Wednesday 28 June 2017

Learning about Skeletons


Now that we have finished our astronomy topic, we are moving on to the human body. We started off by learning all about bones and the skeleton. 




We started off with piecing together a puzzle of the skeleton and talking about the different bones in our bodies. The children felt each body part and tried to locate and feel for the different bones.

Locating bones on our bodies



Next we got large pieces of paper and drew around the children.


They had cut outs of bones on paper and they had to glue the bones in the correct places on their bodies.


Here is the finished picture.

Making joints and finding out how they work



Next, we spoke about the different types of joints which join our bones together and allow us to move our bodies. We spoke about hinge joints and ball and socket joints and how they allow the body to move in different ways. A hinge joint in the arm, allows it to move backwards and forwards but not side to side or around in a circle. 


We made hinge joints using three cardboard tubes, some wire and a cut out of a hand.


Here you can see how we joined the three tubes together with the wire.


This allowed us to be able to move the arm forwards and backwards.


Next, we made a ball and socket joint. These joints allow us to move our bodies in different directions; forwards and backwards and round in circles. We made these out of a cardboard tube, a ping ping ball and some white clay. We stuck the ping pong ball to the top of the tube with some tape. Then we used some clay which had been shaped into a socket to finish the joint. 


The children had lots of fun exploring this joint and how easily it moves.

Learning about the foods which make our bones healthy



Then it was break time. We looked at all the different snacks that are good for your bones. Foods rich in calcium such and broccoli, kale, milk, yoghurt, cheese, nuts and sesame seeds. A lot of these foods also contain Vitamin D which is also excellent for healthy bones. Oranges and eggs are also good sources of vitamin D, as is sunlight.

The skeleton dance




While the children were enjoying their snack for healthy bones, we listened to the 'Skeleton Dance' song and the children had good fun joining in with the dance moves and singing along.

Funnybones book



Finally, we read the story 'Funnybones' which I remember being a favourite book from my childhood. It is such a funny story about the adventures of some skeletons who go out in the night. The children loved listening to this story.

Trip to the skeleton exhibition



After we had finished our activities in the house, we went to the local museum to see the skeleton exhibition. There was a room full of skeletons in glass cases, all from different eras. They had all been excavated either locally in Bristol or in London. 


There was a written summary of each skeleton explaining where the skeleton was found, how old it was and what the bones showed us about any injuries or illnesses the person would have had.


The children had great fun looking out for clues in the bones about these injuries. They looked for signs of broken bones, bones which had been broken and then healed and osteoarthritis. There was even one skeleton that had an arrow head stuck in it!


Next we moved on to the interactive section for children. R and his friend had fun piecing together the bones to create the complete skeleton.

Being Osteologists



Next, the children dressed up as Osteologists, people who study bones. They put on gloves, a lab coat and goggles.


 R looked at pieces of bones under a microscope. 


D explored a skeleton with a UV torch.



The children had a lot of fun role playing. What a fun day we had learning all about the skeleton in a practical and interesting way!



Two Tiny Hands
Mummuddlingthrough
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33 comments

  1. That, definitely, was a fun day for the children!

    I would never feel the desire to go to school if my family would teach me this way at home! :-D

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  2. Wow what a fantastically comprehensive and fun way to learn about skeletons. I love the fact you made bones out of old toilet roll tubes and focused on snacks which are good for bones such a fab idea! Thanks for linking up to #coolmumclub with this x

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    1. Thank you. There are so many crafts you can do with cardboard tubes. Very versatile!

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  3. Great ideas. Love the bone study. Kids always love skeletons...we're in more of a dinosaur bones stage right now, but I think I could connect it. Thanks for sharing! #coolmumclub

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    1. Maybe you can use cardboard tubes as dinosaur bones and make a dinosaur skeleton!

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  4. These are amazing ideas! I love how you made and investigated the joints. Nothing better than hands on learning! Thank you for linking up to #ablogginggoodtime 🎉

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    1. The joints activities were really interesting for us adults too!

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  5. Wow this sounds so interesting! My daughter loves science and would have absolutely loved to do this! I remember Funny Bones too, was it a series on TV as well?

    #coolmumclub

    (Jenny from Accidental Hipster Mum, my email signs me in and I don't know how to change it) x

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    1. Why don't you try a few of these activities with your daughter? She'll love it!

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  6. This is such a fun educational activity, my eldest would love this X #ablogginggoodtime

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  7. Wow this is fabulous! I was hoping there would be a mention of Funny Bones, I loved it as a kid. #familyfun

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  8. I've just popped back over from #ablogginggoodtime x

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  9. So fun! We tried making life sized human bodies but my boys were not at all interested (and mostly grossed out) by the few mini units I had planned so we decided to set them aside and try again in another year or two.

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    1. Oh that's a shame. My kids are loving learning about the human body at the moment.

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  10. I used to love funny bones too! I must say you made it a really good lesson for them and no doubt in such a way that they could really understand it, especially by making the hinge joint for them to actually see it working. Huge respect to you, I am not sure I would have been able to do. I love that you gave them theme appropriate snack, such thought went into that lesson. Thanks for sharing at #familyfun

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  11. Ma sha ALLAH sounds like a long and exciting day!
    After reading this, I feel like I do nothing for/with my daughter (she is 1 year old!).
    While I try to do reading, etc with her I would surely like to have her engage in more activities. Do let me know if you have any ideas for 1 year old's educational activities.

    I will surely share it with my family for my nieces and nephews (in sha ALLAH).

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  12. Wow this is a very educational and fun craft for children to learn all the bones in the body thanks for sharing

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  13. Funny bones brings back so many childhood memories for me! I love the idea of using the old paper towel rolls, defo going to hold on to mine in the future so we can do things like this. Brilliant article sis masha Allah

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    1. You can do so much with cardboard tubes. Definitely worth saving up a stash of them.

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  14. OMG! This is so creative. Cardboard tubes are never gonna be thrown away in my house anymore inshaAllah.

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    1. Thank you. Yes keep them all. There are so many things you can do with them!

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  15. Mashaa Allah what a fun way to learn about the skeleton! I love how you incorporated nutrition into the lesson as well :)

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  16. This looks so cool!! Hmm think this would be so awesome for my class to do! (Www.beautywithzainy.com and www.spicyfusionkitchen.com)

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  17. Oh what a fun way to learn. Love the idea of drawing round them and then having to place the bones in the right place. Simple but effective

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    1. That was a really fun activity and trickier than you think trying to draw round the children neatly. Lol

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  18. Last time I tried to comment but it was showing null....I really enjoyed reading this post on learning about skeletons and love that idea to make a one with kids....

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