The circulatory system is one of my absolute favorite topics to teach! The two main things we learned about are the heart/veins/arteries & the components of the blood. I start out the study stressing how important every part of this system is for us to be able to live. I show them pictures of the blood vessels in out bodies.
Components of the Blood
I like to start out showing microscopic pictures of the components. We relate taking pictures with a microscope to the book we read earlier in the year, Snow Flake Bentley.
The four main components of the blood are: plasma (the clearish yellow liquid), red blood cells (which carry carbon dioxide and oxygen), white blood cells (which fight off infection), and platelets (which clot the blood if there are any cuts or scrapes).
As well as this lovely drawing:
This is a great coloring page with explanations of the four components from education.com
We used lemonade to represent the plasma, red died cheerios for the red blood cells, thinly sliced strawberries for the platelets, and mini marshmallows for the white blood cells. At first the liquid is clearish yellow, just like plasma. As you add the red died cheerios, the whole thing turns red, just like how the blood looks!
The Heart
The main things I focus on:
- There are 4 main sections: right & left ventricle, and right and left atrium.
- The heart is a muscle.
- The right side of the heart pumps oxygen poor blood cells into the lungs to drop off carbon dioxide and pick up oxygen.
- Then once the blood cells are oxygenized it comes back through the left side of the heart and is pumped out to the rest of the body.
- The left side of the heart is thicker because it has to pump the blood farther.
I love using the website Kid's Health. They have well thought-out informative videos and activities to go with anything having to do with the human body and a healthy lifestyle for kids! The picture to the left is printed out from that sight. We printed it out black and white with the blanks not filled in. That way we could color the correct sections blue and red. |
The At-Bristol Science Centre's You Tube channel has some great dissection videos! I had to prep my kids asking them to be serious and not to scream. I told them that some of them may be doctors, nurses, physical therapist, etc. and that they would have to dissect themselves. This preptalk helped my kids take it very seriously.
Other Videos
There are a ton of great videos out there about the circulatory system. The Magic school Bud - Inside Ralphie is great to show how white blood cells work to fight off infection with the help of extra anti-bodies from medication.