Learning about Digestion with friends…

I have been so busy with some family things going on that I am finally getting a chance to get caught up on my blog posts… Here’s a post from last month’s Anatomy group.

In our Anatomy group we did some fun stuff with digestion.

We started out with some experiments.

First we did an experiment using spit and checking for amylase.

Then we looked at some different foods and checked for fat using brown paper and a light source. Some of the ones we tested were bread, macaroni, bacon, and cheese.

Then we took different colored yarn, cut in the actual lengths of parts of the digestive system, starting with the esophagus and working down to the rectum. The kids were divided up into teams of boys and girls and had to compete to see who could place the correct color string in the correct place the quickest.

  

Then we stretched all the yarn out to see how many kids it would take to go the entire length of the digestive tract. It took all six kids lined up (head to toe) down the hallway and there was still a little string left.

        

Then we were off to the classroom for some crafting… we created the GI tract our of playdough… FUN STUFF!!!

                  

Then we played a game where the kids had to sit back to back and be the intestine and “squeeze” their “food” down the tract…

 

And we finished off with a fun game where each child has a job to do in the GI tract and the others had to guess what they were doing and what part they were…finishing off with eating some M&Ms…

We are loving this study!!

The Digestive Track ~ Week 1

  We are loving using Jeanne Fulbright’s Exploring Creations with Human Anatomy and Physiology

This was our first week learning about digestion and what happens to the food we put in our bodies…
   Working on labeling the alimentary tract…
   Libby’s journal
   Tommy’s journal


We spent quite a bit of time talking about out teeth and how to care for them.
        A cool board game that we played about taking care of your teeth.


The next step was discussing saliva and we did a neat cracker and cheese experiment that was in our books and learned how amylase breaks down carbohydrates. The kids had fun using a mirror and finding their glands and touching their hard and soft palates.
Then we were on to the tongue, where we discussed briefly the job of taste buds and where they were found ~ we’ll be going more in depth with those later.
We also spent some time talking about teeth in other animals and the similarities or differences in their diets compared to ours and their need for different teeth.

We have used a few different books as go-alongs like:
“George Washington’s Teeth”  
and here’s a great pic of what one set of his false teeth actually looked like ~ I can’t imagine how uncomfortable they must have been with the spring loaded action. OUCH!! 













“Teeth and Tusks”  (from the “Look At” series)  

and “Take Care of Your Teeth”   

And made a neat digestion poster using printables from this book.       
Some links that I used this week were:
SurfNet Kids
Kids Health
Inner Body
Enchanted Learning  where I found some great printables to use this week.

And as a finisher to our beginning of digestion we watched a couple of videos
An episode of “Sid the Science Kid” ~ Feeling Good Inside and Out

and these great videos on YouTube:

and this one

Check back in to see where else digestion takes us as we explore where our food goes…
Happy Learning!!

Super Moon

Yep ~ tonight was the “SUPER MOON”…

A full Moon of rare size and beauty that rose in the east at sunset and called a "Super Perigee Moon" ~ the biggest in almost 20 years. It was truly a thing of beauty. A moon so big it looked as if you could actually reach out ad touch it.

We patiently waited for it to get dark enough to try ad get some good pictures… 

     

 

The Muscular System

We’ve slowly been working through the muscular system in “Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy”…
Here are some things we’ve done..
  seeing how long it takes for the muscle groups in our arms to wear out… They made it about 4mins and 30 seconds..
   learning about the different muscle groups that are at work when we do jumping jacks… and if the muscle in the shin plays a part in the effort…
   learning about the different muscle fibers, cells, and energy production…
   building an arm…
   we needed long balloons for the muscles but I only had the round kind in our craft bin… So no muscles on this arm…
and finally a working arm with triceps and biceps…
         

Our first dissection class…

We had a wonderful opportunity to attend a class on dissection recently and it was perfect timing since we are currently in our human body study using “Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology”…
The class was taught by an area public high school AP Biology teacher and was excellent…
                
She had folders for each child with various handouts from lab safety to voacbulary words involving dissection and body parts.
   an overhead video of the heart muscle pumping blood in and around it’s chambers… Perfect since we are finishing the muscles chapter this week…
The kids were broke up into groups of 2 and they got to share in the dissection process of a fetal    pig…
    A bucket full of piggies…
    She supplied all the lab trays and instruments for the kids to use…At the beginning of the class, she focused on lab safety and proper procedures for lab activity and dissection.
The proper way to set up a tray and specimen ~

  Hands on learning…                                     
     Concentrating on removing the liver, lungs, intestines, and kidneys in tact…
             
Tommy was able to view the masseter jaw, and how the esophagus and trachea are 2 separate tubes. He also got to see a fetal malformation where the stomach and liver had fused during development…This was a wonderful class and he learned tons from it.
There’s the possibility of having more advanced science classes being offered in the future on a quarterly cycle and I am really hoping this becomes a reality. It would add so much to our homeschool journey.
Big Thanks to Mrs. Rebecca for teaching it and for do such a wonderful outreach to the homeschool community…

The Muscular System ~ Week 1

We started out our week by finishing a project that I hadn't gotten around too last week...



Yes my son is trying to be a wizard in this photo... He wore the bandana all week ~ coming to school as a stage coach bandit, a wizard, and a motorcycle man... (another great thing about homeschooling, creativity never wans)

Then we started our reading on the muscular system...
We learned the body has 604 muscles and that they make up approximately 40% of your body weight.

The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the body.

The Masseter is the most powerful muscle and the eye has the most movement... we discussed REM sleep, how muscles pull instead of push and that if all your muscles were to work together at once they could pull over a semi-truck...

Learning how our muscles work up and down like an inch worm moves...

I love using this Apologia series... I'm reminded everday when we open up the book ~ that the human body is such an amazing thing and what an awesome creator we have.

FUN FRIDAY

Today was "FUN FRIDAY" at our house... Meaning we take a break from our normal school routine and do some "FUN SCHOOL"... I couldn't wait myself ~ I've had an obnoxious cold all week and was relishing the thought of letting the kids have fun learning and me getting to rest and relax a bit... (Cold meds always make me want to sleep)...

We started the day with our usual Friday routine ~ a spelling test... But they had to do it hopping on one foot...

We followed our spelling with some worksheets from "First Lessons in Arithmetic"� ~ that I printed off for them...These are math lessons from 1878 and the kids enjoy doing them and they get to use our modern day "slates" which is simply a piece of laminated paper and a dry-erase marker...(and the best part is it's free, easy to use, and a change from our normal daily math program)

Then on to reading ~ we continued with our read aloud on "Galen and the Gateway to Medicine"

We went to the kitchen and did an experiment of blowing up a balloon with common household ingredients...We chose two different methods to make the necessary carbon dioxide: yeast, and baking soda and vinegar ... from Science BOB



The ingredients and the kids' science journals...



Adding the yeast and sugar....



WATER please....

SUCCESS!!!!

and finished the day with a mean game of "SORRY" ...