In our study of the circulatory system we’ve studied a wide variety of things, but today we’re making an edible heart model from our anatomy book.
As you can imagine any activity loaded up with this much sugar was a big hit. There was a lot of discussion going on of who would get to eat each different part of the heart, which to some extent took away from my kids remembering the different names of the parts.
Supplies needed for an edible heart model
Supplies: frosting (I used some of the pre-made kind, but you could make your own), red and blue food dye, graham crackers, mini-marshmallows, toothpicks, and full sized marshmallows, oh and knives for spreading frosting.
Procedure to make an edible heart model
1. Frost the chambers of the heart, each section of the cracker is a different chamber, and so 2 full-sized graham crackers is perfect.
2. Then slowly add in the different blood vessels. These are the pulmonary veins that bring oxygenated blood (notice it’s red) to the left atrium. These are some of the few veins that actually carry oxygenated blood.
3. And more blood vessels. This is the ascending aorta that leads to four big arteries that supply oxygenated blood to the body.
4. And finally marvel at all of the pieces you’ve put together. The top is the vena cava that brings blood to the right atrium, it then passes through to the right ventricle and down to the pulmonary artery that sends it off to the lungs to get oxygen.
5. And of course any edible model must be eaten, with much loud smackings and exclamations of enjoyment of the massive amounts of sugar they ingested.
Extra credit if you write down what you’re doing and explain it. For my boys this would have been a horrible distraction they did not need, so we left it off. My daughter on the other hand sought out paper and a marker to get started writing like a mad woman.
While I don’t think they completely got the names of all the different veins and arteries I can tell they did understand the concepts behind it when Princess sat down later that day and made her own model of a heart on fun foam.
She really embraced the concept of the heart as a 2-story heart.
More resources for learning about the heart and the circulatory system
Montessori Circulatory System activities
Another take on the edible heart
Heart and Circulatory System Unit (more from this one next week)
How to teach first aid to kids
Apparently the heart is a popular topic for kids.

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Now link up your SCIENCE posts, new and old, and then visit some of the other posts linked up and say hi. I’m going to be pinning, commenting, FBing or tweeting all of the posts linked up as the week goes by. At the end of the month I’m going to feature the best posts linked up.
Make sure to include a link back to my blog so people can come back from your post to see what others have done. By linking you are agreeing I can feature your posts in a round up post later (I may use a picture to feature, but will link back).
I think that it is typical that girls want to record it and boys think of that as a unnecessary distraction.
It certainly seems to be in my house.
What a delicious science activity! Not sure I’m up for the sugar high that would give my kids…
Thankfully the sugar high wasn’t too bad because we timed it with eating, but yeah that could be pretty horrid if timed wrong.
Very impressive. I am not sure if I am tempted or grossed out 🙂
I’m sure all of that super sugar sounds great to you 😉
I’m so looking forward to getting back to body (which we STILL haven’t finished. One day….maybe.)
Thank you so much for the link you left me. I nearly wet myself reading through it. Very, very funny!
Haha! Ours came out much more messy than yours!
The kids were quite messy, but our hearts were not super messy, which quite surprised me.