The Human Body: The Muscular 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

Friday, June 26

Prior to Meeting

Review of The Circulatory System
(The Great River, The Department of Transportation)

• How a Healthy Heart Pumps Blood video by the American Heart Association (1:30)

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

  "Circulatory System" on page 13

  "Heart" on page 14

  

Introduction to The Muscular System

• do the "Hokey Pokey"
• "Muscles Come in Pairs" from Easy Genius Project with the Human Body: Great Experiments and Ideas by Robert Gardner, p.98



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

  "Hairpin Dance" on page 43

  "Calisthenics for Your Face" on page 45

  "Magnifying Muscles" on page 40

  

During the Meeting

• review the results of student at-home activities
• read the chapter "Muscles: Your Mighty Movers" from Blood and Guts, stopping as follows:

  

  after reading "The Ties That Bind" on page 47, demonstrate hand model from "Make Your Own Working Model Hand" in The Human Body: 25 Fantastic Projects Illuminate How the Body Works by Kathleen Reilly, page 45

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