I'm doing a Unit on the human body and was wondering if anyone had any good fun ideas for fifth grade. I have some, but the more the merrier. Thanks
Need more information on what your looking for. Do you want to do how to keep the body healthy, or parts of the body (heart, lungs.....)?
I am going to be doing a unit this fall on the human body too if anyone can offer any ideas, its for a second grade class. They need to learn about all the systems and etc
I don't teach that unit, but most teachers I know that do teach it, do this activity. They have the kids trace each other on large sheets of paper and then attach cutouts of the systems as they talk about them. I've seen this done in 3rd and 4th grades.
There is a great teacher resource book with plenty of ideas for the human body. I found it on amazon, new it costs $8.78 and you can buy them used or from other sellers from $4 up... The ISBN # is 0439040876. I have used their activities, and they are great....
I did an activity for the circulatory system (heart) similar to the one on this website. It went alright --- considering my class. http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/science/circulatorysystem.htm
Yes, elementary students love the Halloween skeletons and come up with intriguing questions about the human body - during and after the exercise!
My human body unit lasted for a couple of months...beginning in October with the skeletal and muscular systems. We covered one system at a time, and tied in a lot of our health (healthy eating, brain and spinal cord safety) at the same time. For their final evaluation, the students created Mind Maps to demonstrate their knowledge. Our grade 8's (who also cover the human body) made life-sized cut-outs which they needed to label with all systems for their culminating activity. Have fun; I love this unit!
I know you were looking for ideas, here are some of my favorite urls for anatomy/phisiology. This should keep you busy and best of all, there are other science topics there too that you might find useful... http://www.sirinet.net/~jgjohnso/biologyII.html http://yn.la.ca.us/cec/cecsci/sci-elem.html http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/edsci.htm#anatomy http://www.estrellamountain.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/biobooktoc.html
2 thing I have done that my kids always LOVE are activities showing how the stomach and intestines digest food. stomach: put a slice of banana, a cracker and a little green food coloring in an individual baggie. Let the kids break down the food in their "stomachs" (the baggie) by kneading and squishing the bag. Explain that the green food coloring is the acids in the stomach that are helping to break down the food. intestines: cut the legs (and toes) off of pantyhose (I usually just use one leg for boys and one for girls, but you could make your groups smaller). Make some oatmeal...good old fashioned oatmeal. Put a blob of it into one end of the panty hose. This is the food as it enters the intestines. Have kids work together to squeeze the oatmeal through to the other open end. They represent the muscles squeezing the food through the intestines. Ooey, gooey "stuff" will come out through the pantyhose, and this is the nutrients/etc..being taken out of the food through digestion and being absorbed by the body. Finally, the oatmeal will make it out the other end....waste. This is one of my favorite activities to do each year. My only suggestion is to do it outside if you can...it's very messy!
Building a Model I saw a display once while visiting schools (interviewing) where a teacher had apparently taught the body systems and recycling at the same time. As a culmination of the units, their task was to make a lifesize model of the human body with recycled objects. They were all mounted on bulletin board paper (or a couple of pieces of poster board) and were hanging down the hallway. I remember lungs made of half gallon milk jugs and intestines made of panty hose, eyeballs made of bouncy balls and bladders made of balloons. It was sort of eerie and at the same time fun to see the students creativity. You could do this, whole group, small group or as individual homework projects.
When taught the skeletal system a few years back, I taught my students the "Them Bones them bones, them dry bones.....the hip bone's connected to back bone, back bone connected to the neck bone...ect." But, instead of the basic words, we replaced those word with our scientific vocabulary. It was tricky to keep the rythm of the original, but the song and kinesthetic aspect of it (they had to get up, point/touch that bone while singing) really helped them learn it. Then, a week later we had a guest speaker (a student's dad was a doctor) and they were able to impress him with what they learned.
Oh, this is one of my very favorite units! When my mom was a teaching assistant, she had students work in groups to trace the body shape and then fill the body with bones and organs. The gifted students were really into this project. Then, THIS is fabulous. I want to do this project this year:: http://schools.volusia.k12.fl.us/timbercrest/classrooms/4/4-supplies_request.htm I also do fingerprinting, peripheral vision, and so much more... I just love teaching the human body. I also have a little bit about the unit in the Math/Science section of my domain! Any questions, I'll help you out!!
