Working hand models, edible spinal columns, and more!
Help kids explore how the human body works with these fun and free anatomy activities. They’re terrific for hands-on learning at home or in the classroom, and can be differentiated for a wide variety of grades and skill levels. It’s time to learn about heads, shoulders, knees, and toes … and everything in between!
Make an outline of each child’s body from paper (or felt, for a reusable version). Then add the various bones, muscles, organs, and more as you learn about them. Kids love these anatomy activities!
Try a fun read-aloud or pull pages from a coloring book for kids to explore. Here are some of our favorite anatomy activities and human body books.
Grab the free printable mats at the link, then have kids make bones, muscle groups, organs, and other body parts using Play-Doh.
How cool is this! Gather up a variety of pasta from macaroni to orzo and use them to create a pasta skeleton. It’s amazing how real it looks!
This free printable game challenges kids to name and point out the major bones of the body. This is one of the great anatomy activities for active learners.
This anatomy project gives kids a model spinal cord and a sweet treat all in one! Use hard and gummy Life Savers to represent vertebrae and discs … so clever!
With cardboard tubes for bones and balloons for muscles, this DIY model shows kids how the two work together to allow your body to move.
Snag some toy skeletons from the dollar store around Halloween. Then use Play-Doh to add and learn the major muscle groups.
This is one of the perennial favorite anatomy activities. Use string, drinking straws, and cardboard to create a working model of the hand. Learn how it’s done at the link.
There’s a lot more to blood than meets the eye! Use water beads, Ping-Pong balls, and foam strips to represent the various blood components in this easy activity.
The circulatory system moves blood around the body, supplying oxygen and other nutrients to each body part. Play this life-sized free printable game to learn how it works.
This demo uses the classic “naked egg” experiment to demonstrate how blood cells use osmosis to absorb oxygen and nutrients. It never fails to impress!
Make your own stethoscope from a cardboard tube and plastic cups. This version is surprisingly similar to the early tools used by doctors in the 19th century.
Learn how the heart pumps blood to understand why this organ is the most vital one of all. This project takes only a few simple supplies and is fascinating in action.
We know that when we breathe, our lungs fill with air. But how exactly does it get there? This clever model demonstrates the importance of the diaphragm. It also includes a meaningful lesson on the dangers of smoking.
Make it easy for kids to imagine what’s going on inside with a fun DIY T-shirt! Create an iron-on, or have kids trace or draw the organs with puffy fabric paint.
Our stomach breaks down the food we eat, but how? The acids in lemon juice or vinegar demonstrate the digestive process in action.
The liver produces bile, which helps to break down the fats we consume. This quick experiment uses dish soap and milk to show how the process works.
Did you know the small intestine is about 22 feet long? Really! Measure out that length using a garden hose to see just what that distance actually looks like.
See the urinary tract in action with this model. It takes a little time to set up but gives kids a chance to see how the kidneys, bladder, and other renal system parts perform.
It’s endlessly fascinating to learn about the different parts of the brain and what they control. That’s why kids will love these free printable brain hats! They give a whole new meaning to “Put on your thinking caps.”
It’s a strange thought, but our brains move around inside the skull. What protects them from banging up against the skull and being damaged? That’s where the cerebrospinal fluid comes in. Try this quick anatomy demo to see why it helps.
Not surprisingly, brain and nervous system cells are complicated. Make a model from Play-Doh to see all the different parts, and learn how they communicate with each other through electric impulses.
The eye is another incredibly complex part of our anatomy, but you can make a realistic model from simple supplies like a balloon and vegetable oil.
This may not look exactly like an ear, but it’s a great way to understand how the eardrum gathers sounds and sends them on to the brain.
DNA is the building block of life, and it’s found in every part of our anatomy. Make a model from licorice and gumdrops to learn more about this crucial material.
This free printable PDF game from Ellen McHenry is one of the most popular circulatory system activities around. Create a life-sized body model, and spin your way around the system!
What better way to engage your kids than by turning on Bill Nye the Science Guy?! This video is very efficient in explaining the heart, delivered by a character students will recognize and love.
Using different-colored beads representing red and white blood cells, glitter to represent platelets, and some red coloring to give your slime a spooky and realistic effect, this hands-on activity will educate your students on the components of blood.
This experiment is incredibly easy to prepare, as all you need are four baggies, four slices of bread, and water. In each bag, run a different trial, explained in detail on Team-cartwright.com. Your students will love the visual explanation of how food gets broken down, using materials they will understand.
Using blue and red Play-Doh, have your students construct an accurate model of the heart. Having a physical model in front of your students, along with a sheet explaining each part and function, will help your visual learners more fully comprehend the intricacies of the heart.
