The Human Body: The Excretory System

We are using the Montessori Sixth Great Lesson analogy of The Great River (click the link and then choose "The Nation of the Great River - Narration and Music - by Lizby Dingus and Kai Engle" to hear ETC Montessori's version of this lovely story; choose "Teacher's Notes" to download the words as a PDF).

This story is a wonderful way to frame our work. In a Montessori Lower Elementary classroom students ages 6-9 would hear this story every year. It is part of the Peace & Cosmic Education subject of the curriculum.

This isn't as rich and hands-on as when I taught The Human Body as a summer camp in 2018, of course, because we are doing social distancing and meeting via Zoom. But you do the best you can with what you have!

With this "Flipped Classroom" approach, students are doing the "Prior to Meeting" activities at home with their families before we gather on Zoom.

Previous Sessions in this Science Club topic were:

• The Twelve Senses
• Teaching About ASL and Braille
• The Human Body: The Nervous System
• The Human Body: The Circulatory System
• The Human Body: The Muscular System
• The Human Body: The Skeletal System
• The Human Body: The Teeth
• The Human Body: The Digestive System
• The Human Body: The Respiratory System

Friday, August 7

Prior to Meeting

Review of The Respiratory System
(The Department of Air Quality)

• coloring pages from Human Anatomy Coloring Book by Margaret Matt and Joe Ziemian

  "Larynx and Trachea" on page 21

  "Alveoli" on page 22

  

Introduction to The Excretory System

• "Taking a Temperature" from Blood and Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides by Linda Allison, p.73

  

• "The Urinary System" from The Body Book: Easy-to-Make Hands-on Models That Teach by Donald Silver and Patricia Wynne

  assemble the model "The Urinary System" on page 122

  assemble and color the model "Inside the Kidneys" on page 123

  

• IF you have the book Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, read chapter 1, “Little House in the Big Woods.” How does this go along with our topic this week?

  

• "Liquidation" from Blood and Guts by Linda Allison, p.84

During the Meeting

• review the results of student at-home activities
• read the chapter "Cells: Basic Body Bits" from Blood and Guts

  

• read Building Understanding #1 on page 119 and "Using the Model" on page 120 of The Body Book

  

• read the chapter "Kidneys: Washing Machines for the Blood" from Blood and Guts, stopping as follows:

  after reading "Find 'Em" on page 85, discuss dialysis and kidney stones

  after reading "Amazing Facts" on page 85, look at the interactive website CELLS alive! Interactive HowBig?: Size of Cells and Microbes

  click on green arrows to slowly zoom in/out; click on blue to jump to

  Human hair
  Dust mite
  Ragweed pollen
  Lymphocyte
  Red blood cells
  Baker's yeast
  E. coli
  Staphyiococcus
  Ebola virus
  Rhinovirus

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