We read through some books on the subject and talked about what they already knew.
Then, we worked through the following worksheets together:
Some notes about the pages...
1) I picked out a few bones I thought were the most prominent... I decided against naming the individual arm and leg bones at this point - it's enough for me for now they just recognise there are bones in their arms and legs! I deliberately left the lines off for them to draw themselves, so I could check their understanding more. Once they were done, I asked them how they could make their diagram clearer? M said straightaway to colour it in and F immediately chimed in with, "Like the teeth diagram last time!" 👍
2) The pictures at the bottom of this sheet are meant to be clues. So a blob, i.e. no structure (skeleton provides a frame and support), a shield, i.e. protection (it protects our soft internal organs), and a statue, i.e. no movement (skeleton has joints for movement).
3) MashaAllah, they guessed straightaway the bottom skeleton was a horse! There was some debate over which was the cat and which was the dog, but then they looked at the tails and both agreed the top one was the cat. 😁
4) I wanted to use this opportunity to practise their scientific thinking. We talked about dinosaurs being extinct so there are no real life examples around nowadays for us to look at, so how do we know what they were like? By using knowledge we have from other things as ideas (look at the animals alive today which are carnivores!) and looking carefully at e.g. the dinosaurs' skeletons for clues. For the question about the stegosaurus' tail, F said, "Maybe it used it for killing other animals..." to which I was impressed but thought I'd ask to check what she meant... Why would a herbivore want to kill other animals? "Because it wanted to give them to the tyrannosaurus to eat!" Lol. A bit more discussion about what the T Rex might have eaten and she came to a different conclusion herself. 😂
You can download our worksheets here.
While they were working through, I had the sudden inspiration to make gingerbread men but to decorate them by drawing skeletons with white icing. I explained my idea to them to see what they thought... What could we use to draw the skeleton with? Icing or white chocolate? They decided chocolate... But instead of gingerbread, what kind of biscuit should we make to make the white chocolate stand out? M said a black one. 😂 So I suggested chocolate... They agreed. 😋 I've not tried making chocolate shortbread before, but these turned out ok! Will make a separate post soon for the recipe, inshaAllah.
Finally, we made model skeletons using the template in the link above.
We did this activity on a different day as a kind of revision.
First, I asked the girls to colour their skeletons in but using a different colour for each different bone (and the same colour for bones which were the same!). As they coloured, we talked about which bone they were colouring to reinforce the new vocabulary, as well as casually introduce a few more (e.g. breastbone, shoulder plates, kneecaps, etc.). Even though teeth are part of the skeleton, they're not bones so not coloured in. 😁
Before they cut the pieces out, I explained what the end product was supposed to be and held the paper up to ask if they thought the material was strong enough... F said no, it was too flexible! 👍 So how could we make the paper stronger? F said to stick it onto card - so we did. After gluing the whole sheet onto a piece of A4 card, the girls cut the bones out.
I helped Z with her cutting, but she did all the colouring herself!
Once they were done, I asked the girls to lay their skeletons out flat, putting the bones together like a jigsaw.
Finally, I took out the split pins and demonstrated using one to join two of Z's pieces together. I used a sewing pin to make a small hole to make it easier to push the split pins through, then let the twins get on with putting their skeletons together by themselves. Z handed me pins and I asked for her approval before joining each piece. 😂
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