Draw Inside the Human Body

1. Share pictures, models, and information about human skeletal, circulatory, digestive, and respiratory systems with the class.
2. Find a safe outdoor location with ample space for students to lie on the surface and have room to draw. Mural paper may be used as an alternative.
3. Students work with partners to trace body outlines with Crayola® Sidewalk Chalk.
4. Students draw in the body system(s)they are studying.
5. Discuss, assess learning, then wash away with a garden hose or the next rainfall.

LA: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

LA: Read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts independently and proficiently.

LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

LA: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

SCI: Ask questions about the natural and human-built worlds.

SCI: Construct drawings or diagrams as representations of events or systems.

SCI: Construct original explanations of phenomena using knowledge of accepted scientific theory and linking it to models and evidence.

VA: Intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of their experiences and ideas.

VA: Select and use the qualities of structures and functions of art to improve communication of their ideas.

Invite the school nurse to speak with the class about the function of human organs. Prior to the visit, students compose questions for the nurse. After the meeting, students post their learning to a class blog.

In small groups, students can investigate the make-up of the human skeleton, how the senses work, and/or how muscles help the body move. Students organize research into an electronic presentation for classmates to view.

Each group of students studying a specific organ system create a board game to review and reinforce information about the organ system. Specific rules need to be included with the game. Students create original markers for moving around the game board.