posted by Jessica Lynette on School

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Goal: To memorize the 4 components of blood and have a working understanding of what blood is and what blood does and how it circulates through the body.

Books used: We went to our local library and borrowed books on the human body. None of the books were particularly spectacular, but all did the job of explaining and illustrating the circulatory system for kids. One of the books did include random facts about certain animals that have green or blue blood, which they found interesting and added to our discussions on blood. We spent time on Google looking at the animals with different colored blood.

Projects made: Our own blood bags {see picture above}. Using a Ziploc baggie we put in plasma {vegetable oil}, platelets {rice and lentil mixture – would have used straight rice if I had it!}, red blood cells {red gummy candies}, and white blood cells {tapioca pearls}. This was an incredible project and was instrumental in helping the boys memorize so easily the parts and function of blood. I put the baggies into larger sized baggies just in case leaking occurred… and sure enough a few days after creating them, after lots of squeezing, the first baggie did indeed leak. I highly recommend double bagging if you try this!

Field Trips: We visited the Armed Forces Blood Donor Center and watched Paul donate blood. There was also a man in there donating platelets that the boys were able to watch. They were able to get up close and watch the blood going through the tube into the bag – and even held the bag of warm blood that had just come out of their daddy’s body!! Then they were shown where the blood is stored and sorted. They were also given shirts {as seen in the pictures below} and they love their shirts!!

 Conclusion: This was a really fun lesson plan to follow! We spent just over a week on the circulatory system {mostly due to needing to wait to get to the donor center} and we all found it interesting and fun to learn about!

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