Learning About the Cardiovascular System

 

A friend asked me to review a curriculum on the cardiovascular system for her website, and although I wasn't sold on the downloadable lesson plans and resources, the girls were enthusiastic about the topic. I searched around on the net and ransacked my own creativity and came up with some resources, experiments and activities to bring it alive.

 

I started out by asking them what they already knew and it was really interesting listening to their answers. Eve's answer was long, contained lots of part pieces of information, and showed that she had a good overall grasp of what the cardiovascular system does. Faith's answer was shorter, and contained less detail but was much more accurate. Their answers were really representative of how they learn best - Eve likes to have 'the big picture' then fill in the details whereas Faith prefers to know small parts and add them together to make a big picture. I asked them then what they wanted to know about the CV system, they said they wanted to know why the blood coming back to the heart has no oxygen, how the heart moves and how blood gets back up the veins without falling down again. This concept came from the curriculum I was reviewing and I liked the idea of starting this way, and I think I will use it again.

Making a model of a drop of blood based on this idea

We started out talking about the blood, and it's main components of plasma (yellowish oil), red blood cells (kidney beans), platelets (red lentils) and white blood cells (butter beans). As the girls took turns to put them in, we discussed what each of the components did and so built up knowledge of the main functions of the blood (transport of oxygen and nutrients, clotting to slow and stop blood loss, fighting infection). Talking about all these things naturally led to us discussing the structure of the heart in some detail, how blood flows through it and what happens in the lungs.

The girls took turns to draw around each other to make a body diagram......

Diagram of the heart from here
I later discovered this site which has a complete set of full sized organs to print and assemble on your body outline!

....... and they then added a diagram of the heart and we looked closely to follow the route of the blood through the structures, with the girls getting used to the terminology. That led us on to discussing the differences between arteries and veins, their different roles and why arteries are buried deeper inside the limbs than veins.

We looked closely at our wrists and hands to see what veins we could see, I showed the girls how the artery in my wrist pulses, and we talked about what would happen if you cut an artery by accident or cut a vein. They used a lot of logic and applied things we'd talked about before to build their ideas and answers, it was great!

We added lungs made from over sized bubble wrap, and the main arteries and veins of the heart using blue and red pipe cleaners to demonstrate where they went.

Idris worked hard on copying the girl's 'listening poses' , see how intently he is looking at Faith?..... he was very funny bless him!

Another day we added the digestive system and liver onto the body diagrams and talked about how the blood collected nutrients from the small intestines and why and how the blood needed to be cleaned. The girls worked most of it out for themselves with a few leading questions to get them to think in the right directions.

 

A very simple demonstration with water in a straw showed the difference between having and not having a valve. We sucked up water into the straw, lifted it out and watched the water drain out immediately. Next we sucked water up, pinched the straw as hard as we could before lifting it out and saw that the water stayed put, so showing what valves do in a very basic way.  

As a finale to the fortnight of exploring the cardiovascular system, we looked at a heart. I had ordered a pig's heart from the butcher but none came so we had an Ox heart instead! It was HUGE, but was better in the end as being so large enabled us to see the structures inside really clearly. In the photo above, we were looking at the difference in muscle size between the left and right ventricles and applying what we knew about why they were different.

Here we looked from above down into the atria (which had been cut through before we got the heart) and saw the top of the heart valves.......

 .........then had a look from below at how the valve was tethered to the muscle.......

...... and |I was able to show them how the back force of the blood would snap the valve shut and stop the blood from flowing back into the atria, rather than going round the body. We could just about see the start of the aortic arch leading from the ventricle, but sadly the rest of the veins and arteries were missing. We did have a look at the criss cross of vessels on the outside of the heart and talk about why the heart itself needed a good blood supply.

 

It was a really enjoyable fortnight of science sessions about the cardiovascular system and the girls are keen to do more, they want to find out about bones next and add them to their body outlines!

Ah, a nice cuppa, just what I need after this week.....

Idris obligingly drinking cups of lukewarm tea made by Faith with her little china tea set!

Well I've found it tough going this week, the children have had some odd virus that has made them really itchy, and by turn, pretty grumpy and my normally cheerful little boy has been very screechy and very hard to please! Thursday he cheered up remarkably and has been bubbly and giggly again - phew!

On reflection, I tried to do far too much given the circumstances and should have lowered my expectations for the week....... but the flip side is that I did get lots done, including one of my 'bottle necker' jobs. I call them bottle neckers if not doing them is causing me to get so hung up that I then can't make myself do anything else from my list, and it sits in the back of my mind like a little malevolent pixie making faces at me! The bottle necker this time? Getting quotes for a lorryful of concrete to be delivered (don't ask!). As usual when I plucked up the will to do it, it was simple, short lived and the people on the other end of the phone were pleasant and helpful and very willing to give advice. The result of doing that one 'bottle necker'?? I also organised electrician quotes (another thing I dislike doing, getting quotes) and sorted through half of the stack of random tat in my garage that is all that remains of my big organisation and decluttering drive!! It's amazing how good getting a few 'big' things from my list done feels!!

My brother spent a week over here visiting from Canada (sadly without Lorri and Sam - we missed you guys!) and it was lovely to have a few days with him and 'refuel' on my big brother before I see him again who knows when!! It was nice to be able to send back some parcels shoe horned into his case for my little nephew to open up!

I've gone back to cloth nappies this week, I used them for Eve and Faith and then when Idris came along I just couldn't face using them, he hated feeling wet and I was changing them so often that I moved to disposables, and never went back. Since then I gave my favourite stuffable/pocket nappy types to my sister-in-law and the rest of them to a lovely local family who had an unexpected third baby. Then last week I stumbled across a review of some birth to potty pocket nappies that were pretty low cost and ordered one to try. It was put thoroughly through it's paces and got top marks so I ordered a batch more and we are back to cloth. I am happy that we are, and hope that they will suit the next baby too!

I've tackled a change of e-mail address this week too, and tried really really hard to synchronise the calendars on my phone and tablet computer, which should be simple according to the web blurb but has me stumped and is clearly out of my sphere of expertise and my comfort zone! It made me grumpy and I didn't want to devote any more time to it this week so it is shelved pending space and time (and my charger returned from my Mum's house!) to tackle it afresh. It is small progress though towards one of my 2013 goals "get to grips with technology". I am also making progress towards the goals of getting the house organised and maintaining it, home ed co-operatives and building friendships. Having put the list up there, it seems to be keeping it fresh in my mind and I'm making things happen towards them. It's all good!

Idris was happily entertained putting the dice in and out of the tin whilst the others played Yahtzee!

A New Valentines Tradition........

I have been planning this for a long time now and finally got the give them to the girls on Valentines day this year. I have always loved charm bracelets and charms, the old vintage silver ones that open.... it is my favoured gift to give for Christenings of baby girls, but I never got them for my girls and wanted to. It came to me one day that I could start a new tradition and I spent a few happy hours over a few months sourcing tiny little charms - a wishing well that opens to reveal a pixie for Faith, and an oyster shell that opens to reveal a pearl for Eve. At the same time I decided to treat myself and I found both a beautiful bracelet and a country farmhouse opening to show a bed with a couple inside!

The girls charms I have hung temporarily on small silver plated bracelets that they had for their baptisms, as proper solid silver charm bracelets are too large for their wrists at the present time and I want them to enjoy wearing them for special occasion meals now and again - pancakes for breakfast maybe, or a Mother's day lunch, that kind of thing. I will have them mounted properly with soldered jump rings onto a solid silver bracelet when they are older!

I wrapped them in little organza bags and tucked them into heart shaped boxes, and the girls were gratifyingly enchanted with the idea, although even the children's bracelet has to be made smaller for Faith's little wrist!!

Idris at 19 months

Well I can hardly belive that another month has flown past and this fabulous, funny, loving little person is 19 months (and a bit!) already! I keep a page in my notebook where I jot down new things that he does or things that I notice about him to write in these posts and this month it seems I have been adding new things every day or even several times a day sometimes, especially his new vocabulary! So here goes, he:

• Loves to help out around the house, he will put things in the washing machine, carry cups to and from the dishwasher, tidy away, put pants and socks in the right drawers, pulls pillow cases and duvet covers off, feeds the animals, tidies the bath toys, helps to carry things.
• Is super independent, he carries his own plate or bowl of food to the table, then climbs up to a high wooden stool and sits to eat with us, getting down usually when he is done and pottering off! He eats really well with a fork and spoon, which is just as well as he......
• refuses to wear a bib or apron or have his sleeves rolled up, he can't abide taking his trousers off to wander around for some nappy free time so we have to take the nappy off and put his trousers back on again!!
• uses a stool to get things that he wants/needs/shouldn't have - he delights in climbing up to retrive a pair of scissors then carrying them to me saying 'sisiss. sisiss'!
• runs really fast, can jump off the floor with two feet together, often climbs steps with alternate feet, and has a lengthy and highly accurate overarm throw, and a cracking left foot kick!
• kisses things better, by grabbing the hurt person and kissing their cheek, he always comes for his hurts to be kissed better, holding out the hurting bit, then is instantly better as soon as it has been kissed!!
• thinks that all numbers are named 'two' and says it every time he hears someone say a number!
• can be incredibly disruptive if he thinks he isn't getting his share of the attention - he will climb a book case whilst making eye contact and grinning, as if to challenge me to come and get him, or he will screech like a banshee VERY loudly in an attempt to drive everyone present into interacting with him - I have cracked down on this this week as the girls capitulate far too often and it is making it worse!!
• really enjoys books now and likes to fetch a book and sit with someone and talk about it, he even 'tells the story' with a simple 'splash' book, knowing what things are on the next page (trousers and hat!!).
• still loves order and routine, things have to be done in a certain way and put in a certain place or we get no peace until he is satisfied.
• eats me out of house and home - my friends with several boys assure me this is normal!
• has slept through the night for the first time since he was born - but now gets up any time from 5 am due to having slept well - roll on those summer mornings!!!
• loves to show body parts, where are your eyes? (blink blink blink), where is your tongue (sticks it out), where are your teeth? (gnashes them), he points to his ears, mouth, head, hair, tummy, bottom.
• loves his boots, we have indoor boots (yellow duck ones) and outdoor boots (muddy ones) but I still seem to end up cleaning them often!!

his new words this month are: sisiss (scissors) trousers, book, chair, boot, ballo(on), (s)tick, (s)tep, kick (accompanied by the action), bowl, coa(t), c(l)othes, cheese, yeah (he doesn't say 'no' yet!!), Ebe (Eve), (F)aith , Gar (Grandpa), (s)tuck, (s)ock, (w)oof, doo doo (thank you), cat, hat, eyes, ears, no(se), knee. It interests me that most of his words relate to his body, other people, clothes and his ways of getting what he wants such as stick, stool, coat, hat (to go outside etc).

 

Living Maths Curriculum - Place Value

I thought I knew what place value represented but I was interested to read about our number system's origins in Mathematics Explained for Primary Teachers. A summary of what Place Value represents is that the place in which a digit is written represents the value of a power of ten. So for example, in the number 3487, the 7 represents 7 ones, the 8 represents 8 tens, the 4 represents 4 hundreds and the 3 represents 4 thousands. Zero is a place holder, because it holds the place when there are none of that value there. So for 1001, there are two place holding zeros as there is 1 unit, no tens, no hundreds and 1 thousand.

 

I like to understand the links between the areas of maths and to do that it is useful to look at place value in terms of 'powers of ten'.

• Ten is 10 to the power of one or '10'
• One hundred is 10 to the power of two or '10x10'
• One thousand is ten to the power of three or '10x10x10'

From that you can see that each of the powers of ten is worth ten times that of the value less than it, so ten tens are one hundred, ten lots of one hundred are 1000 and so on. The reason that this is important to know is that it helps with calculations as once you have nine of a certain power, when you add one more, and you have ten of them, they are exchanged for one in the next value up. Confusingly for children who read from left to right, this is worked from right to left, so with nine units, if one more is added then it is exchanged for one ten, in the place to the left of the units. Ten tens will be exchanged for one hundred, again to the left of the tens column in place value. It is the principal on which carrying one over in addition or doing subtraction by decomposition is based.

 

Although some of these are higher level than your child will begin with, it is useful to understand it fully as an adult guiding a child through the ideas, so that you can answer any questions your child might have, and so you are fluent in it yourself!

 

I based the place value exploration on the book 'A Place for Zero, A Math Adventure'. The girls enjoyed the story and I thought that it simply explained the concepts behind Place Value. We based our activities around the Montessori golden bead material that I have. A base ten set is similar, and you can print out sets of number cards from units up to thousands from here. Another effective way of explaining place value with concrete materials is with money - £1 coins represent the hundreds, ten pences represent the tens and one pences represent the units.

 



I downloaded  Place Value worksheets one and two from the teaching ideas website, purely to use as a guide for myself, rather than as a worksheet for the girls. I wrote large numbers out in pen and asked them which number represented hundreds, which was tens, which was units and so on and got them to circle the correct number. I asked them to write down three hundred and eight, or two hundred and ninety seven and so on. The next day we did the same but in thousands.

The way we usually work our living maths is to read the book together, chat about it as we go or afterwards, then do a related activity that hopefully builds on their understanding. They really enjoy doing maths this way and I always get a cheerful 'yeah' when I suggest doing it which is so nice! The third day I introduced the Montessori golden bead material (base ten printables here to use - scroll down to find them, but they aren't as good as the real thing but better than putting it off for ever until you can get the real deal!).

 

The idea behind the Montessori materials is that you choose a number card from each of the 'powers of ten' so a thousands, a hundreds, a tens and a units, I gave the girls the individual numbers in a tray and they went across the room to the 'bank' which holds all of the golden bead material. They counted out the blocks required and stacked them into the tray.......

.... then came back and assembled them on the place value mat as shown and put the number cards together correctly before telling me the number that they had.

They enjoyed making each other fetch larger and larger numbers from the bank - this number required several trips to and fro!!!

An Underbed Storage Box and a New Baby on the way!

We are expecting a baby in the Summer and although I have banned my Mum from buying anything for this baby, as we have everything that we need, her generous soul couldn't resist knitting this gorgeous little jumper!! I have tucked it away in an empty drawer under my bed (yes I do actually have such a thing as an empty drawer now that I'm getting organised!) and open it now and again when I need to smile!

It struck me how things change as we have more babies. For my first, we decorated a room, chose furniture, and made pictures for the walls. For our second, we made a special place in the corner of what was our guest room then (laughs hollowly at the notion of a guest room), and put a wardrobe in there for all her things. Our third baby got a cot tucked up to our bed and a set of drawers in his big sister's room and this baby? Well this baby gets an under bed storage drawer...... and nearer the time I will really enjoy getting down the newborn clothes (well, 0-3 as I have giant long babies that never fit in newborn!), washing and folding them before tucking them away safely under our bed ready for the new arrival!

Organising Paperwork into a Household Folder System.

One of my goals for 2013 was to 'get the house organised once and for all and maintain it'. I have tried (and failed) on and off over the years to get more organised and I've gradually gained a bit more control, picking up a few ideas here and there but then I got stuck. About 18 months ago we started looking for a bigger house and lots of things that needed doing here, whether they were house maintenance or decluttering, were put on the back burner 'until we moved'. Three failed house purchases later (we have a really complicated system here in the UK) we have decided to embrace small home living...... and finally get organised!

In the last couple of months an awful lot of decluttering, downsizing and re-organisation has taken place, but our paperwork has sat in several boxes in the lounge until today..... it was useful in a way as every time I found some I added it to the boxes...... but it has been nagging at me from it's place beside the sofa!!!

This morning the mood took me to sort it out and I went through it whilst flipping breakfast pancakes for my children - a good use of a long time spent standing in the kitchen!! I made piles of different sorts, put a massive stack in the recycling bin and anything of a sensitive nature by the burner to be destroyed. As I worked I noted that there were two sorts of papers...... those that we used regularly and those that are rarely needed but still important.

I had kept two large lever arch files from a previous massive paperwork purge and into these I neatly filed everything in plastic pockets between dividers, using large white labels stuck back to back over the edges of the dividers (to cover up the previous writing and to make them stick out more. I was happy to be recycling stationary from previous uses...... I had been momentarily tempted to create pretty labels and covers like I have seen on numerous other blogs and sites but quickly decided that it wasn't necessary and my financial statements would be perfectly happy in a plain folder!!

 

The short term folder has space for gift lists, schedules, budgeting and goals as well as pure paperwork. I like an idea that I've seen before where the folder was like a household manual that could be picked up by someone else if there was an emergency and things would run smoothly - so it included things like times and addresses of sports lessons, doses of medication and where to get a replacement prescription, phone numbers of friends who knew the children well and could help out and so on. There is still some work to do to get all that together but the paperwork is well organised at least!

To finish off, there is a 'to-do' file and a 'to file' folder in the letter rack in the hall, simple hole-punched plastic folders that open at the top and are easy to add things to. I deal with the mail as soon as I pick it up and recycle and file whatever arrives. A 'one in one out' approach works for things like water bills and I keep other papers for longer such as a year's worth of payslips. I have tried a few different ways of organising it over the years but I have a good feeling about it this time! It feels good to be one step closer to having a properly organised home and life!!!