Bones

1. Bones Anatomy, Function, and Activity

2. What Are Bones? The animal or human bones you see in a museum are usually pale, dry, and brittle-looking. But your bones are alive and grow inside you. Up to 1/3 of a bone is water. Bones are slightly soft and flexible. Bones have their own blood vessels and nerves, just like any other organ in your body. Bones are constantly being remodeled. They are broken down and remade. Every few years, the body turns over the entire skeletal system.

3. How do you keep your bones healthy? What our bones need to stay healthy and strong: Calcium � The majority of our bones are made of calcium Good sources of calcium include: (Maybe have them draw some foods or write) Dairy products (milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.) Broccoli Spinach Vitamin D � This helps the body to use the calcium from our food in our bodies. Good sources of vitamin D include: Fish Liver Oil Mushrooms Fatty fish (Tuna and Salmon) Egg Yolks The Sun! (get a tan) *Fortunately for us, there is vitamin D in the milk we drink and our body can make its own with a little help from the sun.

4. How do you keep your bones healthy? What our bones need to stay healthy and strong: Vitamin C � This vitamin helps the body to make a very important part of the bone called collagen. Good sources of vitamin C are: Citrus Fruit Peppers Cauliflower Broccoli Strawberries

5. How do you keep your bones healthy? What can happen if you don�t get enough of these minerals and vitamins? (Possibly bring in pictures of people with rickets and osteoporosis � or x-rays) You get soft bones called rickets. It makes you bow-legged and it is much easier to break a bone. Later in life, you can get osteoporosis, a disease that makes your bones really brittle and easily breakable. So it is important to eat healthy foods your entire life.

6. Bone Facts In your lifetime, you�ll lose about 600 bones! Before you were born, your skeleton contained over 800 separate bones, many of which grew or fused together. You had about 450 at birth. By age 20, when your bones have finished growing and the separate parts have joined together, your skeleton will only have about 206 bones.

7. Bone Facts Half of the bones in your body are in your hands and feet. 19 bones of the hand and fingers 26 bones of the foot and ankle The largest bone in the human body is the femur (thighbone). All by itself, this bone accounts for over � of a person�s height. The smallest bone is one of the bones in the inner ear � the stirrup. It is called this because of this shape. It is only about 1/10 inch long. Two or three stirrups could sit on the nail of your baby finger.

8. Funny Bone Fact What we call the �funny bone� in the elbow isn�t a bone at all. It�s actually a nerve running over the end of the ulna behind the humerus. A bump on this nerve can send a tingling shock all the way down to your fingers!

9. Bone Activity What you will need: Femur Bone cut in half longways Foil or Paper Tablecloth Gloves Have the students look at the different tissues attached to the bone, let them touch the marrow inside and look at the tendons and ligaments that are attached. As the bone warms to room temperature the marrow will become soft and can be scooped out. This is a great activity for younger students Kindergarten-6th grade. The activity can also be used with high school students but it is short so be prepared to explain in great detail to older students.