B is for Body

It may be late for other places in the country, but here in the Great White North, our apple trees are finally blooming.  The fat bumblebees make the tree hum as they go about their work.  The days are long and warm (about 70 F) and out homeschooling has moved outdoors.

This week, we studied the human body.  I know that's a big topic but the kids are young so we just focused on a few concepts.  Sort of by accident, we spent a lot of time talking about injuries and how our bodies heal.  We also tried a new technique called "Five in a Row," (FIAR) where the parent reads one book every night for five nights in a row (we actually only made it 3 nights).  This method is supposed to help kids to absorb information, vocabulary, rhetoric, etc.  The book we used this week for FIAR was "Your Body Battles a Skinned Knee."  The book uses child-friendly pictures and concepts to explain what happens in our bodies when we get a skinned knee.  This has been very applicable since we've had a number of skinned knees this week (sigh).  From reading this book and discussing it, Dragonfly can now tell you that the "Fibrin makes a net to hold in the red blood cells so we stop bleeding."

We also bought a stethoscope this week and listened to our heartbeats, the blood going through our veins, and "secret" messages from each other.

Our sensory bin for the week was a model of our blood.  Not a very good one- I'm saving the "gross" model for later years.  Our bin only had "red blood cells" made from tapioca pearls, ping-pong balls as "white blood cells," and spiky balls as "germs."  The kids played with it for about 45 minutes: sifting, touching, squishing, jumping, splashing, rubbing, etc.  Of course, the airplane wasn't planned but it still managed to "sneak" in anyways (Skimmer is hardly ever without his planes or cars).

Theme: B is for Body

Practical: hand washing practice
                listening with a stethoscope

Sensory: blood sensory bin
              glitter germ experiment

Educational: doctor's office pretend play
                    skin color chart
                    human body videos (Youtube)

Work Boxes: fingerprints exploration
                     tooth brushing practice

Books: "Germs Make Me Sick"
             "I See Me"
             "Bear Feels Sick"
             "My Amazing Body"
             "The Life Cycle of Humans"
             "Your Body Battles a Skinned Knee"
             "Pilobolus- the Human Alphabet"

Song: "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes"

Outing: Well-child check-up at the doctor's office

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