Bodacious Bodies

This will be the first topic we tackle this summer (week of June 6-10).  It seems appropriate to address some of these topics before summer camps start. We're striving for: informative, science-infused, serious, and fun. 

Diagram by Madhero88

• Read the books listed under the "Themes for Summer 2011" tab throughout the week.  We will start with "Amazing Me!" progress to the "Difference" book, and end with "Those are MY . . ."  Sounds empowering, doesn't it!  The extra book listed will be a back-up if needed--I'm fine with saving that for next year!
• Activites:
• Butcher paper outlines of everyone's body.  They will then get to color in outfits or hair or whatever to make their outlines look like themselves.  We will display these somewhere around the house this week. (Alternative if the paper is too expensive--chalk outlines on the driveway. Hopefully that's not too crime-scene-esque!)
• Pass down/pass up.  We'll have the girls sit down in birth order, blindfolded.  They will each receive a sock that is too big or too small--which way should they pass it?  (This will obviously be waaaay too easy for my oldest, but the three year old will get a kick out of it. Objective: show how bodies grow bigger as kids get older.
• Useful joints! First, we will look at how our joints look at the bone level.  This site seems to have a pretty uncomplicated picture.  We will concentrate on just the "hinge" and "ball and socket" joints.  I will ask the girls if they can find similar "joints" around the house. 
• Useful joints continued! (This next part is totally stolen from my in-laws.  I have pictures of my hubby & his brother doing this)  Wrap the kids' arms inside of a rolled up magazine. (Obviously, do not leave your kid like this.  This is meant to be a 3 minute, supervised activity, not an all-day event).  Then ask the kids to try to feed themselves some snacks placed on a table in front of them (no cheating by eating like the "Piggy" on "A Christmas Story").  Without the use of their elbow joints, they can't . . . unless they feed each other.  Awwww, a lesson on useful joints and teamwork all wrapped into one!
• Butcher Paper "In"lines.  Do a second outline but this time, instead of drawing how we look on the outside, they can draw what they look like on the inside.  (This is well covered in the "Amazing Me" book which we will have read a few times by now.)  Will they draw bones?  Joints?  The eggs they ate for breakfast?
• Make a Bone-Strengthening Smoothie! What do we need?  Calcium, of course.  Where do we find calcium?  Ummmmm, ice cream!  Don't worry, I'll throw in a banana, a bunch of strawberries, and probably my smoothie-standby spinach to "up" the health factor.  What a fun way to end the week.
• Objectives: Learn that our bodies are amazing and complicated systems.  We have to eat good foods to keep them healthy.  We also need to protect our bodies from sickness, injury, and, unfortunately, not-so-nice people.  Most importantly, we need to be THANKFUL for our amazing bodies.

That's all I got for now!  Additional ideas are always appreciated.