THE HUMAN BODY continues.....And Happy Birthday America!

Since it's officially the 4th of July today, how about we begin with a little flag making!

We talked about what the stars and strips represent.  We discussed the colors; Red, White and Blue.  And we discussed America's Birthday.  Thanks kids for making some beautiful flags.

Our bodies have HAIR

 

We have BONES to hold up our BODIES!

Our bones are white and thick.  We used branches that were striped down from it's bark.  We then painted them white and placed them near our arms, our legs, and even along our rib cage to see where we thought it most likely would fit.  One of the kids said that when we were all done, he wanted to make a complete skeleton of bones (which I think we will attempt some time in October, just in time for Halloween). 

We discussed what was the purpose of our bones.  We held up a white glove and noticed how the fingers of the glove just flopped over.  We then took sticks and placed them in the glove's fingers and saw how it stood up without flopping down again.  They all awed and oohed at how this all made sense now.

Our entire room has been wallpapered with human bodies of these little children.  They are getting such a feeling of how their bodies work. 

Some of the bones were pretty large for such little ones, but they discovered that the bones could be their leg bones too, not only their arm bones.

While admiring his work, he started telling us how cool it was to be making bones.  

He then asked, if our brains tell our bones to move and how?  We talked about how we had muscles to give us strength to move and our brains were like computers telling our muscles to move our bones where we needed.  Check out our muscles.  

Adding MUSCLES

Here are some cute makings of Mini Me's with bones.

The kids wanted to know how a doctor can see our bones so we made our own Xrays.  They came out so cool.  If you're interested, I'll share how we made them.  Check out how they look in the windows.

You notice here that you cannot see the image of your bones, but once placed up against a window or any light source, you can see everything!!

Now let's talk about breathing and our lungs.

Breathe IN and OUT with LUNGS

Took a long hike to the end of a trail so we could sit and watch the creek and eat a delicious snack.
As you can see, our week has been so unbelievably busy.  It doesn't even include all the other fun we've had (park play, creek swimming, fruit harvesting, hiking, a messy sensory bin play, water play, bike riding and so much more)
Can't wait to share this upcoming week's Human Body fun.  
Have a great 4th of July all and Happy Birthday America!