The Human Body: The Circulatory 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!

Previous Sessions in this Science Club topic were:

• The Twelve Senses
• Teaching About ASL and Braille
• The Human Body: The Nervous System

Friday, June 19

Prior to Meeting

Review of The Nervous System
(The President, The Department of Communication)

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

  "Brain" on page 26

  "Spinal Cord" on page 27

• skull illustrations from Early Humans by Michelle Breyer

  "Ape's Skull" on page 111

  "Australopithecus' Skull" on page 112

  "Homo Habilis' Skull" on page 122

  "Homo Erectus' Skull" on page 129

  "Neandertal's Skull" on page 145

  "Cro-Magnon and Modern Human's Skull" on page 154

Introduction to The Circulatory System
(The Great River)

• experiments from Blood and Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides by Linda Allison

  "Tennis Ball Squeeze" on page 50

  "Under Your Tongue" on page 54

  "Matchstick Pulse Meter" on page 55

  "Stress Test" on page 57

During the Meeting

• review the results of student at-home activities
• look at "Your Brain" illustration on page 25 of How Your Body Works and discuss the different skull shapes and capacities of early humans

  

• look at "The Cardiovascular System" page of Wall Chart of Human Anatomy

  

• read "Heart: The Double-Barrelled Pumper" from Blood and Guts, stopping as follows:

  

  at the bottom of page 49, stop and watch 5:45 of Meet the Heart!

at the bottom of page 52, stop and discuss giraffe heart information from National Geographic and look at Artery vs. Vein transparency; note the similarities and the differences between their construction (elastic layers on Artery, valve to prevent backflow on Vein)

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