Skeletons

Help first graders learn the names of some of the major bones like the scapula, the sternum and the ulna.

Create a game of putting a paper skeleton together by drawing a bone name from a stack and adding that bone to the body skeleton. If they aren’t sure which bone it is, look it up in a book or dictionary. Students could each build their own skeleton or work in teams.

Find figurative language phrases (idioms, colloquialisms, clichés or others) that involve the human body or its parts. “That's a knee slapper!”

Measure the length of your leg bones, arm bones, or finger bones in paperclips. Try measuring in other tools such as attribute blocks, pattern blocks or Unifix cubes.

Human babies can be born with around 270 soft bones in their body. Find out from reading the Facts and Links provided in this Science Trek site how many bones are in the body once they become solid. Create a math equation to show what the difference is. Solve and label your answer. Extend this lesson: How many bones would 5 people have?

Create a ratio table measuring the length of one bone in your body and comparing it to another bone measurement. Find 3 missing values before and after for a total of 6 values. Work with a younger class to identify someone who has an equivalent ratio to yours. (It might be fun to hang on to the measures for several years to see if the younger student maintains the same ratio.)

All organisms have body parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways. Animals have body parts that capture and convey different kinds of information needed for growth and survival. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to grasp objects, protect themselves, and move from place to place.

Emphasis is on systems of information transfer.

Animals have various body systems with specific functions for sustaining life: skeletal, circulatory, respiratory, muscular, digestive, etc.

Populations of animals are classified by their characteristics.

The energy released from food was once energy from the sun that was captured by plants.

Food provides animals with the materials they need for body repair and growth and the energy they need to maintain body warmth and for motion.

Emphasis is on inferring general patterns of relatedness among structures or different organisms by comparing diagrams. Pictures, specimens, or fossils.

Emphasis is on relationships among organisms in terms of similarity or differences of the gross appearance of anatomical structures. Anatomical similarities and differences between various organisms living today and between them and organisms in the fossil record enable the classification of living things.

Within individual organisms, food moves through a series of chemical reactions in which it is broken down and rearranged to form new molecules, to support growth, or to release energy.

In multicellular organisms, the body is a system of multiple interacting subsystems. These subsystems are groups of cells that work together to form tissues and organs that are specialized for particular body functions. Examples could include the interaction of subsystems within a system and the normal functioning of those systems.