What's Inside Me?

We completed our first big PBL project last week.  We answered the question: "What is inside my body?"  Throughout the week, we learned about different body systems through books and completed our own book about the body systems.  The systems we learned about are: skeletal, muscular, digestive, respiratory, nervous and circulatory.  Each day, students filled in their own individual books (fill-in-the-blank) about the different body systems.  You can find the book here; the packet also has a 5 senses book. It is on sale through Tuesday.

Sample book page

Students were put into 4 different groups (2 groups of 5, 2 groups of 4).  Their first task was to trace someone.  I left it up to them to decide who to trace.  Much to my surprise, there was no arguing in any group!  We were off to a great start!

This was one group deciding who was going to be traced.  I loved their spontaneous huddle!

After learning about different systems of the body, students filled in the friend they traced with the "insides" we learned about.  Students gave me a shopping list of the materials they wanted to represent each body system.  I set them loose with the materials available. They had their books they filled in to refer to and were reminded about teamwork.

Materials used: white copy paper for bones (I gave each group 1 less sheet than the number of people in the group- had to problems solve), red yarn: muscles, yellow balloons: lungs, paper (copied) brain & heart, purple yarn: intestines, plastic baggie: stomach (drew food on scrap paper and put in stomach), rolled copy paper: esophagus.

Adding bones

Teamwork: coloring a brain

After attaching all the "parts", the person was labeled and all were hung in the hallway to share.

All 4 groups were so excited and proud to show their work to others who walked by.  These will hang for a few weeks to give families a chance to view them as well as others in the building.

I think they did an awesome job for their first group project.  I am proud of them for working together to accomplish a task!