Objective:
To introduce students to their bodies, their parts, their functions, and their location.
Resources:
1) Roll of newsprint from your local newspaper office.
2) A detailed book on the human body that can give you pictures of the body parts.
3) Crayons, Markers, Pencil
4) Glue
Teacher Preparation:
You can draw whatever body parts youwant to learn ahead of time, copy how many you need, and cut them out ahead of time, then have the kids color them in class. Or you can let the kids cut and color them in class.
Procedure:
This is a project I did in 3rd grade and it has stuck with me ever since! Use it to enhance a lesson on nutrition, ect. Provide a book that illustrates the human body with explanation on different organs. I focused on the basic organs: heart, stomach, intestines, liver, brain, esophagus, lungs, bladder. Before making our ‘bodies’ I did some teaching on these organs individually. Explaining what each one was, what it did, and how we can take care of it. Like the liver: to have a healthy liver it’s important to drink lots of water… I then had a copy of each organ for each child. Whatever organ we learned on that day, we cut out and colored and kept in our folder. Once we learned on each organ and cut/colored it, I had each student find a partner. Each partner took turns ‘tracing’ their partner’s body outline onto a long piece of newsprint paper with a pencil. Then each student got their ‘body parts’ out and glued them onto their body in the proper places. Once this was done, I let them decorate their bodies with hair, eyes, mouth, nose, nails, ect. They named their ‘person’ and we taped them on the walls around the room! This lesson really helps students ‘remember’ what they learn!
Real World Usage:
If you’re not the artistic type, and don’t want to draw your own organs, try to find a reproduceable book of the body, any classroom outlet store should have them, or “The American Education” company has workbooks out with them in it.