“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” ~Chinese Proverb
The R.N. needed to teach the boy about the human body. That was my initial reason for the excitement I felt when offered the opportunity to review From Head to Toe from AIMS Educational Foundation. I had been looking around for a simple, effective, project-based curriculum for anatomy instruction. One in which Ben could be free to explore without discovering more than he was ready for (or than I was ready for him to be ready for!). This book fits the bill just perfectly.
AIMS is a non-profit education foundation dedicated to helping teachers give students a solid conceptual understanding in math and science. Math and Science . . . that’s all they do. And they do it well.
A ctivities
I integrating
M athematics and
S cience
AIMS has been around since 1981 when a group of elementary and middle school teachers got together at Fresno Pacific University to develop a strong, hands-on foundation with activity books. Teachers and students alike loved their product and soon word had spread so that teachers across the nation were using them, and kids were loving learning with them.
AIMS carries a plethera of books for grades K-9. From Head to Toe is written for grades 5-9. The book is accompanied by a CD with printable pages, including observation sheets and lesson summaries, “rubber-band” books and project instructions.
From Head to Toe is conveniently divided into body systems:
- Nervous System
- Circulatory System
- Respiratory System
- Digestive System
- Urinary System
- Musculoskeletal System
- Sensory Organs
We began at the very beginning with the nervous system. Each lesson begins with a key question, learning goals, and a project materials list. With each body system, your student will be creating a “rubber band” book, requiring rubber bands, Scotch tape, scissors, index cards, a ruler, colored pencils and printables from the CD. In the end, they will have made a helpful booklet to remember different facts from each body system. There are other projects with every body system as well. In fact, your student will build a model of each body system along the way! Most of the items needed for these projects are fairly common household items or items that are easy to gather, such as water bottles, balloons, crepe paper and straws.
There is plenty of information for the teacher provided. Each section gives you some background information, instructions for which printables will be utilized, and a “Procedure” section which gives you prompts for what to discuss and questions to ask.
Ben is loving what we’ve done with this book so far. He thoroughly enjoyed building a heart model with a one-way valve. Buiding the model really helped him visualize how one-way valves work and why that it is important with the human heart. Once we were finished building the model, the book offered discussion questions to connect the learning. The book even steps you through what questions to ask your student to help them think about what is happening or to hypothesize about what may happen. And in the end, it offers suggestions for extension activities.
The book culminates in a scavenger hunt, called a “Human Body Hunt” using a safe, kid-friendly portion of the website, Kid’s Health. Be forewarned that right next to the tab for “Kids’ Health” is a tab for “Teen Health”. If you are not ready for “teen” discussions about the human body, you will want to either skip this part alltogether, or be right next to your younger child as they explore.
I am impressed with how hands-on this book is. Rarely do I discover a book, written mainly for the classroom, so easy to integrate into the homeschool. We found it engaging, useful, and interesting. It would be perfect for a co-op. If you wish to use this book in a co-op setting, you have permission to make up to 200 copies.
With a total of 37 lessons, you could stretch this book out over an entire school year, doing one lesson per week, or for a semester by doing 2 lessons per week. I have a feeling we’ll be finished before our first semester is over. Ben begs to do science every day!
We will continue to use From Head to Toe throughout this school year, and I have no doubt we’ll be purchasing more activity books from AIMS. Ben has already been perusing their website to see what he wants to do next.
Click here to see a preview of this book, including the Table of Contents and excerpts from the lessons on the Nervous and Circulatory Systems (including the instructions for making the heart model I mentioned.
Click here to learn more about the company.
Click here to purchase Electrical Connections through the AIMS website for $24.95. It’s available in book or PDF form
Click here to see what other members of the TOS CREW thought about books from AIMS Educational Foundation. Several other books were reviewed including It’s About Time, Fabulous Fractions, Looking at Lines, Earth Rocks, and What on Earth.
Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are those of myself and/or my son.
