Several activities for a unit on the body and body organs.

Plan:

PLEASE NOTE: The worksheets and printables that go with this unit are in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view and print them. Click here for more information about printing and viewing.

Printables: Organ Cards - color • black & white • facts

For younger children, copy the colorful organs onto card stock. Cut out and paste on craft sticks to make organ puppets. Introduce the organs to your students one by one as you read information about them. Pause to ask questions and check comprehension.

For older students, copy the uncolored printable for students to use. Let them color and cut out organs and glue information to the back of each puppet. Have them break into groups of four and choose the information of an organ to read to their group.

After discussing the function of the organs, write the words brain, stomach, heart, and lungs at the top of chart paper. Ask children to name an action word. Place the word under an organ or organs it would affect such as eating-stomach, exercising-heart and lungs, thinking-brain, etc.

Hi, I'm your heart. I'm the size of your fist. Touch your chest and feel me pump the blood through your body. Feel the hard bone that is around me. This protects me inside your chest. Exercise me by running and jumping instead of watching TV or playing video games.

Hi, we're your lungs. We help your body by breathing in oxygen, moving it through your body and letting out carbon dioxide you no longer need. The hard bones in your chest protect us as well as your heart. We like it when you exercise and take in deep breaths. It makes us stronger.

Hi, I'm your stomach. After you chew your food well in your mouth, it's sent down to me. I mix it up with some stomach acid and make it a liquid your body can use as fuel or waste. When something doesn't want to work as a fuel, it might upset me, so you'd better watch out. I might send it back.

Hi, I'm your brain. I work like a computer. I take in information you learn and sort it for you to remember. I have different places to store what you see, hear, smell, feel and taste. Without me the rest of your body cannot work.

Printable: Can You Name It? Riddles & Puzzles Worksheet

Copy the Riddles and Puzzles printable. For early readers, read the riddle and ask them to think of a part of their body that would rhyme and make sense. Write the bottom puzzles on the board and work together to figure out the word.

For advanced readers, copy a page for each child. Ask them to solve the riddles and puzzles silently or in small groups.

In small groups, see if they can make some puzzles of their own to trade with other groups. Record puzzles on paper and trade with other classes if they're interested in solving them.

It has a beat,
That warms your feet
An important part,
Is your heart.

It's got lots of nerve.
It's got to observe.
Think and strain,
It is your brain.

Exercise will giver> That warms your feet
An important part,
Is your heart.

It's got lots of nerve.
It's got to observe.
Think and strain,
It is your brain.

Exercise will give