It’s Science Saturday! Can you believe we are getting close to the end of our study through Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology? Wow. Sharing my weekends with The Homeschool Scientist has been so much fun.
This week we studied the skin.
In my craft supply cabinet, I keep a variety of recycle-ables and items that ordinarily I would trash. But… you just never know when something will come in handy. This week was one of those moments. When I decided to create a model of the skin, I was able to pull some of the “trash” from our cabinet and make our study of the skin come alive (pardon the pun) to my kinesthetic learners.
Supplies for a Model of the Skin
- Pipe cleaners to represent hair, nerves, and sweat glands
- Paper to represent the epidermis
- Styrofoam to represent the dermis
- Scissors for poking holes and carving spaces
Instructions for a Skin Model
Wrap the paper around the styrofoam, leaving one side exposed. Talk about how thin our epidermis is when compared to the other layers of the skin. I used the wonderful illustrations from our textbook, Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology.
Use the scissors to cut a place for the nerves, hair follicles, and sweat glands. Shape the pipe cleaners into these pieces and press into the styrofoam as you describe the purpose for each part of our dermis.
Poke additional holes through the paper into the styrofoam and allow the children to push chenille stems in to represent the hair.
Your model of the skin is complete.
If you are using the Junior Notebooking Journal for Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology by Jeannie Fulbright, this would be an excellent time to label the parts of the skin.
Studying Our Thumbprints
Besides looking at our fingerprints and the lines in our skin through a magnifying glass, I decided to increase the fun a little by pulling out the book, Klutz Thumbprint Drawing Books Draw Thumb Things
I had to take this opportunity to emphasize how unique God made us and how no one in the world is exactly like any other person. Just as our fingerprints are all different, God’s plan for our lives are all different although His purpose for each of us is the same:
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
~ Jeremiah 29:11-13
Additional Resources for a Skin Unit Study
- Skin File Folder Game from File Folder Fun
- A Model of the Skin from Flower’s in Mary’s Garden
- Lesson review at The Homeschool Scientist
The kids get so much more out of the lesson when they create models on their own, don’t they? Great skin model idea!
I say when I need help for the science fair in sixth grade I know where I’m going to go.
We’ve been studying the human body all year and I was searching the internet looking for a skin model idea. Thanks for posting this. It’s simple and will definitely work.