Muscular System
After the skeletal system, we were ready to jump right into the muscular system.
Check out other systems through these links:
Respiratory System
Circulatory System
Digestive System
Nervous System
Integumentary system
Health and Personal Care
Lesson #4 Muscular System Day One
We started off by talking about voluntary and involuntary muscles and how our brain sends signals to our muscles to contract and relax. We then used this super cute wood model my husband made to demonstrate how muscles pull (not push). We practiced raising and lowering our arms while pointing at the muscles that were contracting and relaxing.
We then talked about the 3 types of muscular tissue: cardiac, smooth and skeletal and what they were used for. After that, we practiced the chant “muscles help our organs work and make our bodies move”.
The little boys then worked on their body posters while the older two explored muscle 3 part cards and made their own.
Their “homework” was to find exercises for each muscle. We discussed different ways they could research this. (They ended up finding old fitness magazines that actually labeled which muscles each exercise works).
Lesson #5 Muscular System Day Two
We started off by practicing our muscle chant then discussed what we can do to keep our muscles healthy. I described the three types of exercise we can do: strength training, stretching and aerobic then we practiced examples of each. (The little buggers made me run in place the entire song!) If you try this I recommend “Let’s get it started” by black-eyed peas because the kids LOVED the “Running, running, and running, running….” part.
Showing off their favorite exercises.
The older two weren’t quite confident to lead the exercises so I did and then we pointed to the muscles we felt after each exercise. I just did some basic yoga moves then had the older two teach the younger ones the names of the muscles they were pointing at. I also used the names of the muscles as I corrected form and demonstrated the moves for them.