Body Systems

Continued, lessons 5 to 11

Central Idea:

Identity and health influence each other

Learner Outcomes:

Active Living:
- Recognise the importance of regular exercise in the development of well-being
- Identify healthy food choices
Identity:
- Examine different factors that shape an identity

Lesson 5:

We dived into the digestive system today. We quickly reviewed everything we learned so far through another Kahoot! Quiz. We did a quick game of Stuck in the Mud but used the questions technique to find 2 catchers. After our game, we discussed why they were breathing hard, how our muscles move and what happens to our systems when they are not looked after.

We got out our iPads again and looked at the digestive system. By this stage, the kids were quite familiar with TinyBop and had an understanding of the digestive system. Therefore, we did not spend much time on it. But I really like the detail that has gone into the design of the digestive system on TinyBop. You notice that the denser food takes more time to digest than liquids.

We moved to the field and started applying their learning practically. We started with a game of Shark, a game they have played many times:

Initially start the game with 2 catchers – they are the sharks
The people have initially 2 islands to run back and forth.
Once a shark catches a person who runs out of the island that person turns into a shark.
As the game progresses and there are more sharks you can include additional islands.

This is always a popular game but I made it relevant to the digestive system. I named 4 islands into parts of the digestive system: mouth, stomach, small intestine, large intestine.

The class starts at the mouth, they are all food.
There are 2 catchers to start with.
To run from the mouth to the stomach, they need to be in groups of 4.
Once they successfully reach the stomach, they break into groups of 2 and run to the small intestine.
Upon reaching the small intestine, they can run individually to the large intestine.
When they reach the large intestine they scored a goal and have one point for themselves.
If a catcher catches a food item, they are a catcher.

After finishing a round, we had a quick discussion:

“When we eat, does our food go from the mouth directly to the large intestine?”
“Then why did I see some of you do that?”

I needed the class to focus a bit more on the format of the game and what it was trying to accomplish. They did better the next couple of rounds. Towards the end of the lesson we reviewed what was accomplished.

Lesson 6:

Continuing on with the digestive system, I wanted to bring forward a subject matter I am quite passionate about – nutrition. Particularly, sugar. It is so concerning to see such horrible, processed, sugary food in my students’ lunch boxes. It is almost criminal. I wanted to really drive home what it means to be wise about food choices. The kids know that junk food is bad, chocolate, sweets, chips etc., are all bad. But this lesson needed to be more than that. Inspiration – the Biggest Loser. There is plenty wrong with this TV show but this one challenge was ingenious and could be altered for the classroom.

There is a challenge in the TV show where there are a series of food items underneath cloches. The contestant needs to pick one of the cloches and can choose to eat the food item but needs to do an exercise if so. I did the same with my class:

I got 22 plastic cups and turned them upside down to cover the items of food
I selected:
- Hardboiled eggs
- Carrots
- Grapes
- Apples
- Starbursts
- Dove Chocolate
- Snickers bars
- Skittles
Underneath each cup I wrote down the following information on a flash card and placed it faced down:
- The item of food
- The amount of energy in kilojoules
- The amount of exercise it would take to burn it off
For example:
- 2 carrot sticks
- 18 kilojoules
- 1 minute jump rope
Each student got to choose a cup and they tallied who ate the food item, what exercise they needed to do and for how long.

Prior to doing this “healthy food choice challenge”, I showed them an image regarding energy balance. You can find it here. In their table groups, they discussed what it means to them. They could do a quick internet search to help them. After sharing their conclusions I showed them a clip from “That Sugar Film.” You can see it here. This clip really shocked some of the kids – juice is really not that good for you. If you have not seen the movie, I really recommend it. Was eye-opening.

Afterwards, we got into the Healthy Food Challenge. Quite a few of my students chose not to eat the junk food. Several of my “unique” students chose short-term satisfaction and will do their consequences in the next lesson. But what was really interesting is how they started to understand the difference between the junk food and healthy food in terms of the energy content – 1 serving of Skittles (25g) is 425 kilojules. That is 23 carrot sticks. I asked the class which one would keep you fuller for longer. Still, one student at the Skittles.

This was an important lesson that did require extra effort to set up but it was really worth it. The students started to question their food choices and I did see more fruit and vegetables for snacks afterwards. All I need to do now is try and arrange this challenge for the parents.

Lesson 7:

After our warm-up we reviewed the previous lesson and took note of who owes exercises for eating one of the food items. While they were doing this, the rest of the class played a game of Pac-Man, the original one.

After that game, I gave them their formative assessment:

Tell me everything you have learned so far in this unit. Be creative, show your learning in a unique way.

After letting them take a picture of the board or writing down the assignment. We played a game of the Circulatory System modified Pac-Man.

We gathered around again to discuss their formative assessment, what types of learning they could show, how they could show it – not giving too much away but letting their knowledge come alive. I let them have the rest of the lesson to start working on it. They had a week to get this done and could submit it to me through Seesaw, AirDrop it or hand it in personally.

Lesson 8:

We were over half-way through the unit and it was time to start integrating with the homeroom. The homeroom was looking at how the past can influence the present. This gave me a solid opportunity to give a unique project for the kids to work on. I found 4 health/product advertisements from the past – 1890s onwards. The students needed to determine whether this advertisement is true or false. If they believe it to be false, then what would happen if they followed the claim (Concept: Causation). They could hand this in at the end of the unit.

You can find the past advertisements here:

I gave them half of the lesson to work on it and I wandered around helping out if necessary.

With 10 minutes left of the lesson, I arranged a circuit for the kids to get some exercise in:

Shuttle Run
Medicine Ball Thursters
Plank
Step-Ups

Lesson 9:

I used this lesson to check-in with their summative assessment progress. We also completed another circuit and a game.

Lesson 10:

As above.

Lesson 11:

Summatives were handed in and quite a few of them were decent, several were quite good and some of them needed extra work on it. The summative was different and did require the students to reach conclusions on their own by researching and calling upon past knowledge. Therefore, it was difficult for some. But, it did help them acknowledge their understanding of what it means to live according to a healthy lifestyle. Find below some examples of student work for their summative.

We did miss out on a lesson due to scheduling and being unable to reschedule it but we did cover a lot. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to cover the Identity learner outcome as much as I wanted to.

Thoughts, comments, questions? Please click here.

Grade 3 - Body Systems - Assessment 1

Grade 3 - Body Systems - Assessment 2

Grade 3 - Body Systems - Assessment 3

Grade 3 - Body Systems - Assessment 4

Grade 3 - Body Systems - Assessment 5

Grade 3 - Body Systems - Assessment 6

G3 - Body Systems copy: Project