compilation of anatomy of science, covering extensive topics with outstanding photographs. The brief text compresses many details into a few sentences, and the charts combined with the text give a clear overview of the subject. The book even has an illustration of an exact torso and detailed explanation of organs. This book can be appropriate for an elementary level and up. Adrian mostly looks through the pictures as the vocabulary is very scholarly.
Inside Your Outside: All About the Human Body book [top-right] is Adrian's favorite! Simple fun rhymes take a young reader for a ride through the human body where they visit the right and left sides of the brain, meet the Feletons from far off Fadin (when they stand in the sun you can see through their skin), scuba dive through the blood system, follow food and water through the digestive tract, and a whole lot more!
LeapFrog LeapReader Interactive Human Body Discovery Set (buy set here and the TAG pen here) shows a child how the amazing human body works. The set includes a jumbo, two-sided activity board, growth chart, interactive sticker sheets, and glow-in-the-dark stickers. Your child will learn hands-on human body facts, body systems, and health nutrition. (Please note that the set works with Tag and the LeapReader Reading & Writing System, which is sold separately - buy here.)
Human Torso comes with eight organ pieces and a fully illustrated instruction manual
Did you know that the size of your child's heart is as big as his/her clenched fist?
The sensorial bowl filled with red hydrogels (aka "red blood cells") offers a tactile and visual stimulation as children have to retrieve the organs, name them and place correctly into the Human Torso Model Kit (buy here). This is a super-fun 🙌🏻sensorial invitation to explore the inside of the body!
See here a 📽️video of how we "made" these gel beads in ~ Sensory Exploration with Hydro Gel ❤️️ Water Beads post.
The Inside of the Body BOOKS
Interactive books have been favorites lately amongst my children. These informative science books are perfect for my curious explorers who have lots of questions and unending desire to flip and turn!
These wonderful flap books take a young reader on an amazing fact-filled voyage through a body from brain to toes with tons of interactive flaps to open and discover!
- 1st [smaller] book featured in the 📽️video is Look Inside: Your Body (buy here) is a wonderful flap book, which introduces children to the way their own bodies work in a fun and informative way. This hands-on book offers many surprises to keep enquiring minds entertained, including flaps beneath flaps and a cheeky peek inside a toilet cubicle. Your child will be truly fascinated to learn how their brains work, what happens when they eat, how their lungs use oxygen and much more.
- 2nd [bigger] book featured in the 📽️video is See Inside Your Body (buy here) is a larger version anatomy book which further helps a young reader to get a bigger visual presentation of parts of the human body.
My First Discoveries Series
Children are also loving the entire My First Discoveries series and The Body book (buy here) is a great addition to our anatomy book collection. Through transparent overlay pages, a child will find out what happens to food and air and blood in our bodies; where our bones, muscles, veins, and nerves are; and how our brain works and controls what we do.
Children love interactive learning which makes scientific subjects fun and comprehensible despite its complexity.
How the Body Works book (buy here) offers a young reader a chance to discover what makes up a small growing human body and how each of the different parts work separately and together: how do we breathe and digest food to provide energy to walk and run and play?
The transparent overlay pages add a new dimension to a traditional 📖 reading
PUZZLES
Another great addition to our Anatomy unit study is this Body 5-Layer Wooden Puzzle, Boy (buy here), which includes five layers of systems that exist within the human body: skeletal, respiratory, digestive, muscular, and integumentary system. Adrian loves assembling it over and over again.
See here a video post 🎥 ~ Anatomy Puzzle & DIY Interactive Puppets
GERMS
Children were fascinated to learn about germs, which can create havoc in our bodies while reading an amazing book ~ It's Catching: The Infectious World of Germs and Microbes. We learned that "all germs are microbes, but not all microbes are germs." A microbe is a very small living thing found everywhere in our planet and most microbes are friendly, though a very small number can cause disease. Scientists call those unfriendly microbes "pathogens" ~ known most commonly as "germs." The illnesses caused by pathogens are called infectious diseases. To make learning hands-on, Adrian made various germs, such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites from air dry clay.
Don’t be afraid to delve into the good, bad, and sometimes truly ugly world of germs. Microbiologist Jennifer Gardy, who calls herself a disease detective, picks up her microscope to bring expert insight to the microbes that are all around us but are too small to see. Irreverent, playful, and contagious in all the best ways, It’s Catching discusses a range of germs and the diseases they cause, from the common cold to food poisoning to the Ebola virus. Young readers will be enticed — and pretty grossed out — while becoming immersed in information about pus, bacteria, DNA, genomes, and more. They will learn how germs have shaped human history and also about the individuals who are working to hunt them down. Additional elements, like trading card–style profiles of a variety of diseases, a board game, and a detailed index, make this infectious read both useful and entertaining. ~ It's Catching: The Infectious World of Germs and Microbes book.
💉BLOOD
See here 🎥 "DIY 💉 Blood Model ~ BODY Anatomy Unit Study, Science🔬⚗️⚖️ 101 🎥
Children made platelets and red and white blood cells from air clay while referencing to First Human Body Encyclopedia.
We also read The Circulatory System (The True Books) which is a wonderful introduction to the circulatory system; the functions of the heart, arteries and veins; the different types of blood cells.
Finally, DK The Visual Dictionary of the Human Body book revealed a closer look at the inner workings of human blood, allowing us further explore the human body from the inside out!
See here DIY Oobleck Goop Blood 💉Human BODY Anatomy Unit Study
We also made DIY Red Hydrogels (buy clear hydrogels in bulk here)
Simply add food coloring when you add water to hydrate and inflate your hydrogels
20 minutes after adding water
In an hour ~ fully expanded
Adrian then had a blast adding hydrogels to the oobleck
Final touches: platelets are crowding around the red blood cells in case there is a need for clotting and our "soldiers" ~ white blood cells are ready to gobble up the green virus invaders!
After removing hydrogels, the oobleck solidified once again!
We had a blast learning about the blood hands-on while exploring science through sensorial play! Stay tuned for more ...
🖐🏻Tendons DIY
See here Tendons 🖐🏻Human Hand 💉Body Anatomy Unit Study
Dental Health Activities for Kids ~ see here
Happy vs Sad Tooth
Food Groups
Brush An Egg • Kids Science Experiment
• Inside of The Tooth •
See details here.
The 5 Basic 👅Tastes
We also explored how our brain and senses work: see here The BODY: 5 Basic 👅Tastes
Did you know that much of what we think of as 👅taste is actually 👃🏻smell! The back of your nose is linked to your mouth at the throat so that you can smell the food as you chew it. That is why when you have a 🤒cold, tiny hairs in your 👃🏻nose get clogged with mucus. This stops them from wafting smell particles deep into your nose and makes it hard to smell or taste things. That is exactly why you cannot "taste" anything when you have a stuffy nose!
See here a🎥Frozen Juice ❄️Ice 👄Lips 😋Taste Matching • Sensorial 🖐️👀👂👅👃 101
Inside ANIMALs
This Inside 🐘🐴 Animals flashcard set (buy here) comes with 16 beautifully printed double-sided photo/x-rays. The images are protected with a special, scratch-resistant coating. The set even comes with two human skeletons to compare and contrast the image of the human to the walrus, giraffe, snake, owl, etc.
These cards can be used on a light table, or with a help of a 🔦flashlight, or simply against a window (what we did) to reveal the skeletal system of the animal!
This is an excellent way to introduce your child to animals and anatomy
For more on Inside Body, see here ~ Giraffe ~Inside of the BODY Anatomy study.
Stay tuned for more ...