May 16-20, 2016
Let's Learn About Lungs!
We had to catch our breath after learning a lot about lungs this week in Nutrition Expedition! Inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth...
We started out by watching a few short video clips about our respiratory system, including a few hilarious and catchy tunes:
The 3-and-4-year-olds played a fun, yet challenging oxygen game. I split the children up into groups. In the first group, one child played the lungs, another the liver, and two children were blood cells (red=oxygenated cell, blue=deoxygenated cell). The two remaining groups consisted of the same "parts", except one contained a brain, and the other contained a heart. These 3 organs (liver, brain, and heart) require the most oxygen of any organ in our body, so I thought it appropriate to include these in the game. The premise of the game was for the red blood cells to deliver an oxygen (white circle) molecule to their group's organ. Then the "blue" red blood cells picked up a carbon dioxide molecule (brown circle) and delivered it back to the lungs, where it was picked up by the "garbage collector" (an extra child in the game). This proved a bit too challenging for the 3-year-olds, so I tweaked the game a bit for the next group. For the next round, we had only one child in each group play the red blood cell, so it was a bit less confusing :).
For the two-year-olds and under, we checked out our breath in a mirror. We discovered that the air was warm when we exhaled, and it fogged up the mirror. I explained that our exhaled breath got warm while it was inside our warm lungs :)
We also talked a little about what part of our lungs are in charge of getting the oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the red blood cells: the alveoli! The alveoli are small sacs attached to the end of each bronchiole (or branch of our bronchial passages). These air sacs inflate and deflate with each breath we take, and oxygen and carbon dioxide are absorbed through its membrane. Essentially, there is an exchange of gases (oxygen & carbon dioxide) between the alveoli and the blood cells in our body. These are very important structures in our lungs! Read more about this fascinating process here. To give the children a visual of our lung structure, I brought in a bunch of grapes, and we also explored the stems once the grapes were removed. They looked just like bronchioles and alveoli! The children were very happy to eat the display model ;)
Super Sleuth Questions
1. What part did you get to play in the game? What was your job?
2. What goes into our lungs when we breathe in air? Hint: It's something our bodies need to survive! (answer: oxygen)
3. What are the little sacs in our lungs called that give the oxygen to the red blood cells, and take the carbon dioxide from our red blood cells? Hint: It sounds like ravioli! (answer: alveoli)
