Human Body: Learning About Cells

This year our local homeschool co-op group is learning about the human body using Apologia’s Exploring Creation With Human Anatomy and Physiology book. Our group is large enough that we split the age-levels: K-2nd and 3rd-6th. I am teaching the K-2nd group, so this year I will be posting what we cover in our class.

After glancing through the Apologia material, I decided that my class would be based on the book chapters so that the whole co-op was on the same topic each week, but that we would be using lots of hands-on activities and supplemental materials instead of the notebooking journal. Since I opted for my group not to have the Jr. Notebooks, I created their own notebook for them instead using this coloring book:

My First Human Body Book

Each week they will have a coloring assignment from the book above. In addition, I typed out a short review sheet for them to do at home. I’ll be sharing these just in case anyone else might find them helpful

This week we learned about cells.

Here were my main teaching tools:

- Parts of a Cell Rap by HipScience

- Parts of a Cell Word Chart

- Parts of a Cell flashcards

Using the terms from the Apologia book, I create flashcards to teach the kids the parts of the cells.

After introducing the terms, we went over the rap. I handed each child a card, and whenever they heard their card name, they would hold their card in the air. We also had to dance when listening to the rap. It just was too hard to listen and not move to a rap! :)

In my class, we had a soft-surface table. We pretended that the table was the cell, and that the soft surface was like the cytoplasm. Then I had the kids close their eyes and I hid all the cell organelles (the cards) around the room. They had to go on a hunt and find all the parts to make sure the cell worked correctly. This was a great way to incorporate review. They had to try to remember which cards where missing.

We had a little extra time before meeting with the 3-6th graders, so they started working on their cell coloring page.

The whole co-op met together to create an edible cell.

Using various types of candy to represent the different cell organelles, each child was able to create a tasty cell model. (This experiment is listed in the Apologia Anatomy book)

These are the parts of a cell—together they do quite well—and taste good too!

Downloads:

Words to the Parts of a Cell Rap
Parts of a Cell Flashcards
Week 1 Parts of a Cell Review Sheet

 

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