Anatomy is a very interesting subject to teach your students about. There is so much to talk about when teaching this subject. Here are some great activities to incorporate into your anatomy lesson plans.
A great idea is to make a life size anatomy poster showing the human body. Split your students up into groups of three or four. Then give each group a huge sheet of white butcher paper. Have them draw a outline of a person. Then using their anatomy books they must draw all the organs and pathways in the human body. Then have them color the whole thing in with markers, crayons, or colored pencils. Next have them label all the parts that they drew by writing the name in pen next to the specific organ they are labeling. Then you can hang these in your classroom to decorate it.
Another great activity that is great to do on the subject of anatomy is to have a bone practical. Before your class does this activity take a week of class time to talk about the different bones in the body. Have your students practice labeling the different names of the bones. Have them memorize where they are in the body as well. Then proceed to do this activity. Before class starts lay out the bones on the counters in your classroom. Label each bone with a letter of the alphabet. Then make a worksheet that has the letters on it with blank spaces by the letters. Then without talking your students must go around with their worksheets and write down the name of the bone next to the corresponding letter. Then when they are done you can go around to each bone and give out the name to see who got it right.
Another great activity dealing with anatomy is to talk about diseases of the body. For this game split your students up into groups of four. Give each group a list of names of diseases and then definitions. When you yell go your students must match the definitions to the names of the diseases. The first group to correctly identify all the diseases on the sheet of paper wins this game. To make this game even harder you can give your students a time limit that they have to do this game in. Then at the end of that time, if no one is done, have your students count how many they got right (after telling them the right answers) and the group with the most right answers wins.
By incorporating these activities into your lesson plans about anatomy your students will have lots of fun. They will learn a lot about anatomy while learning the different names of bones, making a human body poster, and learning about different diseases that affect the body. So the next time you have a anatomy class or are just doing a day on anatomy try out some of these great activities.
