#11 The Urinary System

Main Lesson Book
We began, of course, by reviewing the previous lesson, The Teeth. Students completed their summaries and illustrations for their main lesson books.

Day One Story & Exploration
I took my story for The Urinary System from Linda Allison's book, Blood and Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides.

The chapter is called "Kidneys: Washing Machines for the Blood." I required that the older students take notes during the lesson.

We started with page 83 (Inside the Kidney) and then read page 84 (Urine, What Exactly Is It, Then?). I described to them Natalie's experience with the "Liquidation" activity on page 84. It takes a MUCH larger jar than you think!

We went on to read page 85 (Find 'Em, Bladder) and then I read from pages 14 and 15 of Little House in the Big Woods, where Laura and Mary play with the pig's bladder.

Then we read the rest of page 85 (Bladder Signals) and page 86 (Amazing Facts). We did NOT do a kidney dissection.

Day Two Review & Exploration
We reviewed the parts and function of the urinary system by looking at the nomenclature three-part cards from ETC Montessori. I laid out and matched the pictures and definitions, and passed out the vocabulary cards to the group. As I showed each picture and read each definition, the child who had that vocabulary term came forward.

We also looked at The Urinary System page in our atlas of the human body, the Wall Chart of Human Anatomy.

Main Lesson Book
Students began to draft their summaries and illustrations for The Urinary System.

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