Learning about Skeletons

Now that we have finished our astronomy topic, we are moving on to the human body. We started off by learning all about bones and the skeleton. 

We started off with piecing together a puzzle of the skeleton and talking about the different bones in our bodies. The children felt each body part and tried to locate and feel for the different bones.

Locating bones on our bodies

Next we got large pieces of paper and drew around the children.

They had cut outs of bones on paper and they had to glue the bones in the correct places on their bodies.

Here is the finished picture.

Making joints and finding out how they work

Next, we spoke about the different types of joints which join our bones together and allow us to move our bodies. We spoke about hinge joints and ball and socket joints and how they allow the body to move in different ways. A hinge joint in the arm, allows it to move backwards and forwards but not side to side or around in a circle. 

We made hinge joints using three cardboard tubes, some wire and a cut out of a hand.

Here you can see how we joined the three tubes together with the wire.

This allowed us to be able to move the arm forwards and backwards.

Next, we made a ball and socket joint. These joints allow us to move our bodies in different directions; forwards and backwards and round in circles. We made these out of a cardboard tube, a ping ping ball and some white clay. We stuck the ping pong ball to the top of the tube with some tape. Then we used some clay which had been shaped into a socket to finish the joint. 

The children had lots of fun exploring this joint and how easily it moves.

Learning about the foods which make our bones healthy

Then it was break time. We looked at all the different snacks that are good for your bones. Foods rich in calcium such and broccoli, kale, milk, yoghurt, cheese, nuts and sesame seeds. A lot of these foods also contain Vitamin D which is also excellent for healthy bones. Oranges and eggs are also good sources of vitamin D, as is sunlight.

The skeleton dance

While the children were enjoying their snack for healthy bones, we listened to the 'Skeleton Dance' song and the children had good fun joining in with the dance moves and singing along.

Funnybones book

Finally, we read the story 'Funnybones' which I remember being a favourite book from my childhood. It is such a funny story about the adventures of some skeletons who go out in the night. The children loved listening to this story.

Trip to the skeleton exhibition

After we had finished our activities in the house, we went to the local museum to see the skeleton exhibition. There was a room full of skeletons in glass cases, all from different eras. They had all been excavated either locally in Bristol or in London. 

There was a written summary of each skeleton explaining where the skeleton was found, how old it was and what the bones showed us about any injuries or illnesses the person would have had.

The children had great fun looking out for clues in the bones about these injuries. They looked for signs of broken bones, bones which had been broken and then healed and osteoarthritis. There was even one skeleton that had an arrow head stuck in it!

Next we moved on to the interactive section for children. R and his friend had fun piecing together the bones to create the complete skeleton.

Being Osteologists

Next, the children dressed up as Osteologists, people who study bones. They put on gloves, a lab coat and goggles.

 R looked at pieces of bones under a microscope. 

D explored a skeleton with a UV torch.

The children had a lot of fun role playing. What a fun day we had learning all about the skeleton in a practical and interesting way!