Human Body Unit: Muscles

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about our human body science unit. After learning about the skeleton, we moved on to study muscles and made more fun models from The Body Book. We made a model of a muscle contracting and relaxing and also a model of the bicep (shown in the photo). The model of the bicep allowed Jacob to see how his arm moves when the bicep contracts and how the bicep is attached to the shoulder blade and the radius. We did an activity called "How Muscles Move Your Body" from Janice VanCleave's The Human Body for Every Kid: Easy Activities That Make Learning Science Fun. We have used activities from this book throughout our study of the human body and I really appreciate how most of the activities can be done with items you already have around the house.

We learned more about muscles from the books "You Can't Make a Move Without Your Muscles" by Paul Showers and Muscles: Our Muscular System by Seymour Simon. Unfortunately the first book is no longer available from Amazon.com but you can probably get it through your library. Jacob is really enjoying the combination of good books, hands on activities, and model making as we study the human body.