New 30-page Nutrition Worksheets and Activities Recently, we finished up a unit on nutrition. I created various notebook pages and activities about fiber and vitamins, which are now included in the Digestive System Packet. We talked about fiber and why it is so important in our diet. We talked about What is fiber? How much fiber do people need? Where do you get fiber in your diet? What does fiber...
The past few weeks, we have been studying the digestive system. We had studied the digestive system a number of years ago, but now that the kids are older (4th, 7th, 9th), I wanted to go into more depth — especially about the small intestine, liver, gall bladder, pancreas and large intestine. We talked about how different parts of the digestive tract functions and the role bile and pancreatic juice...
When I think about all we’ve done this past year in 2015 in science, I’m really pretty amazed! It’s been a fun, full year! This post has links to dozens of our science experiments, printables and hands-on activities. You’ll find direct links to the posts in the table below. We managed to squeeze in various engineering (STEM) type activities here and there. In January of 2015 we were in the...
We had an amazing time studying the Digestive System. We did a whole range of hands-on activities from making our own epiglottis to seeing how the digestive tract works (how nutrients pass through). We made “fake”vomit, measured out the length of the digestive system and more! I also made notebook for the kids as we went through this unit. Our Digestive System Packet is 100+ pages. Our Digestive System Packet...
We had so much fun with our Digestive System Unit. We did hands on activities to see how the digestive tract works (how nutrients pass through), made “fake”vomit, measured out the length of the digestive system and more! We broke our unit into three parts: Part I: Digestive System — Mouth Part II: Digestive System — Swallowing, How the epiglottis works Part III: Digestive System — The Digestive Tract I...
Digestive Tract: So just how long is our digestive tract? We set out to find out with this activity. We measured out different colors of yarns for each part of the digestive system. The page you see (above right) is in the Digestive System Pack (See details below.) I made for the kids. After we had all the bits measured and tied together, we went out to the driveway to see just how...
We did a lot of hands-on activities over the course of two or three weeks. I’m going to put them all into one post. Esophagus Activities: Does food fall down to the stomach? We proved that muscles helped move the food bolus down to the tummy with this quick upside-down activity. Everyone took turns standing on their hands, chewing up a cracker and swallowing. We also did this lying on our...
No, no one choked at our house recently, but we did go into a lot of detail about swallowing and choking a few days ago. I wanted to find a way for the kids to really understand how choking happens — and then to know what to do about it. Now, don’t take this as expert advice… if you really want to know details about doing abdominal thrusts (Heimlich Maneuver)...
To start off our unit on the digestive system, I had the kids look at a diagram and write down all the parts of the digestive system. That was the first section of the pack I made (more about that below). Then we took a closer look at the mouth. We did these activities over the course of several days: I asked the kids what the mouth’s role is in...
Once a year, we usually learn about one of the human body systems. One year, we studied the digestive system. We also went into great detail one year about the Skeletal System. And recently, we learned about the circulatory system. We usually start off with an overview of the human body systems. We often start with a fun album called the Body Systems Rock (affiliate link). The kids *love* it!! We borrowed...
