"My Body" Science Project
Here's a great way to make basic biology personal to your children!
Materials Needed:
Kraft paper at least one foot longer than your child is tall
Pencil
Thick marker for outlining
Markers or crayons for coloring
Body organ or bone printouts of your choice
Lay out your kraft paper on a smooth surface such as a wooden floor or the kitchen floor. Have your child lie down on the paper, feet to the sides as much as possible, and hands down on the paper. Trace around your child's body with the pencil. After they get up, you may need to go back over some areas and smooth out the shapes to look more natural. After you have finished that part, trace over the entire outline with a thick marker so that the body is easily visible. Let your child color in their face so that it looks like them.
When we did ours, I was able to find some basic body organ printouts on the internet — the brain, heart, lungs and stomach. My son colored those organs, then we cut them out and glued them on the paper. Other organs and body parts were filled in with crayons. The amount of body parts you decide to fill in will depend on what exactly you are studying, and how much detail your child is ready for.
This is a great side project to go along with your studies of the human body — you can do it all at once, or add in each piece as you study that part of the body. We hung ours on our son's door so that it was easily accessible and no trouble to work with. Alternately, you could simply roll it up and store it between work times.
