Moving My Body

Christine Anne Royce

The human body is amazing! This month’s trade books help students understand their growing bones, muscles, and joints while engaging in some investigations to help them become aware of their bodies and how exercise helps their bodies stay strong.

This Month’s Trade Books

What’s Inside Me?: My Bones and Muscles
By Dana Meachen Rau.
Benchmark. 2004.
ISBN 076141777X.
Grades preK–3

Synopsis

Young students are introduced to their bones and muscles through carefully worded text. This book is part of a series that helps to answer the question “What’s Inside Me?” and is written on the fluent reader level. This book examines the skeletal system and the importance that muscles play in helping us move. Through the use of illustrations, italicized vocabulary, and pictures, students are provided with the basics about these two body systems.

Movers and Shapers
By Patricia Macnair.
Kingfisher. 2004.
ISBN 0753457911
Grades 4–6

Synopsis

Written for the intermediate level student, this book connects understanding the anatomy of the human body with the importance of exercise and well-being. Through the use of illustrations, clear text, and a pullout poster, students are introduced to the roles that bones, muscles, and joints have in helping humans move and function. This book also includes suggested websites and includes a glossary and index.

Curricular Connections

Children are in constant motion. Teachers can capitalize on this movement and energy to engage students in thinking “How do we move? What does motion or exercise do to the other parts of the body?”

Younger students can wonder how their daily movements would be different without the use of their joints. Simple, daily tasks of picking up objects, walking, and sitting would be different if our bodies didn’t have flexibility and mobility available through the use of joints. By investigating how their lives would be different, students can begin to develop a concrete understanding about the parts of their body they cannot see.

Older students can be introduced to the idea that strong muscles are needed for a healthy life and that exercise can contribute to changes in our breathing rate and heart rate. These activities will have students recording data and drawing conclusions about the effect that exercise has on pulse rate and respiration.

Regardless of which activity students engage in, My Bones and Muscles and Movers and Shapers will provide students with a nonfiction resource that they can refer to during an elementary level anatomy unit.

For Grades K–3: Trying Tasks

Purpose:
Students will engage in activities to help them to recognize how different joints in the human body are helpful in accomplishing daily tasks.

Materials:

• Poker chips (15 per group)
• Pennies (15 per group)
• Box
• Masking tape
• Sponge ball (about 20 cm in diameter)
• Basketball
• Plastic laundry basket
• Ace bandage

Procedure:

1. Begin by reading My Bones and Muscles to the class. Ask students to perform the actions suggested on page four—stand still, bend over, wave your arms, and kick your legs—while covering the text on page five. Ask, “What parts of your body help you do each of these things?”
2. As you continue to read the book, ask students to point to the location of the different bones mentioned. Explain how bones are inside our bodies and covered by muscles and skin. Record the italicized vocabulary words on chart paper or the board.
3. After completing the book, ask which word refers to the point where two bones meet (joint). Where can we find different joints in our body? While they are thinking about joints, ask “What type of actions do joints allow us to perform every day?” (Bend knees, move shoulders, pick up objects with fingers and thumb).
4. Have students investigate how the different joints move—can students tell that different joints move in different ways? Compare the thumb to the elbow or knee. Develop a taxonomy of joints. Elbow is called a hinge joint. What else has hinges? How does it move (like a door or gate)?
5. Next, the teacher should demonstrate how to immobilize the thumb and elbow joints, making sure to point out safety concerns—do not overextend a joint; when immobilizing the joint do not wrap it too tightly; students should spot each other if necessary.
   Penny pinch (using the thumb joint). Ask students to think about how much they use their thumb in accomplishing daily tasks. Students should tape their right or left thumb to the palm of their hand so that the thumb lies across their palm. Once the joint is immobilized, ask students to remove 15 poker chips from a box and neatly stack them in three groups of five on the table. Students should record their observations about this activity, describing if they found this task easy or difficult and why. Have them repeat this activity using pennies. Does the size of the object make a difference?
   Elbow grease (using the elbow joint). Either the teacher or an adult volunteer should take an Ace bandage wrap (the type you would use when you sprain an ankle) and wrap a student’s arm so that they cannot bend their elbow.Do not wrap the Ace bandage too tightly as it can cut off their circulation to the arm.) Using only this arm, each student should pick up a sponge ball and toss it into a basket that is placed 2 m away. Is it easy to pick up the ball? To toss the ball? Repeat this activity with a basketball (students may need to use both hands to pick up the basketball). Is it more difficult?
6. While students participate in each activity, ask the other students in the group to make observations. How is the person moving? How would they be moving if they could use their joint? How are they adjusting their movement since a joint is immobilized?
7. After all students have had the opportunity to participate, ask them to think of other joints such as finger joints or knees. How would not being able to bend this joint affect their movement?
8. Many students will say that it was “hard” to do these things, or that they “couldn’t” do these tasks. Other students will be able to describe why their elbow or thumb would help by stating that it is easy to “bend” their arm when they throw the ball or their “thumb helps them to hold the poker chips.” Then ask students to think about how scientists might study joints when they can’t see inside. What kinds of tools can they use? This discussion is a perfect opportunity to help students begin to understand more about what scientists do and the nature of science.

For Grades 4–6: Pump Up Your Body!

Purpose:
Students will investigate how exercise affects their breathing rate and heart rate.

Materials:

• Stopwatch
• Pencil
• Large area such as a gymnasium

Procedure:

1. Older students may begin with the above activities after reading pages 10–15 of Movers and Shapers. This could be an interesting way to explore how different parts of our body, such as joints, have different functions. Pose the following questions to students: Why is it important to exercise? How does exercise help our body function? Possible student predictions about how exercise affects your body may include increases heartbeat, breathing goes up, muscles get sore, etc.
2. After the brainstorming session, read pages 34–35 to the class (about the need to be active and how exercise affects your body). Ask, “Do you think all types of exercise have the same effect? Why or why not?”
3. Explain to students that they will participate in an activity to see how exercise affects their heart rate. Explain that the heart is a muscle that pumps blood throughout the body. Have students select three different exercises to do in the school gymnasium. (It may even be a fun idea to enlist the assistance of your physical education teacher to help with this activity.) The exercises should involve varying levels of exertion (e.g., resting (sitting), walking, and jumping jacks).
4. Next, students should predict which exercise will increase their heartbeat the most and which one will increase their heartbeat the least. Record the predictions on the board.
5. Have the students practice taking their pulse on the inside of their wrist. Students should use their index and middle fingers to feel for a pulse and not their thumb. The students should practice recording their pulse for one minute. If students are not able to locate their pulse on their wrist, have them try to find it on their neck, slightly to the side.
6. Now that the students have selected their exercises and can take their pulse, have them gather data for the chart (Figure 1). Each exercise chosen should be done for at least three minutes.
   

   Figure 1. Data collection chart.
   Exercise	Pulse before exercise	Pulse immediately after exercise	Pulse after 1 minute	Pulse after 3 minutes	Pulse after 5 minutes

   Students should allow their heart rate to return to normal before doing the next exercise. Students should be monitored during exercises, and teachers should check with the appropriate office about health-related issues involving exercise.
7. Using the data, ask “Did all activities affect your heart in the same way? Which activity increased your heart rate the most? Did it take the same amount of time for your heart rate to return to normal after each exercise?” Students may choose to graph their pulse rate against time on a large graph to show the difference between individuals. It is recommended that you exercise continuously for 30 minutes a day. Which exercise would you choose? Why?
8. After students have had an opportunity to rest, return to Movers and Shapers to identify the different body systems used during their exercises—What was the purpose of the skeleton during exercise? (to provide structure and a framework for the body). At the end of the activities, all involved have been actively involved in understanding their body!

Christine Anne Royce (caroyce@aol.com) is an assistant professor of education at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.

Resources

National Research Council (NRC). 1996. National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

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