The Human Body: The Skeletal 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

Friday, July 10

Prior to Meeting

Review of The Muscular System
(The Walls & Towers)

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

  "Muscular System" on page 8

  "Muscles of the Upper Limbs" on page 11

  

Introduction to The Skeletal System

• Microwave Ivory Soap Experiment
  

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

  "Inside a Long Bone" on page 27

  "Muscle, Tendon, Joint Dissection" on page 46

  "Shrink Test" on page 29

  "Great Thumbless Survival Test" on page 30

  

During the Meeting

• review the results of student at-home activities
• read "Bones and Body Plan: The Shape You're In" from Blood and Guts, stopping as follows:

  

  before reading "Bone Dry?" on page 21, discuss invertebrates, examples of molting (cicada, tarantula), and examples of shells (cuttlefish bone)

  at the bottom of page 21, do "Strength Experiment" on page 67 of The Body Book: Easy-to-Make Hands-On Models That Teach

  

  I balanced five hardcover picture books on my cylinder of paper:

  

  before reading "Bone Formation" on page 22, draw an illustration of the mesh of a bone with the bits of mineral in the open spaces between the mesh

  

  look at the illustration of "Knot a Bone" at the top of page 23 and explain that when you sit an uncooked chicken long bone in vinegar for five days, the minerals will disappear but the collagen mesh will remain... you will be able to bend the bone

  when you cook a bone, the collagen mesh will disappear but the minerals will remain... you will have a bone broth which is very gelatinous... What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained, "What do bones contribute to a stock?" on page 129

  

  after "Amazing Facts" at the bottom of page 23, read poems from Jeff Moss's book of Bone Poems:

  • "206" on page 70
  • "A Poem to Help You Figure Out What Bone the Patella Is" on page 64

  

  after reading "Kinds of Bones" on page 24, show deer vertebrae

  

  at the end of page 29, discuss sinus pressure and blockage (which would be greatly relieved by going on all fours)

  share instructions for "Make Your Own Flexible Spine" on page 58 and "Make Your Own Joints" on page 56 (a "mug plug" is best for carving the saddle joint at the base of the thumb) of The Human Body: 25 Fantastic Projects Illuminate How the Body Works by Kathleen Reilly

  

  spine models (one without any cushioning between the vertebrae, one with):

  
  

My biggest disappointment in teaching this particular system remotely is that students can't work with the X-rays and the light table!

Animal X-Ray Set: Vertebrates

Human X-Ray Set

Human X-Ray Set: Broken Bones

Human X-Ray Set: Fixed Bones

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