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Rattle Your Bones and Flex Your Muscles (Grade 3)

Master Teacher

Lisa Frampton

Overview

In this lesson, students will identify bones, muscles and joints. They will explore and investigate the interaction between bones, muscles and joints, and movement of the hand or foot.

SC Math/Science Standards Met

Science Achievement Standards:

Inquiry (A1_Observe, A3_Measure, A4_Predict, B1_Plan and conduct a simple investigation)

Physical Science (2a, 2b, 2c)
Math Achievement Standards:

Strand V: Measurement (C, D, and E)

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

observe, investigate, and locate bones, joints and muscles in the arms and legs of the body
demonstrate how the bones, joints and muscles interact when the hand and foot move
observe how the bones, joints and muscles interact when the hand and foot move

Materials

model or poster of a skeleton
cloth tape measure (one per every two students)
x-rays (from doctor)
hinge (from hardware store)
ball and socket joint (from hardware store)
pull-up bar
Activity Sheet 1
Activity Sheet 2
Activity Sheet 3

Vocabulary

skeleton
muscle
joint
rotate
flex
contract
relax
ball and socket joint
hinge joint
tendon
ligament
ulna
radius
humerus
femur
tibia
fibula

ITV Series

The Inside Story with Slim Goodbody, "The Team That Hustles"

Previewing Activities

Place of the lesson in the unit sequence: Students will have prior knowledge identifying the bones in their arms and legs. Introduce the lesson by displaying a model or picture of a skeleton. Ask students to identify any bones they already know in the arms or legs. Engage the children in a discussion on why our bones are important. Ask them to predict how our bones move. Have students stand up and explore the different ways the bones in their arms and legs move. Identify the way bones, joints and muscles interact to allow movement.

Focus for Viewing

To give students a specific responsibility while viewing, ask students to pick out joints in the body. Why do some joints have more freedom to move than others do? What role do muscles play in movement?

Viewing Activities

Activity 1: Bones and Muscles

Start the video with Slim Goodbody standing beside a bone hanging from the ceiling and saying, "One of the great partnerships at work in your body is between your bones and your muscles." Stop the video after the girl gymnast finishes a round off. Ask, "What is the relationship between bones and muscles?"

Fast-forward the tape until you see the skeleton and Slim facing each other. The skeleton is saying, "…two hundred and six different bones in my body."

Pause the tape when the skeleton says, "While others barely move at all or ever change loca-tion." Ask students, "What forms a joint?" (It is the place where two bones come together.) Have students point to joints in their arms and legs. How do joints move? (Rotate, swing, and barely move.)

Fast forward until Slim and the skeleton say, "Now, everyone hold your hand out." Stop the tape when the skeleton and Slim finish singing, "and that's the point of a joint." Ask students to point to a ball and socket joint (shoulders and hip). Now ask students to point to one of their hinge joints (toes, knees and fingers). Ask, "Which kind of joint gives you the most flexibility?" (Ball and socket joints.)

Fast forward the video to a head shot of Slim Goodbody where he is saying, "Bones and muscles, the team that hustles." Stop the video when Slim says, "One muscle pulls the bone this way, while one muscle pulls it the other way."

Check for student comprehension by asking students to explain how muscles, tendons and ligaments work together to make bones move. (Ligaments connect bone to bone. Tendons connect muscle to bone. Muscles work in pairs to move a bone.) At this point, explain to students that when one muscle contracts or tightens, another muscle relaxes. This enables bones to move. Muscles work in pairs to move muscles.

Post-Viewing Activities

1. Discuss why some bones are different sizes. Why are there so many bones in the hands and feet?

2. In pairs, observe and predict which bone is the longest in the body. Measure and record the length of the femur, radius, humerus and tibia. Have the class predict who in the class has the longest bone. Did the tallest person in the class have the longest bone? Which bone is the longest?

3. Look at hinge and ball and socket joints (from the hardware store). Let students move the joints. Ask students to explain the different ways each move. Explain that the joints in their bodies are very similar to these.

Hand out x-rays of bones and joints in the arms, legs and shoulders that you have gotten from a doctor. Have students identify ball and socket joints and hinge joints.

4. Review with students the interaction of muscles during movement. Have students identify the biceps and triceps muscles in their arms. Take students to the playground to explore and observe the interaction of muscles during exercise. Have each child do a pull-up (fingers pointing away from them) and a chin-up (fingers pointing to their body). Ask students to identify the muscle that is contracting and the muscle that is relaxing during each exercise.

Action Plan

1. Invite a doctor or orthopedic specialist to visit the class or conduct an online chat with them.

2. Use chicken bones to show students how bones and joints interact.

3. Look at skeletons of animals. Compare and contrast animal and human skeletal systems. How are their skeletal systems designed to help them survive in their habitats?

4. Get several x-rays from a doctor and examine the bones in the x-rays. Look to see if there is a break in the bone. Discuss how bones repair themselves. Allow students to research ways to keep their bones strong and healthy.

Extensions

1. Technology: Visit the Mr. Bones' site. This is an online activity where students can test their knowledge of the skeletal system by trying to put together a skeleton. You must down- load Shockwave in order to use it.

2. Science and History: Visit the Leonardo da Vinci site to find out about this great inventor and his work with machines.

3. Science and Math: The site Marvelous Machines has lots of information on experiments using levers and pulleys.

Additional Resources

Books

The Big Book of Bones : An Introduction to Skeletons by Claire Llewellyn
The Bones & Skeleton Gamebook by Karen C. Anderson, Stephen Cumbaa
Janice Van Cleave's Guide to the Best Science Fair Projects by Janice Van Cleave

Internet Sites

CD/ROM

The Ultimate Human Body, Dorling Kindersley, 1996