Posts Tagged ‘science’

Three-Dimensional Anatomy Poster

Friday, November 12th, 2010

anatomy-poster

Years ago when we studied anatomy, my children made a life-sized poster of each of the systems of the body, one by one as we studied them. The child would lie down on the butcher paper, and we would trace the real body of the child. We usually covered one system a week or one system for two weeks. We colored each system a different color so that we could distinguish which was which. It was a fun project that the children enjoyed.

Recently when I went to the state fair with my children, we saw a three-dimensional anatomy poster of two of the systems of the body: the circulatory and digestive systems. The intestine was made of panty-hose, and the stomach was a clear plastic bag with cut-out pictures of food in it. (I like humor in a project occasionally because it adds personality to the artwork.) A drinking straw was the esophagus. The heart, lungs, and trachea were made of felt, and it looked like the child stuffed it and sewed it around the edges. The brain was like the bottom part of an old-fashioned mop. It was really fun to look at!

How to Make an Ice Cream Ant

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

ice-cream-ant

Have you ever thought of making an ice cream ant? This is a great way to teach your children about insects.

I started by scooping out three vanilla ice cream scoops for the three parts of the body: head, thorax, and abdomen. The children stabbed in six pretzel sticks for legs, all coming out of the thorax, of course. Two more pretzels were poked into the head for antennae. (You had to almost hold on to the ice cream to jab those pretzels in!) I quickly poured a chocolate magic hardening shell on top, for the exoskeleton. I was originally going to use almond bark, which I’ve discovered, is great for making frozen chocolate bananas. But when I tried it, the chocolate ice cream ant looked like a giant had stepped on it! It was a mess. It was probably due to the boiling hot chocolate being poured on ice cream.

fun-with-ice-cream

My husband said there was an easier way, and off he went to the grocery store. He found the magic shell stuff around the place where you find Hershey’s syrup. I wish I had memorized the name of the thing, but it has the word “magic” in it, and “hardens” was another key word. It might have been Smuckers.

Anyway, since there are six people in our family, we made two ants, and each person ate an ant segment. All my kids fought over the thorax, for some odd reason, maybe because they wanted to get more pretzels. It was a fun project. If you decide to do this project with your kids, just remember not to use almond bark, or you’ll get a big gooey mess. I’ve included a photo so that you can point and laugh.

ice-cream-fail

Black Hole Explanation by a 6-Year-Old

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

black-hole-explanation

Have you ever heard a black hole explanation coming from a six-year-old? This 44-second video was not scripted. My six-year-old actually understood how a black hole was formed, and we filmed it in front of our outer space mural.