Skeletons.

We continued our Bone Study this week. Thank you to all the families that brought in materials to share.

Our visitor was taking a break on the table for examination.

We started the week talking about our three arm bones and elbows. We used cardboard tubes to see what would happen if we had no elbows. We realized that there are many things that we are unable to do without our elbows (e.g. brush teeth, comb hair, drink and hug). We also realized there are a few things we were still able to do, like reach our shoes. 

Last week I used a glove filled with water to show them how little you could do with a boneless hand. This week I froze it to show them how difficult it would be to do things with a hand that had no joints and only bone.

We have been studying our plastic skeleton and skeleton pictures in books. We are really getting a basic understanding for the bones that make up our skeleton. This has led to a lot of interest in drawing skeletons.

One of our friends brought in a new book for us to borrow. I immediately added it to my Amazon cart. It is all about how vertebrate skeletons are the same and different, with a lot of great new vocabulary too. 

I was especially fascinated by the page about bats. Did you know that their wings are made up of finger bones? So cool.

I cut out bat shapes for them to add their own x-rays of bat skeletons. 

Another parent kindly brought some x-rays of a leg and foot that was healing from a serious injury. We all took turns examining and pointing out the breaks. We also discussed our knees and knee caps, which they could see in the x-ray below.