So much I want to share, but so little time...

There is so much I could be sharing but it's so hard to find time!  I'm in the process of making a list of things we have success with and maybe on breaks I'll get a more a bit more time to share.  However, did want to share this book we came across and I'm ordering it today for ourselves.  With having preschool through 4th grade, we touch on almost every aspect of the human body.  This book is WONDERFUL!  I keep seeing all the kids go back to it over and over.  Even I got engrossed in it!  Wanted to make sure people knew it was out there!

ISBN Number:  978-0-7566-5532-7

Amazon has it for approx. $22, hardcover...LOTS of information!

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)

Oh, the simple things like....Word Documents

Having issues with blogger again.  Seems like it happens when I actually have time to type up a post.  :-)  (Either blogger or my own SD card reader.  This time it wasn't allowing me to upload pictures.   Finally googled the issue and in case someone else is having the same issue...it is a known issue that the "choose files" icon appears and disappears not allowing you to upload pictures.  They are working on trying to find a solution to Internet Explorer browsers and their suggestion at this time is to use a different browser.  
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Okay, I know that there are people out there that are probably already doing this but sometimes I have a tendency to make more work for myself then I need to.  But...I'm learning.  One of the things I'm learning is that there are a lot of resources at the tips of my fingers that I have completely "forgotten" about...one of them being Word. 

A. is in 4th grade and he has a lot of writing in almost every subject with the K12 curriculum so I'm trying to cut it down a bit and come up with variations of activities.  I'm finding out that he enjoys technology quite a bit so I'm going to try to spend some more time helping him explore some simple programs.  One of the activities he was to do for today was to create a book.  Well, we just created a book in science and that was like pulling teeth...it required "writing".  Ha!  So I was flipping through the diagrams, charts, etc in Word and came across one that hollered "Louis Pasteur Book!" to me.  So this is what we came up with....scrapped the book and made a diagram.  He was quite pleased...now if only we can somehow figure out how to fit in "typing" into his day.  He took forever on the first portion and so I typed and had him dictate the rest of it.  But I think we're onto something!  Any typing program suggestions?

Oh, for those of you not aware of who Louis Pasteur is...he is the individual who experimented with a cure for rabies.  :-)