Today we learned how each of our bodies has an engine that makes it go--and that's the Heart! It's an amazing muscle and I had each of the kids make a fist to see the approximate size of their own hearts. They could feel it moving and working when they put their hands on their chests.
With the heart being the engine, it has to have ways of getting the power around our bodies. We looked at our arms to see the shadows of veins. Veins are amazing things. Everyone has 2 sets-- a coming and a going set.
Just like the picture in the book, the kids drew the veins around their body pattern, showing how the vessels return to the heart to be filtered and get more oxygen. Blue is the used blood and the red is the clean blood that is ready to go.
Everyone had their own interpretation of how the veins are laid out, even after I showed them pictures of the network. But--it's still very much just a "concept" at this age.
One of the things that our hearts do is make it possible for all the other organs in our bodies to work. So we discussed our amazing bodies with a booklet I found at www.kidssoup.com. The book was awesome! It took a little while to assemble, but it was cut to show the different categories of organs and how they are all supported by the skeleton.
I told everyone to color in their skin and hair with a cute face on the front. I got exactly what I asked for :)
As we talked about the colors and purposes of some of the organs, I was often corrected. "Pink" organs were readily accepted by the girls, but some of the boys were whole-heartily convinced that their organs were red or blue--no matter what!
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