Learning about muscles by exercising

We got most of our hands-on muscle activities done this week. It’s been an interesting time in our science lessons, we are making our way through our anatomy book, and we reached the muscles chapter.  We did several activities for that chapter, but the kids favorite activity was:

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Learning about muscles through exercise

I sent them upstairs to clean out the loft and then we all headed upstairs to exercise as I took pictures of them.

First up push-ups, which Princess so ably demonstrated for me to take a picture, and then we all joined in doing 10 push-ups.  Afterward we talked about what muscles were used.  The kids all had fun identifying the muscles used.

This next one is the boys’ favorite exercise from Kung Fu.  You crouch down and then leap up as high as you can.  A great way to exercise your legs, particularly your thighs.

This next one is sit-ups, my old enemy.  Actually, I think push-ups are more so.  Though my stomach muscles right now might disagree.  Either way, another great exercise.

I don’t know what this one is called, I know it’s a yoga pose, but I remember this one from my brief stint in gymnastics over 20 years ago (wow, that’s depressing).  It’s a great way to stretch your legs, abdomen, and back, and if you try moving around while doing it, it’s a great exercise in general.

Touching your toes is great because it’s a way to get your kids aware of not just their muscles, but the tendons because you can feel it all stretching.  You can also feel back muscles stretching.

This was a great lesson for the kids to learn how all of their muscles work together.

Let’s see what others did this week:

This is a leftover from when I ran a weekly science linkie, I would share links people had left from the week before. Sadly of the four links I originally shared, only one blog is still here.

• The Homeschool Scientist shared some great classification tips and some printables you can use.  If you aren’t reading her blog, I’d highly recommend it.

More 5th-grade learning fun

We studied anatomy in 5th grade. I think you could pretty easily make the argument this activity could be done at pretty much any age with adapting exercises for the age, but here are a few more 5th-grade activities we did.

• Circulatory System Game
• Black Cauldron book club
• Candlemaking lesson
• Colonial games
• Howl’s Moving Castle book club