|
Pre-K through Grade 2
Grade 3 through Grade 6
Back to Educator Main Page |
 |
Grade Levels K through Grade 2
Estimated Teaching Time
25 minutes
Interdisciplinary Connections
- Observing a demonstration (Science)
Objective
Children will learn what skin looks like and understand its purpose.
What Children Do
Children will use food items to visualize the skin’s structure
and to see how it acts as a protector.
Materials Required
- Banana
- Three slices of bologna
- Six to eight slices of pimento loaf
- Six to eight slices of salami
- Optional Cross-section illustration of the skin (blackline
master 2.2 PDF)
- Optional Crayons
Advanced Preparation
Peel a banana skin and let it dry for three or four days.
Suggested Sequence
- Brainstorm with children how our skin can protect and help
us.
- Ask children why they think a banana has a skin (the banana
peel).
- Peel the banana to demonstrate that the skin protects the inside
of the banana. Explain that the peel protects the banana the way
our skin protects our bodies. Ask children to hypothesize what
will happen to the banana peel after a few days. Show them the
dried banana peel.
- Stack the bologna slices on top of the pimento loaf slices.
Then, stack both on top of the salami. Trim them into squares.
Explain that this is similar to what a cross-section of their
skin would look like. Tell children that the thick bottom layer
of their skin (the subcutaneous layer) is fatty, like the salami.
It helps to warm and cool the body, protects it from shock, and
passes nutrients to the top layer of skin. The middle layer (the
dermis) has sebaceous glands which produce oil that lubricates
our skin so it doesn’t dry out like the banana peel.
- As you remove one slice of bologna (which represents the epidermis),
explain that we have many layers of skin. For example, when you
get sunburned and your skin peels, only the top layer of skin
comes off leaving the living layer beneath it exposed.
- Optional Pass out copies of the cross-section illustration
and ask children to identify which parts of the skin are represented
by the bologna [epidermis], the pimento loaf [dermis]
and the salami [subcutaneous layer]. Ask them to color
in the layers.
Check for Understanding
Ask the following questions:
- How is skin similar to a banana peel?
- Why did we use fatty salami for our demonstration?
- How does the fatty bottom layer help our bodies?
- Why did we choose pimento loaf for the dermis? What do the pieces
of peppers and olives represent? [Nerves, blood vessels, sebaceous
glands, sweat glands and hair follicles.] How does the dermis help
us?
Extensions
Experiment with other fruits containing a skin, or outer layer, by peeling
the fruit and putting the skin aside. Which fruit dries out the
quickest? What does that tell you about the fruit?
Words to Share
- Blood vessel
- Cross-section
- Dermis
- Epidermis
- Hair follicle
- Molecule
- Nerve
- Nutrients
- Sebaceous gland
- Subcutaneous layer
- Sweat gland
|
