To conclude our human body unit, we finished our skeletons and Ericka came on Wednesday to teach about breaking bones and casting. The skeletons turned out great even though during the process of making them, I couldn't believe I was creating these from scratch and making them life size! Each student should have brought home their skeleton for break. Take their skeleton paper and ask them to show you where each of the bones are that I highlighted. After break, can you please return them because I want to hang them with our Spanish bodies when everything is complete.
Ericka and Henry came and spent the afternoon with us on Wednesday. She started discussing kids prior knowledge to get a sense of how much we have learned so far. Then she shared photo copies of x-rays with us, skeleton models and explained how she fixes some one's wrist during surgery. I was surprised to see the kids get freaked about about her needing to cut a bone during surgery. Keep that in mind for future learning opportunities...going to visit Ericka's office and see the tools she uses in surgery and maybe even see an OR! :)
Then we came to the most exciting part for the kids. They each chose to get casted or have a splint. Before we started, Ericka wanted to show them the saw and make sure they were comfortable with having it be used on them to remove the cast. Parker chose a splint because he didn't want to have the saw used and everyone else (including me) had a hard cast. Also, Parker has kept is splint on since Wednesday! I think it's going to come off when he decides to got swimming in Florida! :) Another fun idea was when Ericka cut off the cast she only made one cut so they could slide them on and off over and over. "It's fun to play tricks on our friends!" Thank you so much Ericka for coming in...it might be the kids highlight of the year!
Have a wonderful break and REMEMBER to have the kids come back April 8th with a project they did over break!