Life Science, Week 12

The Skeletal System

"Toe bone connected to da foot bone, foot bone connected to da ankle bone, ankle bone connected to da leg bone..."


Monday

• Tessa read Our Bones by Charlotte Guillain during reading.
• Read Blastoff Readers: The Skeletal System by Kay Manolis.
• Read The Bones You Own by Rebecca Baines.
• Listened to Dem Bones audiobook by Bob Barner.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: How Your Body Works, Grades 1-3 "Bones Support and Help Move the Body - We Need Our Bones" and "Bones" (worksheet only) activities (pages 64-65) from TeacherFileBox.com.
• Completed Teacher Created Resources My Body by Patty Carratello "My Skeleton" (pages 19-21) activity.
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Bones & Muscles DVD by Disney.

If you can get a hold of the audiobook version of Dem Bones (our library had it), it's well-done and quite fun. At the end of the CD, you can play the book as a song.

For the "Bones" worksheet listed above, I made two copies of it. I cut out the labels from one copy and had Tessa glue them onto the other to save time and writing.

Tuesday

• Read A Book About Your Skeleton by Ruth Belov Gross.
• Read Bones by Steve Jenkins.
• Completed Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids: How Your Body Works, Grades 1-3 "Bones Support and Help Move the Body - Joints," "Skeleton Puzzle," "Bones Need Calcium" activities and mini-book (pages 65-66) from TeacherFileBox.com.
• Explored Leapfrog Tag Interactive Human Body Discovery Pack "Your Skeletal System" section.

Tessa turned a pile of paper bones into a skeleton ("Skeleton Puzzle" from above).

Tessa examined chicken leg bones. She noted that they were strong and hard. Afterward, she placed most of the bones into a container. Then, I filled the container with vinegar. Over time, the vinegar will remove the minerals from the bones and they will become flexible. We will check on them in a couple of weeks.

After bathing in vinegar for a little over two weeks, the spongy parts of Tessa's chicken bones were decidedly softer and more flexible. The compact bone in the middle was still quite rigid, so back into the vinegar bath they went. We'll keep checking them.