The girls and I kicked off
Week 1: Me on the Map of the
Smart Summer Challenge by making
Life-Sized Body Maps today!
We started out by tracing ourselves on
big pieces of brown contractor's paper.
Then, we traced over our pencil outlines
with crayola marker.
"C" chose Pink (of course)
and "E" chose black.
We collected a stack of "E"s human body and anatomy books.
Then, we got to work making
organs and bones.
"C" drew the brain first,
she knew where it goes and talked
about Daddy's brain tumor...
for more info on that one, see the post on my sidebar
Cutting out organs from construction paper
It was really neat watching "C"'s "A-Ha!" moments
as she figured out where her heart is,
that her skeleton holds her up so she's not floppy,
where her intestines are,
and that's where poop comes from! : )
White masking tape formed bones.
"C" was fascinated by the spine.
We talked about back bones while we were visiting
the Natural History Museum in Washington DC
on Saturday -- standing in the dinosaur room
she was asking about their spines,
so I bent over and had her feel all of the bumps on mine.
She remembered that today when we started making
the spine on her "body map"
We used bubble wrap for lungs since
they're full of little air chambers/pockets.
Q-tips made really good finger bones
(but they're hard to cut so mom needed to do that,
didn't want to chop off any real fingers while
making pretend fingers!)
Crepe paper streamers were used for the intestines.
Noodle teeth.
"E" is still working on hers,
she wanted to save it to finish with her friend
that is coming over for a play date tomorrow morning.
Wonder what her friend's mom will think?!
This post is part of the Smart Summer Challenge.
"Like" our Smart Summer Challenge on Facebook,
find out more about the Smart Summer Challenge
and grab our free calendar of summer learning ideas.
Candace, one of our hostesses, over at Naturally Educational and her kids
made adorable life-sized, painted, self portraits today!
My friend Amy, our other hostess, over at TeachMama.com,
has all kinds of fun up her sleeve this week too!
Visit us throughout the week for fun ideas
to explore Me on the Map with your own kids!
Please come back and join us on Friday, July 1st
for our weekly Smart Summer Linky,
share YOUR own Smart Summer Challenge ideas and posts
with other parents and teachers.
You'll be entered for a chance to win a $100 credit to your local book shop
or toy store of choice, thanks to one of our sponsors, Juice in the City.
Fondly,
Pink and Green Mama
17 comments:
MaryLea, I LOVE IT! I thought about doing the organs but thought it might be a bit much for the boy (almost 3)...although maybe not since he loves his "layers of the body" puzzle. I had started to brainstorm ways to do the organs--you came up with way better ones! I will definitely do this with the kids next year when the boy is a little bit older.
OMG! I think I'm gonna have to do this with my son! We recently went to a local museum, and they had a room in the shape of a giant stomach that the kids could go into, and it made all sorts of disgusting stomach noises (farts and burps, etc.), which he loved of course! Ever since then, he has been obsessed with all things relating to the stomach! My husband and I have leftover Anatomy/Physiology books from college, and he loves looking through them and learning all the different organs and what they do. :) This would be a great activity for him! Thanks for the idea!
The body maps are cool, but I got sidetracked reading your story about your husband's brain tumor and how you met. That is so beautiful and so meant to be it just made me cry. I am so glad he is doing well and that you found each other.
@dannyscotland --
Thank you!
He's a great guy, my best friend and partner in crime.
We feel very lucky and blessed to have each other and good health. Every day is a gift!
Fondly,
MaryLea
what a great job!!
you guys are amazing..
I am so glad you guys feel blessed with each other..Best regards
patty
What an AWESOME guy! I love it!
Hi MaryLea! I am sooooo glad I stumbled across your blog!! I LOVE IT!! I have been running a dayhome for the past 7 years so new ideas are always needed! Such great tutorials and ideas! Thank you! Thank you!!
Charlene
Charlene -- Welcome! Please feel free to come back every Friday and link up any posts you have for a chance to win a weekly prize from our sponsors!
Fondly,
pink and green mama
MaryLea
oHHHHHHHH I love it, what a beautiful idea! (and love the activity in the ligh table too)
Hugs, thanks for sharing!
meni*
goodNESS this is cool! We have a big life size poster on our boy's door of the innards ;o) of a boy's body. We'll be doing this project fo'sho'.
That is so cool. My dad was an anatomy teacher. He'd probably like to do this with the boys in a few years! I love the way you used a variety of textures and had your girls help you brainstorm those. Super cool.
Great post! What a wonderful activity ... I love your creative ideas for body parts! And the story about you and your husband was beautiful - so moving! Deb @ LivingMontessoriNow.com
What a fantastic learning experience, I love it!
LOVE this idea! my kids are 3,5, and 7 and they are all facinated by the human body. We will definitely be doing this project! Where did you find such large sheets of paper??? Thanks!
@Crystal We use brown Contractor's paper, you can buy it at Walmart in the painting and tape area or at any home improvement store.
Fondly,
Pink and Green Mama
MaryLea
This is such a fantastic idea !!!
Georgia
:)
Thank you so much for sharing this. Not only did this fit our human body homeschool studies, my kindergartener made her life sized body map as a science fair project. Her question How are sharks and humans alike? Different? and her accompanying project placed 1st in her age category and won the science fair overall! But most of all, we had such fun learning with this. Appreciate it. http://www.hodgepodge.me/2011/10/science-fair-and-art-show-results-kindergartener/
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