My Body

Activities

Gotta Have Heart
This activity was designed to accompany the Magic School Bus video, "Works Out."  You can probably find Magic School Bus videos at your local library.
Materials Needed
Modeling clay
Paper match for each girl
Clock with second hand
Calculator (optional)
Copies of YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART page

Instructions
Ms. Frizzle wins the school Teacherathalon, thanks to teamwork - heart, lungs, blood, and muscles all working together! Your kids make a personal heart profile of an important member of their own hardworking team. Ask girls to find their hearts. If they can’t, run in place for 30 seconds; try again. Ask: Why does your heart beat? (Pumps blood through body.) Why do you need a blood pump? (To carry oxygen, food to muscles and cells; carry away carbon dioxide.) Where else can you feel the blood pathway through your body? (At the pressure points.) Make a "Heartbeat Monitor." Imbed match in pea-sized clay, match head up. Flatten the bottom of the clay. Help girls find the wrist artery. Lay hand and wrist flat on a table. Feel with fingertips along thumb-side edge of wrist for a pulse. Put the Heartbeat Monitor on the pulse. No luck with the wrist artery? Feel for the neck artery, just below the chin, beside the windpipe. After girls record pulse, have them do 20 jumping jacks. Remonitor pulse rate. Wait two minutes, and record cool-down rate. Graph results on "Chart Your Heart." Have girls fill in bars up to the numbers for their resting, working and cool-down pulse rates. Help girls do the multiplication for their "Hard-Working Heart" profiles. Assume their hearts have beat at the same rate since birth. Ask: Why do you breathe harder when you exercise? (Lungs are taking in more oxygen for working muscles.) Why does your heart beat faster? (It’s pumping more oxygen to muscles.)
idea courtesy of Scholastic's Magic School Bus

Food Crushers
This activity was designed to accompany the Magic School Bus video, "Food Crushers."  You can probably find Magic School Bus videos at your local library.
Materials Needed
Small mirrors
Paper plates
A piece of apple, banana, and celery for each child
Copies of FOOD CRUSHERS page

Instructions
When the Magic School Bus shrinks and goes into Arnold’s mouth, the children watch his teeth chew Cheezie Wheezies while the Bus swerves to avoid being crushed! The kids meet up with much smaller pieces of the Cheezie Wheezies again in the stomach. It’s all part of the normal digestive process. In this activity, girls can explore the mouth, where digestion begins.  Give children copies of the FOOD CRUSHERS page. Have them wash their hands before beginning activity. Have girls look at their teeth in the mirror. Pass around plates with the food. Help girls make and record their observations on the activity page. Ask girls: How does chewing food help the body digest it? What happens to the pieces of food along the digestive tract?
idea courtesy of Scholastic's Magic School Bus

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