How to make an edible heart model

Our science lessons have been quite varied. This year we’re studying anatomy, and 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.

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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 which 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 many 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

I asked fellow bloggers to let me know what they have on the circulatory system and here is what they shared and then I added in my own posts on the topic

• Montessori Circulatory System activities
• Another take on the edible heart
• Human heart for kids
• Human heart printables
• Heart and Circulatory System Unit (more from this one next week)
• Edible drop of blood
• How to teach first aid to kids
• Blood type activity for kids