My body - Blake Education - Better ways to learn Body Blakes T’ opic Bank Each integrated unit contains: 6 pages of teaching notes in an integrated teaching sequence 10 practical

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Each integrated unit contains:� 6 pages of teaching notes in an integrated teaching sequence� 10 practical blackline masters� National Profile outcomes� A useful resource list

by Kara Louise Munn

IU6 � My BodyEarly Childhood

© Blake Education – My Body Integrated Unit

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EARLY CHILDHOOD

Learning Area Focus ScienceTopic Students of all ages are fascinated by their body and how it works. The five senses, the digestivesystem, the nervous system, the skeleton and the circulatory system are all dealt with in this unit. At thecompletion of the unit, students will have made child-sized representations of some of the major systemsthat operate in their body.

National Profile Outcomes Students will:

� English 1.4 Monitor communication of selfand others and accept that lip reading andsigned language are appropriate.

� Mathematics 1.9 Talk about likenesses anddifferences between people and begin toconnect shape of body parts to their function.

� SOSE 1.2 Construct a sequence of majorstages in human life.

� Science 1.7 Identify personal needs.

� Science 1.8 Identify observable personalfeatures and start to link them to their function.

� Technology 1.9 Identify some bodily systemsand what they do.

� Arts 1.4, 1.9, 1.14, 1.19, 1.23 Respond toart works in a personal way.

� Health and PE 1.2 Discuss feelings andattitudes to the body.

� Health and PE 1.9 Describe what it means tobe healthy and demonstrate actions childrencan take to promote health.

Resources

Picture booksBob Graham, Look out for Rosy!, Five Mile Press.

Pat Hutchins, Titch, MacRae.

A A Milne, When I was One, Frederick Warne.

Maria Rius, The Five Senses, Barron’s EducationalSeries.

Factual booksKatherine Goode, The Skin and Hair, MacmillanEducation.

Neil Morris, Where Does My Spaghetti Go When IEat? RD Press.

Henry Pluckrose, Sniffing and Smelling, FranklinWatts.

Jean Rustean, Your Body, RD Press.

Alistair Smith, What Happens to Your Food?Usborne.

Judy Tatchell, How Do Your Senses Work?, Usborne.

Ron Thomas, My Teeth, Macmillan.

Anne Townsend, Marvellous Me, Lion.

My Bodyby Kara Louise Munn

For all your teaching needs visit www.blake.com.au


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My Body Teaching Notes

Body bitsWith students, brainstorm various parts of thebody. List these on chart paper and display in aneasily accessible location. Encourage students toadd to the list any other parts of the body theylearn about as the unit progresses.

Explain to students that our bodies generally, butnot always, have five senses to help us. Askstudents if they know what these are (sight,hearing, taste, smell and touch).

Eyes and seeingAsk students to explain what eyes do. Showstudents a labelled diagram of an eye. Havestudents look at each others’ eyes and identify theeyelashes, the eyelid, the iris and the pupil. Providesmall mirrors so that students can look at thesefeatures in their own eyes. Stress the importance ofnot touching the eye region. Provide students withBLM 1 and help them complete the labels of theeye. Have students colour in the iris the samecolour as their own. Encourage students to makeeyelashes by curling strips of black paper aroundtheir pencils and attaching them to the appropriatepart of the eye.

Eye cam Explain to students that the eyes work likecameras. Light goes through the pupil and through a lens which makes an upside-downpicture of the image being looked at. The nervestake the picture to the brain and the brain turns itthe right way up again.

With students, discuss the importance of protectingeyes from the sun. Explain that people shouldnever look directly into the sun, even when theyare wearing sunglasses. Have a day when everyonewears their sunglasses to school. Make posters toencourage the wearing of sunglasses and hats. Talkabout the meaning of ‘Slip, Slop, Slap and Wrap.’

Ask students to talk about people they know ofwho need to wear glasses all the time. Why dothey wear glasses? Many grandparents may wearglasses but encourage students to realise thatpeople of all ages can wear glasses or contactlenses to improve their sight.

Reading by touchAsk students if they understand what it means tobe blind. Blindfold students and see if they canidentify objects using senses other than sight.Introduce the term, ‘Braille’ and explain that it is aseries of raised dots which blind people can feeland use to read. Find a copy of the Braille alphabet(see Resources) and show students. Allow studentsto gain some understanding of the concept of usingraised dots to gain meaning from text. Use adrawing pin to poke different shaped holes throughthin cardboard. Using only their sense of touch,have students determine what shape they can feel.

Ears can hearTalk with students about their ears. What do theylook like and what do they do? Many students willbe unaware that there is more to the ear than whatthey can see on the outside. They may, however, beaware of middle ear infections, ear aches orswimmer’s ear. Show students a model of an ear oran illustration from one of the texts on theresource list. Have students cup their hand aroundtheir ear and see how it magnifies the sounds theyhear. Explain that the shape of our ears enables usto catch the sounds from around us.

eyelideyelashes

iris pupil



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The sounds go down a tunnel to the ear drum andmake it wobble, or vibrate. Nerves send a messageto the brain about the vibrations and the brainworks out what we can hear. Take students on asound walk around the school. Provide them witha simple map of their playground and have themrecord sounds that they hear at different places.

Listening games

� Chinese Whispers. Have the class sit in a circle.Whisper a simple message to one student. Thisstudent then whispers the message to the nextstudent and so on around the circle. Ask the laststudent to say the message out aloud. Discuss ifthe message has changed as it passed fromstudent to student.

� Tape various sounds and see if students canguess what they are. Some ideas could includethe striking of a match, the opening of a chippacket or a fizzy drink can, cicadas singing, acar starting, the turning over of a page in thenewspaper, etc.

With students, discuss how deaf peoplecommunicate. For example they might use signlanguage. Make up some simple hand signals touse in your classroom.

Food and tasteAsk students to bring their lunches into theclassroom. Students might need to ‘share’ if somestudents have lunch orders. Have students look intotheir lunch boxes and imagine what their luncheswill taste like. Talk about which tastes they preferand if there is anything in their lunch box theydon’t particularly like. Explain to students that thelittle bumps on their tongues are taste buds. Thesedetect tastes of the things that go in our mouths.You might like to provide students with a varietyfoods to taste test. Make sure that you are aware ofany foods which students are allergic to as well asany religious customs that disallow the eating ofsome foods. Establish with students that there arefour main tastes: salty, sour, sweet and bitter.

Smells form an important part of what is perceivedas taste. Have students taste samples of food, firstwith their noses blocked, then unblocked. Youcould use small pieces of food with a similartexture, e.g. apple, potato, pear. Can they identifythe food? Do they notice any difference with theirnose blocked?

Noses and smellingExplain to students that as you breathe air intoyour nose, the air flows over hairs which take themessage to the brain about the smell in the air.Provide a selection of smells for students to sniffand rate according to pleasantness. Smells couldinclude fish food, perfume, garlic, vanilla essence,scented soaps, fresh flowers. Remind students tosniff cautiously. Students can record what theyhave found on BLM 2.

Whose nose?

Make silhouettes of students’ side profiles. Attachpaper to a wall and shine a lamp or torch onto it.Have a student stand between the paper and thelight source so that their silhouette is evident onthe wall. Draw around the edge of the student’sface. When all students have had their silhouettesdrawn display them around the room and see ifstudents can guess who is who.

Hands and touchingProvide each pair of students with a brown paperbag. Have one student secretly place five objects inthe bag. The other student must then use theirsense of touch to guess what is in the bag. Allowstudents to change places so that each student hasa turn of touching.

Make a ‘hand mobile’ to show what hands can do.Encourage each student to make a hand print.Have them write inside it something that theirhands can do. For example, hands can shake, hold,wriggle, touch, feel, stroke, clap. Hang each handfrom string and attach them to a coat-hanger or ahoop.



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NervesExplain to students that it is the nerve endings intheir skin that tells them about touch. The morenerve endings there are in an area, the moresensitive or ticklish that area will be. Havestudents use a clean, dry paintbrush to tickle theirfriend in the following places: cheek, lips, behindthe knee, arm, under their foot, top of the handand the palm of the hand. Have students writeabout which areas of their bodies are the mostticklish and therefore are likely to have more nerve endings.

On a tray place the following items: something hot(e.g. a hot water bottle filled with warm water, acup of warm tea); something cold (e.g. an iceblock, frozen peas); something soft (e.g. a cottonwool ball, a stuffed toy); something hard (e.g. ablock of wood, steel); something rough (e.g. apiece of bark, a rock); something smooth (e.g. apiece of silk, glass). Add as many items as you can.Provide students with BLM 3 and have them drawor write about one of the items which fits eachcategory.

Ask students to try and be aware of their fivesenses when they have lunch. After lunch, givethem BLM 4 to fill in.

Energy food Show students a model or an illustration of thedigestive system (see Resources). Ask if they knowwhat the digestive system is. Explain that thedigestive system breaks down the food that is putinto the body. Discuss the functions of the variousparts of the digestive system. Have students usetheir finger to trace the passage of food throughtheir own bodies. On chart paper, draw asimplified version of the digestive system. Addlabels. Provide each student with BLM 5. Havestudents cut out the labels and paste them in thecorrect order down the side of the digestivesystem.

The digestive systemHave students trace around the outside of anotherstudents’ body. Discuss ways of using collage andcraft materials to represent the digestive system,for example the mouth could be a lid, theoesophagus a long toilet roll, the stomach a blown-up paper bag, the intestines could be stockingsjoined together and wound around and aroundwhile the anus might be a small rubber band.Have students make a model.

TeethUse small mirrors so that students can look at theirteeth and identify their incisors, canines andmolars. It may be necessary to volunteer your ownset of teeth so that students can find each type oftooth. Demonstrate to students how each type oftooth works. Explain that the incisors are likescissors and have sharp edges for cutting; themolars are like nutcrackers and crush and grindthe food; the canines tear the food like a jaggedknife. Start a graph to indicate how many studentshave lost a tooth.

On the outsideHave students use tens and onesblocks to see how manydifferent ways they can coverthe body shape on BLM 6.

Have students think about the number of different body parts they have. On chart paper write the headings: We have 1 [line], We have 2 [line], etc.

Have students name as many parts of their body asthey can that fit into the different categories.

MeasurementProvide students with BLM 7 and some iceblocksticks (or straws). Have students work in pairs tomeasure and to record the lengths, in iceblocksticks, of different parts of their body. Allowstudents time to recreate their body using rolledup newspaper and masking tape. Encouragestudents to read their measurements from BLM 7to ensure that the rolls of newspaper are the samelength as their body.

Have students complete BLM 8.



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Muscles and bonesTry to find a skeleton of the human body forstudents to look at. Ask if there are any familieswho would be happy to let students view their X-rays. Alternatively, look at illustrations in some ofthe resource books. Explain that there are 206bones in the human body. Have students feel theirown bones in their arms and their skull. Can theyfeel their ribs? Explain that the skeleton protectsour internal organs. Ask students to imagine whatwould happen if they did not have a skeleton. Holdup a coat on a coat-hanger. Liken the hanger to theskeleton and explain that without bones your skinwould be all floppy, just like the coat without thehanger.

Ask students to bring in some scraps of material.How can this material stand up? Suggest theymake a skeleton, or framework, to hold it up.Encourage students to make a skeleton out of pipe-cleaners and straws. With one pipe-cleaner curl thetop around to make a head. Thread a piece ofstraw onto the pipe-cleaner to resemble the backbone. Now encourage students to thread the pipe-cleaners through the straws to add on the armsand legs. Bend the pipe-cleaners at the knees,ankles, wrists, and elbows. If they like, they canthen use the scraps of material to make clothes, orskin, for their pipe-cleaner skeletons.

Trace around one of students. Provide studentswith lots of spaghetti and other pasta pieces.Students must now use the pasta to represent thebones of the body. Use PVA to glue the pieces inplace.

The heart and bloodHave students look at the blood vessels in theirwrist and across the top of their hand. Do studentsknow what is happening inside the vessels? Explainthat the heart is pumping blood around theirbodies through the veins and the arteries. Thevessels are close to the skin in the wrist. Havestudents feel the pulse by placing their fingersacross the inside of their wrist. Go outside and askstudents to run around for a set amount of time.When they stop ask them to feel their pulse again.Do they notice anything different? Explain thattheir pulse should be beating more quickly as theheart tries to pump more blood (full of oxygen)around the body.

Trace around the outside of one of students. Paint aheart in the appropriate place and use red and bluewool to represent the veins and arteries running allover the body. Add this to the classroom display.

Lungs and breathingAsk students to place their hands on their chest asthey breathe in and out. They should notice theirchest rising and falling as their lungs fill with airand then empty again. Dramatise the action of thelungs by encouraging students to hold both theirhands as fists in approximately the same positionsas that of their lungs. Now ask students to breathein. As they do this have students open their fists. Asthey breathe out students can close their fistsagain. Have students blow up a balloon or use awhistle. Explain that the air that they are using wasthe air that was in their lungs. Encourage studentsto make a painting using the air from their lungs.Drop some runny paint onto art paper and havestudents use a straw to blow the paint out in alldirections. Display these around the room.

Have students trace around the outside of onestudents’ body. Paste two balloons where the lungsare positioned and attach straws, or somethingsimilar, to represent the windpipe.

FeelingsWith students, brainstorm feelings or emotions.Find pictures in magazines of people expressingdifferent feelings. Use a mirror and have studentsexperiment with facial actions to express feelings.Read Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No GoodVery Bad Day (see Resources) or another text thathighlights an emotion. Have each student choosean emotion to draw and write about.



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Growing up and changingRead the poem When I Was One by A A Milne (seeResources) or a text that deals with growing up.Have students complete BLM 9. Some of this willneed to be completed at home.

With student input, create a list to show people ofvarious ages. For example

0 Belinda has a sister who has just been born.

1 Robin has a brother who is 1 year old.

2 Julie’s cousin is 2 years old.

3 Margaret’s little brother has just turned 3.

4 Leah’s friend is 4 years old.

See if you can get volunteers to trace around thebodies of a baby, a toddler, a five year old, ateenager and an adult. Display these on the walland discuss the differences in sizes between thebodies.

Protecting our bodyUsing chart paper, have students list the ways thatthey can look after their bodies. Discuss regularvisits to the dentist, doctor, optician.

Talk about the importance of washing our bodiesand especially our hands. Have students usemagnifying glasses or hand lenses to study all ofthe little creases in their hands where germs canhide. Have students look under their finger nails.Provide students with clay and have them make anugly ‘germ’.

Ask students about bedtime. Discuss theimportance of sleep and of relaxing. Introduce, ifyou are not already doing it, a regular resting timein the class. This could be when you have quietreading time.

Culminating activityDuring the course of this unit, students will havemade, and displayed, models of the varioussystems they have studied. Invite another class tocome and view your work. Have each studentbuddy one of the visiting students and have themexplain what is going on in their bodies. Make surethe visitors ask questions. With their buddy,students can then complete BLM 10. Encouragestudents to use the wall displays to help them.


eyelid

cornea

iris

pupil

eye lashes

© Blake Education – My Body Integrated UnitThis page may be reproduced by the original purchaser for non-commercial classroom use.

BLM1

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Eye spyUse these words to label the eye.

Colour the iris the same colour as your own. What othercolours can the iris be?

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Curl some black paper around your pencil and make eyelashes to add to your diagram of the eye.



BLM 2

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

SmellsWhich smells do you like? Which smells don’t you like? Put the smells in order from your favourite to your worst.

favourite

worst

..............................................................................

..............................................................................

..............................................................................

..............................................................................

..............................................................................

..............................................................................

..............................................................................

..............................................................................

..............................................................................

..............................................................................

..............................................................................

Draw a picture of the item thatcreates your favourite smell.

Draw a picture of the item thatyou don’t like the smell of.

Compare your answers with yourclassmates’ answers.



Find something that fits into each group. Draw and label them.

BLM 3

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Touch

Can some of the items be in more than one group? Which ones?

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................

hot

rough

soft

cold

hard

smooth


smell


BLM 4

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

The sensesJoin the sense with the right body part.

Think about what you were sensing while you had lunch.Then fill in the following:

I could smell ...................................................................................................................................................................................................

I could taste...................................................................................................................................................................................................

I could see.........................................................................................................................................................................................................

I could hear....................................................................................................................................................................................................

I could touch...............................................................................................................................................................................................

sight touch

hearing

taste



BLM 5

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Digestive systemCut out the words and put them in the correct order down theside of your page.

oesophagus, small intestine, anus, mouth, stomach, large intestine

.....................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................

Why do we need to eat food?..........................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................



BLM 6

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

How many different ways can you arrange the tens andones blocks to cover this body?

Body blocks

• I used...............tens and...............ones







BLM 7

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Pop artUse paddle pop sticks to measure these parts of your body.Guess first and then have a partner help you to check.

around my head

around my neck

across my shoulders

my arms

my hands

my legs

my feet

my total height

other:...................................................

CheckGuessBody part



BLM 8

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Compare the results on BLM 7 to those of your friends.

Write down the name of someone who:

has longer feet than you.........................................................................................................................

has a bigger head than you ..........................................................................................................

is taller than you ......................................................................................................................................................

has shorter arms than you ...................................................................................................................

has the same size hands as you ..............................................................................................

has legs that are shorter than yours ..................................................................................

What other interesting facts can you find out?

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................



BLM 9

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

At school we are talking about how we change as we grow up.

Please discuss with your child their achievements as they developed.

It would be appreciated if you could help your child to complete this page.

If you can’t remember, approximations will be fine.

I first smiled when I was...................................................................................................................................................

I first sat up when I was...................................................................................................................................................

I first crawled when I was.............................................................................................................................................

I first spoke when I was....................................................................................................................................................

My first words were..............................................................................................................................................................

My first tooth came when I was...........................................................................................................................

I had my first haircut when I was.........................................................................................................................

I first walked when I was................................................................................................................................................

I learnt to write my name when I was..........................................................................................................

Other exciting things that I learnt to do were: ..........................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Now I am years old I can:.....................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Dear Parents and Carers



BLM 10

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Find the body bits in the ‘words’ below and put a circlearound them. Draw them on the body if they are not there.

Body bits

earsiniser

sounosers

rutonguew

urtheartofw

rubofootr

abcmouthpo

sfingersty

abakneesb

shairbyng


Documents

My body - Blake Education - Better ways to learn Body Blakes T’ opic Bank Each integrated unit contains: 6 pages of teaching notes in an integrated teaching sequence 10 practical