Blood and Guts – Seeing Blood Pressure

I wanted the kids to get a good idea of the importance of healthy blood pressure, so we did a little project in class involving straws.  Having the two different-sized straws allowed them to see how liquid flowed more freely in the larger one than in the smaller, more constricted one – much like our blood vessels.

We also checked our blood pressure using a machine another parent brought in, and I gave them a chart, so they could see how they measure up.  These went in their lapbooks.

For this project you’ll need 4 cups, a skinny straw (regular), a fat straw (like the ones for milk shakes), modeling clay, liquid food coloring, a stir stick, water, some kind of tray (or do it outside), and an Exact-o knife.

 

On two of the cups, about a half-inch from the bottom, and using the Exact-o, make an X.

 

Have the kids shove the two straws into the X’s, and then put modeling clay on the inside and outside of the cups, around the straws, to prevent leaks. At this time, they can also fill the other two cups with water, add the food coloring, and stir.

 

Dump the colored water into the cups with straws at the same time to see the difference between the sizes of the straws, or blood vessels.

 

Below you’ll find our lapbook parts for blood pressure.  The rest of the lesson can be found here.

L8 Lapbook – Blood Pressure Chart

L8 Lapbook – My Blood Pressure

 

 

 

Blood and Guts – Eat Your Heart Out

A neat project Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology has in it is building a heart using graham crackers and marshmallows.  We did it in class, and the kids loved it!  They especially loved eating it…

It’s a great way to teach about the heart, because it can be confusing!

Blood and Guts – Lapbook, Lessons 7 and 8

We have had snow day after snow day after snow day here!  You’re probably wondering what homeschoolers do when there’s snow days.  Well, we sled and shovel, just like everyone else.  Also, remember that we have a large co-op, and we meet in an actual school building.  It really makes us appreciate the on-the-couch-in-pjs days.  However, this year has been a little more than unusual, and we’ve been trying to conduct school on a hot-or-miss basis.  And just in case Old Man Winter hasn’t heard it from the rest of the nation, we’re DONE with it.  Spring, please hurry up.

I decided to combine Lessons 7 and 8, because they work hand-in-hand.  In  Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology, Lesson 7 is Life in the Blood, and Lesson 8 is the Cardiovascular System.

Lapbook:  Lesson 1 can be found here.

Lapbook:  Lesson 2 can be found here.

Lapbook:  Lesson 3 can be found here.

Lapbook:  Lesson 4 can be found here.

Lapbook:  Lesson 4B can be found here.

Lapbook:  Lesson 6 can be found here.

Lapbook:  Lesson 9 can be found here.

Lapbook:  Lesson 10 can be found here.

Lapbook:  Lesson 11 can be found here.

For this section of our World’s Largest Mammoth Lapbooks, I used parts from Knowledge Box Central ( Chapters 1-7 can be found here.  Chapters 8-14 can be found here), Scholastic’s The Body Book, by Donald M. Silver and Patricia J. Wynne, Scholastic:  Easy Make & Learn Projects:  The Human Body (it’s downloadable – yes!), and my own foldables, available below.

This section will be attached to the main lapbook, behind the lung section.

L7 Experiment – Iron in Cereal (experiment card)

L7 Lapbook – Adrenaline

L7 Lapbook – Anemia

L7 Lapbook – Arteries Veins Capillaries

L7 Lapbook – Diagram of Diffusion (Draw, color, and label the diagram of diffusion on pg. 122.)

L7 Lapbook – Erythrocytes (What does this word mean, and where does it come from?)

L7 Lapbook – Functions of the Blood

L7 Lapbook – Hemoglobin

L7 Lapbook – oxygenated blood (Color the oxygenated blood cell red, and the deoxygenated blood cell blue.)

L7 Lapbook – Phagocytes

L7 Lapbook – Platelets

L7 Lapbook – What is Blood Made of (When you do the project suggested in the book, draw the red hots, lima bean, etc. in the jar and tell what each one represents on the inside.)

L7 Lapbook – White Blood Cells

L7 Pictures (Pictures you can include in your lapbook.)

L8 Lapbook – 4 chambers

L8 Lapbook – CPR

L8 Lapbook – Heart Attack

L8 Lapbook – Heart Blood Vessels

L8 Lapbook – Interventricular Septum

L8 Lapbook – Miles of Vessels

L8 Lapbook – Myocardium

L8 Lapbook – Pacemaker

L8 Lapbook – Pulmonary Veins

L8 Lapbook – Sedentary Lifestyle (The kids’ favorite foldable so far this year!)

L8 Lapbook – Two Main Veins

L8 Lapbook – Valves

L8 Pictures (Pictures you can include in your lapbook.)

And now for the pictures of how to put it all together:

This shows the first layout, showing all the file folder pieces used, and the first part of the Lesson 7 pieces.

In this picture, I folded up the bottom, so we can concentrate on the top.

Here’s a close-up of the layout for this panel.

Another close-up of a panel.

The top-most panel

Here’s the top-most panel folded down.

Here’s the top left panel folded in.

The panel folds down to the center area.

When we open that top panel back up (through the magic of the internet), we see Lesson 8’s parts.

The bottom panel is folded down to reveal a heart model.

The left panel is opened.

Here’s the entire Lessons 7 and 8 lapbook section opened.