Look how much fun children had learning about the heart!
Students recently studied the
circulatory system in Physical Education.
We borrowed a model of the heart from the science department in
order to see the veins, arteries, chambers, and valves in the heart. Students learned the location of the
heart, how big it generally is, and how the heart is affected by exercise. They even used a cardboard tube as a
stethoscope to listen to another person’s heartbeat. Students also watched a demonstration of how
lungs inflate as we breathe in air. They
know that blood receives oxygen from the lungs.
Students also learned about the path of the blood through the body. They played a game where they moved from
the heart (the circle) to the lungs (the gym mats) to oxygenate the blood, then
back to the heart to pump the blood out the aorta to the various arteries in
the body (the red hoops). They learned
that “used” (un-oxygenated) blood takes on a more bluish appearance as it is
returned to the heart through the veins (the blue hoops). This process is continually repeated.
We also talked about the various risk factors that contribute to heart disease. The students were very interested in this and
asked a lot of questions. We had some
very good discussions in class. The risk
factors we discussed included:
SMOKING
HIGH CHOLESTEROL
UNHEALTHY WEIGHT
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
LACK OF EXERCISE
HEREDITY
LACK OF MEDICAL CHECK-UPS
In the gym we played Risk
Factor Tag. Students moved in various
ways and were chased and tagged by someone who was one of the risk
factors. (We used different equipment
like a swim noodle for a cigarette and Frisbees for “junk food.”) The tagged person was frozen in place until
another person could come and deliver a healthy message related to the risk
factor. (An example might be “Smoking is bad for your heart and lungs.”) Once the message was delivered the tagged
person was required to do a special skill to get back into the game. Students did jumping jacks, jogged in place, moved
about doing a basketball dribble, pumped their hands like a heart, kicked a
spider ball like a soccer ball, crawled through another person’s legs, held
hands with a friend and moved in a circle, tossed a ball in the air and caught
it, and jumped back and forth across a line. Risk
factor tag was a very active game. Children
enjoyed moving about and learning the special message associated with each risk
factor.
I hope children will
continue to recognize these risk factors as they get older and make healthy
choices for their own heart. This was an important unit of
study. Each person only has one heart so
he/she must learn to take good care of it!
