Young kids should begin learning about the human anatomy beginning in the early years of life. Learning about how the body functions at a young age will help kids grow into adults who love and respect their bodies. Anatomy Activities will help kids to grow a healthy and strong body.
1. All About Me Body Diagram
Making a body diagram is a common teaching habit when learning about anatomy. Have each student lie down on craft paper and trace to create their body from the paper. Print body part labels and have students begin to label each body part as they learn about it. This is a great activity for deeper learning activities.
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2. Make Your Own Paper Bag Lungs Activity
Gather two paper bags, two straws, duct tape, and a black marker for each student. Have students draw the parts of the lungs before beginning. Open the bags, partially insert a straw into each bag and secure with tape. Take the straws together and blow into the bags to inflate the “lungs”.
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3. What is Blood Made Of?
You will need a large plastic container, red water beads, ping pong balls, water, and foam craft. After water beads are hydrated and placed in the large container, cut red foam to represent platelets and add to the container along with the ping pong balls. The learning process starts with giving kids time to explore and then give details about each part of the blood.
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4. How the Stomach Digests Food
On a plastic bag, draw a picture of a stomach and place a few crackers inside the bag then add the clear soda. Explain to students that the stomach helps us digest the foods we eat.
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5. Make a Skeleton
This is a great activity for learning the major bones of the human body. After printing out the pages, students will be able to cut and assemble the skeletal system and label 19 bones in the human body.
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6. Brain Hemisphere Hat
Print the brain hemisphere hat on cardstock. Glue or tape hat together, carefully following directions.
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7. Brain Parts Puzzle
Print and cut out the parts of the brain to create an educational puzzle for the kids to enjoy while learning about the most important organ of the human body.
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8. Bending Bones – Human Body Experiment Removing Calcium
You will need at least two washed and cleaned chicken bones, two sealable containers, seltzer water, and vinegar. Let the experiment sit for 48 hours, then compare results.
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9. How Long are the Intestines for Kids – Digestive System Experiment
This is the perfect extension to complete after creating your life-size human body project. Students will measure our two different color crepe papers to represent the upper and lower intestines. This is a great time to add on additional details to the body diagram activity.
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10. How to Make a Heart Model
Print the worksheet to teach students about the parts of the heart. Gather these simple materials: mason jar, red food coloring, balloon, toothpick, straws as well as red and blue playdough. Follow the instructions in the link to put together a heart model.
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11. How do Hands Work – Human Body Muscles for Kids Project
To make this model of a hand, you will need the following items: cardstock, yarn, straws, sharpie, scissors, and clear packing tape. Start by tracing your hand onto the cardboard with a marker and cutting it out. Cut straws to represent the bones in your hand and secure them on fingers and center of hand with tape. Thread string through the attached straws, loop on one end, and watch your model work.
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12. How to Make an Ear Model Human Body Science Project & Experiment
To study of the anatomy of hearing, gather these materials: a balloon, cardboard roll, tape, cardstock, shoebox, wooden spoon, large plastic bowl or box, a small bowl of water, and straw to make a model of a human ear. Follow the instructions to put together ear in the link below.
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13. Human Spine Project for Kids
The materials you will need for this project are string, tube-shaped pasta, round gummy candy, and masking tape. Tape one end of the string and begin adding the pasta and gummy in an alternating fashion. Tape off the other end and test how your spine can bend.
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14. Human Body Playdough Mats
This would be a great activity for after completing an anatomy lesson on the body organs. Print a variety of human body styles and laminate for durability. Students use different colors of play dough to represent the various body organs. This is an engaging and effective method for an anatomy lesson start since the students are manipulating the playdough into the organs themselves.
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15. Assemble a Pasta Skeleton
Use at least 4 different types of dried pasta to create a model of a pasta skeleton is a fun anatomical education activity. This would be a good time to display an articulated skeleton if one was available. Depending on the level of your students, you may want to glue a printout of a skeleton to guide students. Layout your skeleton before gluing down. Once all parts are dry, have the student label the various bones.
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16. Name the Bone Game
This online learning activities game allows kids to learn the bones of the body through the use of detailed anatomical images. This computer-based learning comes with a downloadable worksheet to go along with this challenging game, which reinforces what students are learning in the game. There are dozens of games on all of the body parts students should learn.
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17. Edible Candy Spine
You will need licorice whip, hard lifesavers, and gummy lifesavers. The licorice represents the spinal cord, the hard lifesavers represent our vertebrae, the gummy lifesavers represent intervertebral discs, and finally, more licorice represents nerve clusters. This is a fun way to create enthusiasm for learning the anatomy curriculum.
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18. Build a Working Arm Muscle
There are the materials you will need: poster board, ruler, marker, scissor, masking tape, straight pin, large paperclip, long balloons, and optional: crayon or paint to create the bones and muscles. Visit the website below for detailed instructions. The paper is rolled and secured with tape representing the bones while the balloons for muscles allow animated muscle actions. This would be a great time to label each bone and correct the muscle attached to the bone. This introductory lesson will allow for more musculoskeletal anatomy to be introduced at a later time.
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19. Discover Cell Osmosis with Eggs
This is a great way to show a higher-level concept of how blood cells use osmosis to absorb nutrients and oxygen.
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20. Listen to Your Heart with a DIY Stethoscope
Materials needed to make a DIY stethoscope are a paper towel tube, funnels, tape, and marker if you are allowing students to decorate. Assembly is fairly simple. Place a smaller side of the funnel into a paper towel tube and secure it with tape. Once complete, you will need a partner to either listen to their heartbeat or vice versa.
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21. Make Your Own Jell-O Cells
Make science edible with these Jello cup cells! Let your kiddies add different types of candy to represent the different parts of a cell their jello before it sets. Once it’s ready, take a look at the cells and see if your kiddos have got to grips wit this essential bit of biology!
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22. Amazing Eye Science Experiments
See the link below for directions to put together this vision experiment. As the image that is drawn on the cardstock spins, the eye is able to recognize both images.
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23. Human Cell Worksheet
These simple no-prep worksheets/booklets will provide an introduction to anatomy vocabulary. The color-coding activity will provide students with an engaging anatomy lesson. This educational method allows for students to gain a lot of anatomy vocabulary as well as their meaning. Students should be given more study time with this information before moving on.
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24. Edible Skin Layers Cake
Using red J-ello, mini-marshmallows, fruit roll-ups, and licorice to ensure that student learning outcomes occur and that students learn all about the layers of the skin in a fun way. This is a good way to begin a more in-depth detailed learning into more anatomy. This is a fun activity in an education setting such as a school or camp.
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25. Human Digestive System for Kids
This activity includes worksheets as an introduction to the digestive system and digestive system. The digestion system experiment includes a banana, crackers, lemon juice or vinegar, Ziploc bags, old pair of tights or stocking, a plastic funnel, Styrofoam cups, gloves, scissors tray, and a sharpie. The experiment will show how food goes through the digestion process. This activity would like to take place over more than one class period.
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26. Teeth Mouth Anatomy Learning Activity
This is a great way for children to learn about good dental hygiene and how to brush their teeth. To create the mouth model, you will need a large piece of cardboard, red and white paint, pink felt, 32 small white rocks, scissors, a hot glue gun, and the printable teeth anatomy chart.
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27. Human Body Systems Project
This is a printable file folder project that will help students learn all about their body parts and the system. This file folder would be good to have handy throughout the learning of the anatomy curriculum. As class instruction begins each day, this file folder could be a great way to introduce the basics of anatomy.
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28. Shrinky Dinks Cell Models
Shrinky Dink Cells allows for a little fun while learning in anatomy class. Download the animal and plant eukaryotic cell structure templates, then have students trace the outlines in black sharpie from the template onto a piece of heavy plastic used for Shrinky Dinks. Have students color their cells using sharpies, then punch a hole in the top of the plastic before placing it in a 325-degree oven so it can be placed on a ring or chain to use.
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29. The Nervous System Messenger Game
Have students work in groups and trace the outline of one student, then have the students work together to recreate the nervous system, glue it on printed organs. Students will then use yarn to trace the path that the messages take from the brain to control the body.
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30. Yarn Hearts
This activity is where Science and Art collide. Using heart-shaped balloons, have students glue red yarn to one side to represent the well-oxygenated blood and the blue yarn to represent the bad deoxygenated blood. This will quickly become a favorite anatomy project.
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20 Activities For Learning & Practicing Contractions