Kindergarten, Science, Weeks 34 & 35

And then God made man . . .

I used the book You're Tall in the Morning But Shorter at Night by Melvin and Gilda Berger.

• We read about cells
• Groups of cells make tissues; groups of tissues make organs, groups of organs make organ systems
• We found pictures of organs and organ systems, printed them and glued them on our new mural. (skeleton, muscles, heart, eye, lungs, skin, etc.)

•  We read about the skeleton
• Without bones we would be like a blob of jelly
• I put a big scoop of grape jelly on a plate and we tried to make it "stand up"
• Then we stuck toothpicks in the jelly and were able to make it "stand up" better
• If I had thought about this ahead of time, I would have stirred up some jello. Maybe not as stiff as jigglers, but stiffer than regular jello. It probably would have worked better, but K. got the idea.
• K. dictated what we learned about the skeleton to me and we glued it by the skeleton.
• We read about muscles
• K. wrote what we learned and glued it next to the picture of muscles
• Some muscles move our bones, other muscles help us eat, digest food, move our blood, and breathe.
• We read about digestion
• We read that our small intestine is 22 feet long
• I happen to have nine 12" rulers; we started at the bathtub and K. put the rulers end to end (9 feet), then I held the last one in place and K. moved the other rulers (17 feet), then I held the last one and she moved five rulers (22 feet).
• Then I gave her a ball of yarn and she unrolled it from the last ruler to the bathtub and cut it.
• We balled the yarn up and glued it on the mural.
• We found a picture of the digestion system (stomach to large intestines) for the mural.
• K. dictated the digestion process to me and we glued that up also.

•  We read about circulation
• We listened to our hearts
• We played "The Blood Game"
• I asked K. which room in our house would be like the heart. We decided on the bathroom, because it is the smalled room.
• I told her that her bedroom was the lungs because there are two twin beds, just like she has two lungs.
• We were the blood.
• We went in the heart (bathroom) and "swoosh" were pumped into the lungs (bedroom) to get oxygen and then we ran back to the heart (bathroom) and then were pumped "swoosh" to _________, (This is the fun part because she got to pick different parts of the body -- eye, toes, fingers, stomach, etc. and run to some other part of the house.) Then veins take the blood back to the heart (bathroom) and "swoosh" pumped to the lungs (bedroom) and back to the heart (bathroom) and "swoosh" out to another part of the body. Repeat until child is tired.
• K. really enjoyed this game and we have played it on many other days.
• We read about respiration
• We watched our chests rise and fall as we breathed.
• I had K. get one of her blouses; I got two balloons.
• I put the balloons inside the blouse and blew them up.
• The book didn't mention the diaphragm, but another day K. had the hiccups and we talked about it.
• We read about the nervous system
• We read about our five senses
• Books:
• My Five Senses by Aliki
• I Can Tell by Touching by Carolyn Otto
• You See With Your Eyes by Melvin and Gilda Berger
• You Smell With Your Nose by Melvin and Gilda Berger
• You Taste With Your Tongue by Melvin and Gilda Berger
• You Hear With Your Ears by Melvin and Gilda Berger
• I traced K.'s hands, and drew a tongue, ear, nose, and eyes on our mural
• We looked through magazines for things we could touch, taste, hear, smell, and see (and cut them out)
• K. glued the pictures by the drawings of that sense.

On the last day we cut out pictures of animals and people and glued them on our "6".

Here is what the whole thing looks like now. We just have the "7" to do. I can't believe we are almost finished with our first "official" year of schooling!