Cells!

Science2:  Human Body-Cells
A simple introduction!  One aspect I love of the K12 curriculum is that each year they build on it a bit more.  They introduce and they review and review and review!  Love it!  This was a perfect amount of information for 2nd grade.  

They (all the kids...even the preschooler, though I doubt he got more than the sensory out of it.  LOL) definitely enjoyed this pretty simple lesson/activity so wanted to share it.

back of our foldable

  

K12 had a matching sheet that we cut apart to make our foldable.  They glued on the cell pictures to the flaps, and the function to the inside.  They labeled the name of the cell on the inside of the flap.  Then they glued their labeled cell and their little tidbit about cell division to the back of the foldable.

Our model cell had a

sandwich bag cell membrane

lemon jello cytoplasm

banana nucleus

Some of the children wrapped a pipe cleaner around the banana and showed us what cell division was like.  :-)

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Unfortunately, copyright technicalities will not allow me to share the matching work sheet.  And, can you believe that I can't find one online?  Maybe have to fix that "problem" sometime.  Anyhow, there is no reason why you can not google the individual cell images and have the children draw them.  :-)

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*  All plants and animals (living things) are made up of cells.

*  Our human body is made up of trillion cells.

*  Cells live, die and are replaced; cell division

*  There are different types of cells and they can be in various sizes and shapes.

   Nerve Cells  

Look like tree branches or tree roots.  

They send messages back and forth between your brain and the rest of your body.

Muscle Cells

Long and stretchy.

They shorten and lengthen to help our body move.

Skin Cells

Long flat rectangles all packed together.

Protect us from germs, infections, everyday bumps.

Interesting tidbit they enjoyed:  The top layer of our skin is made up of dead skin cells. 

Red Blood Cells

Look like doughnuts with dents instead of holes.

They carry oxygen to the different parts of our body.

I came across this picture that a blogger posted from The Big Book About the Human Body by Joe Kaufmann.  Quite nice!  Going to see if I can get this book at our local library.

  

Link of interest:
For older students...   Fran's Freebies Cell Worksheets
(you could get some of the basic cell pictures off of her matching sheet)