Anatomy IV

Next Up Sk-ELLIE-ton got a brain thanks to Ellen McHenery's Basement Workshop.

Here is Nate modeling our brain hat!

The older girls each took a hemisphere to color.  Then Nate and I did the cutting and taping.

Kristy

Anatomy III

After our study of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, we were moving on to the digestive system.  It also worked out that Kate was studying how to make casings in Home Ec.  How often to Home Ec. and anatomy converge, unless your getting stitches in the ER?

I bought a yard of pink fabric that we cut into two inch strips.  I sewed about half of them together in to a very long strand (a yard was too much).  Then Kate got to work sewing them as a casing.  We kept all the seams on the outside, with the home of a smooth interior.  We cut a very thin elastic to half the length of our casing intestines.  This gave our intestines that bunched appearance.

From the top down, we placed our esophagus (a pipe cut to length) and glued it in place.  I whip stitched a stomach out of felt, which slid over the end of the esophagus.  In the back of the felt, I cut a couple of slits and Nate zip tied it to the cardboard sk-ELLIE-ton.  I hand stitched the intestines to the base of the stomach opening.  Then we made three slits for zip ties one each side of the cardboard.  Kate and I worked the intestines back and forth and caught them up with the zip ties.  The plan had been to pull them loosely so we could drop a marble through the esophagus, and work it through the system, but one of the children was a bit over zealous and pulled too hard on the zip tie!

Supplies:
1/2 yard of pink cotton fabric (cut into 2' wide ribbons)
elastic
pink felt
1" pipe
thread
sewing machine
needle
Sk-ELLIE-ton

Kristy

Anatomy, continued

So, when we last left our Sk-ELLIE-ton, she was just a bag of bones.

After that, we studied muscles

And gave her a working hand, via Be the One

Then she got a lung transplant thanks to Spell Outloud.  After several uses, we switched to a cut up ziplock bag and taped the bag on for more stability--instead of a grocery sack held by a rubber band.

We also created her a heart based on Mommy-Labs.

To that we added arteries and veins that led to and from the heart down one arm, and also to the lung.  Those attachments were made with knots and rubber cement.

Here she is on transplant surgery day.  Everyone was gloved and ready--from left to right: yarn (veins and arteries), scissors, rubber cement, and enthusiasm!  Her heart is enlarged to show texture (or just because our balloons are a bit big).  I did not pop the balloon because I wanted the extra stability while we were working on other organs.

I was so glad to find those links through Pinterest.  I can't say anything further about the sites, as I didn't spend much time there though.

Next time, I'll share some of the things I created for us myself to stick with our sk-ELLIE-ton learning tool.

Kristy

Sk-ELLIE-ton

We're studying biology this year in our rotation.  We spent much of the fall learning the kingdoms and studying a little more specifically about bacteria, plants, and animals in specific.  We spent much of our time doing experiments from The Science of Life and reading library books about whatever we happened to be studying.

We've moved into the very specific genus of homo sapiens.  Our first step in human anatomy was to study the skeletal system.  I decided the best way for the kids to be involved and really understand it was to build a basic skeleton.

I traced our Ellie on one of the boxes and cut her it out.  Then I cut bones from the foam that was used to pack the pieces.  It was a bit simplified, using one piece in place of a few in the cranium and leaving out over lapping bones in preference for one layer of the bones as seen from the front.  Our rib cage is open so we can continue to add organs as we learn more.  The finger, toe, hand, and foot bones, being so small, I cut from paper.  I labeled the bones, and then the kids put them in their proper places.  We used school glue to hold them in place.

Meet our sk-ELLIE-ton (named by Gabby).

-Kristy

Please note, I do not receive any benefit from any link, it is purely informational!