Human Body For Kids:
Homeschool Unit Studies Activities
Our human body for kids unit study makes it to number one of our free e-book of ten science experiments that won't let you down!
You'll find fun activities and experiments for all ages.
- Make your own blood
- Listen to your heart with a cardboard tube stethoscope
- Make an eyeball
- Build a human body model
- Discover the brain
- Free printable to build a human cell
- Construct a model hand
As you can see, lots of ideas which make discovering the human body for kids one of the most awesome journeys you can take!
Homeschool Unit Study
"We
made a lift the flap version of daughters body when she first started homeschool -
it was fantastic fun and stayed on the wall for about a year :)" ~ Anna Marie
We'll start with some human body activities for young children and move on up until you get to make an eyeball!
Make a stethoscope.
Use the cardboard tube inside a roll of paper towels for yours. Color it your favorite color.
Now try listening to each other's heart beats and see if you can count them.
See what happens when:
- you lie and the floor, pretend to snore and go to sleep
- you run round
Human Body Fact
The human body has an average of 5.6 liters of blood.
See for yourself!
Take some red food coloring and add it to some water.
Get the kids to measure out the right amount in a big bucket.
You can find more water experiments in our homeschool unit study on ocean creatures.
This is a fabulous video with facts about blood.
Try an easy experiment and make some blood!
You can enjoy being Dracula for a day by making blood out of food.
Get the kids to fetch:
- Red jelly beans for the red cells which carry oxygen
- White jelly beans for the white cells which fight infection
- Rice for platelets
- Corn syrup or olive oil for plasma
You can get a download showing you the exact proportions of each of these you need to make human blood.
Click on our free human body for kids printable.
You'll find out that you'll need a lot of corn syrup!
And if you've had fun making blood, use that to spark your kids imagination to try lots more of our experiments!
Make A Human Body Model
"It's such a wonderful education piece! We've read the book that comes with the model (several times) & the organizer is used to organize and properly name each organ as they come out of the body.
My son takes it apart at least once a day during the week and 5 or 6 times Saturdays and Sundays!"
~ Valena Norton, Courageous Homeschooling Facebook group
Valena Norton has found this brilliant Smart Labs Squishy human body anatomy model.
It is aimed at 8+; I suspect younger children would enjoy it too. The kit has:
- 21 realistic vital organs, bones, and muscles
- 12” clear plastic human body model, stand, 9 squishy organs, 12 plastic bones & muscles, forceps, tweezers, body part organ-izer mat
- STEM anatomy/Biology book
Please note that these links are affiliate links so if you buy I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
"We have this! That's why my son wants to become a doctor."
~ Alma, homeschool-activities Facebook fan
For older children, you can use your own body as a model.
Get your child to lie down on a large piece of paper and draw round their arms and upper torso. As my son William knows, this is where a human body for kids homeschool unit study gets ticklish!
Get a good kids book on the human body, trace round a few of the main organs and get the kids to color them in. You can make the drawings as simple as you like, or quite complex if your kids are high school age.
Here is Felicity to show you hers:
"We tried this activity and it was a success! I drew the organs myself just on paper and the children then stuck them on.
Although just to add the children glued them on themselves so don’t think I’m teaching them the heart is in their neck!!!"
~ Shelley, Courageous Homeschooling Facebook support group
One great idea is to make a lift-the-flap homeschool unit study of the human body.
The photo shows my homeschool human body model made with the help of my children.
As youcan see, the lungs are attached to tabs which lift up to reveal the heart.
Fun Human Body Lesson
A good way to enjoy a human body for kids Unit Study is to travel round your body from the inside!
And while you are there, you are going to meet some tiny things called cells.
Make A Human Cell Model From Candy (And Chocolate!)
A human body for kids project gets even more fun when you use candy to make a model of a cell!
Using candy, you can build your own model of a human cell - and eat it afterwards!
That sounds a bit complicated, but actually you can make a cell cake or even build a cell with lego!
All you need is a basic diagram, which you can download below.
You can also learn body parts with felt as you sing a human body song!
"Here is a wonderful idea from makinglearningfun.com for anyone who wants a fun biology lesson for their children.
I made this from felt to teach my son body parts and what they do. You can take off each organ and add them as you sing the song. Then put the bones over top of the organs, add the skin and then the clothes to have a complete person."
~ Rebekah, Courageous Homeschooling Facebook support group
You can download free printable outlines to cut out the body parts and get a copy of the song from Jo's lovely makinglearningfun.com website.
Great idea for a human body for kids project. Thanks Jo.
Make an eyeball.
You'll need a:
- ping pong ball cut in half for the eyeball
- a small square of transparent acetate for the lens
- blu-tack or similar to hold the lens in place
- blue or brown shiny paper for the iris
- black card for the pupil
- shiny red foil for the retina
I reckon not many families come home to an eyeball on the table!
Investigate your brain.
Here's my daughter Catherine holding up the picture we traced of a human skull.
As part of your homeschool Unit Study, you can color in the areas of the brain and talk about what each does.
Human Brain Fact
The human brain is three times as big as the brain of any other similar sized mammal.
You can download this wonderful brain hemisphere and make it up as a model hat to wear! It is even available in different languages.
Go over to Ellen McHenry's Basement to get your free download.
3-D Human Body
This site requires you to log in first, but Bio-Digital Human is a great place for older kids to explore a virtual human body in 3 dimensions.
Zoom in on your left lung and discover your left salivary gland!
As you can see, our human body for kids homeschool unit study is all about getting hands-on!
Build Your Own Skeleton
Sylv and her 9 year-old daughter came up with a lovely activity building your own paper skeleton from a free paper template.
"Jayne is over the moon with her little skeleton. We have talked about Clavicle, Sternum, Humerus, Radius, Ulna, Femur, Patella, Tibia, Fibula, Phalanges, Metacarpals and carpal bones.
We even sang along to Dem Bones!"
~ Sylv, Courageous Homeschooling Facebook support group
Thank you for sharing and well done Jayne!
How To Make A Hand
Jessica is homeschooled and has specially made this video which shows you how to make a working hand. Thanks so much Jessica!
All you need is:
- Card stock (cardboard is best)
- 3 straws
- Thread or string
- Scissors and glue such as Elmer's or Pritt
- Sellotape (Scotch tape)
You will find how tendons work and actually get to move the fingers of your working model.
Jessica shows you exactly how to do it in her video. Brilliant.
How The Lungs Work
Great video from TED-Ed.
Human Body Unit Studies
I asked Lorraine from my Courageous Homeschooling Facebook support group to explain how she did her human body for kids Unit Study:
"They had so much fun learning about the human body. I first started by tracing their bodies (wiggle central lol) and then we explored all the different organs.
They cut the organs out, colored them, labeled them and placed them where they were supposed to be. Along with that we read about them.
We then moved onto the bones. Which was a little more difficult! However with the help of Pinterest I was able to find some great cutouts. We came up with a song so they could remember the bones. At the end I had them write out a recipe for a body.
This unit took about 2 months and they loved every bit of it."
~ Lorraine Morris, blasonacademy
And here is Marcia and her six-year-old son to show you how they did it:
"My son wanted to learn about the body so I made copies of the organs for him to color which we traced on a big piece of butcher paper. Then he picked what he wanted to put on the descriptions of each organ/ system.
He learned so much. I love being able to follow his lead and explore whatever he shows interest in!"
~ Marcia, Courageous Homeschooling Facebook group
Human Body For Kids Resources
I asked my Courageous Homeschooling Facebook Group to recommend some resources.
"I found this site online for my girls to watch as they are obsessed with the
body. It's very informative and fun and they love it.” ~ Alison
Get your free e-book of ten science activities that won't let you down! by clicking on the kids experiments link.
The human body is an amazing place to discover.
Why not draw round your hand and find out that fingernails are actually modified hairs?
If you do the same with your feet, you'll find out that it's rare to find two feet exactly the same.
So the human body for kids is a fantastic journey of discovery just waiting for you to begin!
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