What is a Family Unit Study?

This unit study, like all of our ever-growing library of unit studies, takes one big topic—like “The Human Body”—and breaks it down into 10 manageable, bite-sized, learning opportunities. Perhaps you do one area per day, perhaps one per week. Whatever suits your fancy! You can learn and explore from start to finish in about 1-2 hours per bite-sized learning topic.

Dive in and watch the sparks of wonder ignite. Watch the child-led learning take off. Watch what happens when children are engaged in what they are learning!

For this Human Body Unit Study, we have broken it down into the following 10 learning topics. Each topic includes:

• an interesting fact,
• a discussion question,
• informative information,
• a curated YouTube video,
• a recommended book,
• a math or literacy enrichment question (with three difficulty levels),
• and an ultimate-can’t-be-beat hands-on activity!

Grab these FREE Human Body Playdough Mats and see a sample from The Human Body Family Unit Study!

The Human Body Family Unit Study

Let’s take a more detailed look at what you can expect with The Human Body Family Unit Study! Below are the 10 topics and the 10 hands-on activities you will enjoy:

Topic One: The Human Body

The human body is made up of many different systems that all work cooperatively with one another. These systems include: The Muscular System, the Skeletal System, the Digestive System, the Respiratory System, the Circulatory System, and the Nervous System. With carefully created playdough mats, your young explorer will really understand how these systems work!

Topic Two: Organs

There are lots of different organs within our bodies, from our eyes to our livers! In this section, we look at all of our various organs, build our vocabulary, and create a human-sized organ puzzle.

Topic Three: The Skeletal System

Without this important system, we would be awfully jellyfish-like! This is another section that builds some wonderful vocabulary as we learn all about the cranium, mandible, scapula, radius, ulna, femur, patella, phalanges and lots more as we create a skeleton. 

Topic Four: The Heart

The human heart is a very important organ which works as two pumps. The right side of your heart gets the blood from your body and sends it to your lungs to be refilled with oxygen. The left side of your heart takes this re-oxygenated blood from your lungs and pumps it to the rest of your body. In this section, we make a model of the human heart using balloons, straws, and a jar!

Topic Five: The Lungs

Our lungs are the organs that allow us to breathe. When we breathe in—or inhale—our lungs fill with air which contains oxygen. When we breathe out—or exhale—a gas called carbon dioxide flows out of our lungs. We continue our quest to explore with our hands as we make a model of working lungs!

Topic Six: The Brain

Our brain is an organ that is grey and wrinkly and about the same size as your two fists put together. This organ does not look like much, but it is the command center of your body! In this section, we use The Human Brain printable to learn about the different parts of the brain through play.

Topic Seven: The Spinal Cord

Our spines are made of 33 bones that let us bend and move and hold us up. The spinal cord, which is a large bundle of nerves that send information from our brains to our body and back again, is nestled safe and sound in the middle of our spinal cord. We learn all about this important part of the body in the YUMMIEST of ways!

Topic Eight: Taste Buds

Our tongue has taste buds that are specialized for different tastes: Bitter is at the back of the tongue, sweet is at the tip of the tongue, sour is at the sides at the back, and salty is at the sides near the front. In this section, we’ll have a taste experiment to find out which types of tastes you can identify!

Topic Nine: Medical Equipment

When we get very sick or when something is not right with one of our body systems, we can visit a doctor. Doctors have many different instruments and medical equipment that they can use to check what is going on inside our body from the outside. An ophthalmoscope is used to examine the interior of eyes, an otoscope is used to look at the outer ear canal, and a stethoscope is used to listen to our lungs and heart. Using balloons, a funnel and paper rolls we can create our very own! 

Topic Ten: Staying Healthy

There are many different things we need to do to take care of the many systems within our bodies. We need to get plenty of rest, eat healthy food, exercise, and practice good hygiene. It is important that we practice good hygiene to keep germs and bugs out of our bodies. In this section, we get to see all that we have truly learned about the magnificent human body!

And there you have it. The 10 bite-sized learning topics that make up our great big Human Body Unit Study! I hope you will pop on over to check it out and consider purchasing it for you and yours.

The Human Body Family Unit Study

For a complete, engaging, hands-on unit study all about the human body, check out The Human Body Family Unit Study right here: https://shop.howweelearn.com/products/family-unit-study-the-human-body

I just know you will love it!

xo
Sarah