The past couple months have been pretty difficult. Schools and businesses around the world have closed their doors so we can keep the spread of the coronavirus as low as we can to give hospitals a fighting chance to care for those who are infected. Illinois has announced that schools will remain closed until April 20th. We are doing our best to provide online instruction to our older students wherever it is possible, and encouraging our younger students to continue working on their practical life skills at home.

Since I am out of school (and I bet many of you are as well), what I will do is continue posting lessons for free that I typically sell online, slightly rewritten to accommodate the fact that the game will be played by only a few people at a time (parents and kids). What I want is everyone to have access to these games in this time of uncertainty; money and resources should not be a factor to have quality Montessori physical education instruction. If you are in a position to support me by purchasing programs and lessons, I would be very grateful, but the ultimate goal is doing the most good.

 This is also a thank you to everyone who has already purchased my lessons and albums, those that have downloaded my free lessons, those who have attended my presentations, and for everyone who appreciates my work in person or through social media engagement. I appreciate the Montessori and physical education communities for showing interest in my philosophy of integrating physical education with the Montessori classroom.

Without further ado, three more lessons for home use:

Lessons on the digestive and the muscular systems, and a variation for planet distance that can be done in your living room or even bedroom

Excerpts from Montessori Physical Education Volume One

Montessori Physical Education

Human Body System: Digestive

 

 Introduction:

            The digestive system is one of the most important systems of our body.  Its main function is to take food that we ingest and break it down so we can convert it into chemical energy.  The digestive system is not only crucial to our immediate survival, but a well functioning digestive system can bring lifelong health and wellbeing.  Problems with the digestive system can bring terrible chronic disease. Many problems and insufficiencies stem from a malfunctioning digestive, but that can be hard to diagnose. Food allergies (major or minor) can also hurt our ability to digest food, as well as inflame our digestive system.

The main function of this lesson is to get the students to see how our body takes food (which is made up of fats, carbs, protein, and more) and breaks it into smaller pieces for absorption. The student will simulate each part of the digestive system, and how well the food is digested depends on how well each part of the digestive does its job. Play the game and find out how well you digest food!

 

Materials: 

·      Lots of building blocks (Legos for example) with seven different colors.

o   Protein – Red (Like red meat)

o   Fat – Yellow (Like butter)

o   Carbs – White (Like sugar)

o   Fiber – Brown (Like brown rice, but the brown color will also serve as the color of feces at the end of the game)

o   Vitamins – Green (Like veggies that contain lots of vitamins)

o   Minerals – Grey (Like metal)

o   Water – Blue

Jump Rope

Hula-hoop

 

Prior Knowledge:

            The students should have had some type of introductory lesson on the human body.  It would be even better if the students have done some work on body systems, specifically the digestive system.

 

 Presentation 

·      The lesson begins by introducing the main parts of the digestive system.  The first part is the mouth, where chewing literally breaks up food into smaller pieces.  The broken food travels down the esophagus to the stomach, where food is broken into pieces mechanically through crushing (contraction like movement via smooth muscle) and chemically by the acids and enzymes.  Next, the majority of the nutrients are absorbed in the small intestine.  Finally, in the large intestine, good bacteria digest fibers and water is extracted.

·      The instructor should decide what time interval to run the game/simulation. A good interval to use is one-minute rounds, but depending on how much time the instructor has for the game, slightly longer or shorter may be acceptable.

·      The teacher should have several large structures made up of various Legos or other building blocks.  These structures are going to represent food that we eat.  The teacher should explain that foods we eat are various combinations of protein, carbs, fat, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water. Chicken, for example, would be a combination of water, protein, fat, and some vitamins and minerals. Bread would be carbohydrates, fat, fiber, water, and some vitamins and minerals. The teacher can make specific foods with the correct macro and micro nutrient profiles (combination of Legos), but it does not have to go that far in depth for the lesson to be successful.

·      The Lego structure (food) starts in the mouth.  The student’s job will be to break the large structure into smaller pieces.  To replicate a chewing action, the student will jump rope. For every ten successful jumps, they get to cleave the food structure in one place. If needed, the instructor can give a hint to the students that they should cleave the food structure closer to the middle, and not worry about trying to break off individual pieces.

·      Once the first round is over (and hopefully the shape has been somewhat broken down), the Lego pieces are delivered to the stomach. The stomach gets to take the large broken up pieces and tries to break them up into their individual Lego pieces. The cleaved pieces should be put on one side of the playing area opposite of the student. The stomach student should have a hula-hoop, and their job is to go back and forth from one side of the playing area to the Lego pieces. The stomach student must keep the hula-hoop spinning as they go back and forth. If they can keep the hula-hoop spinning the whole distance, they are allowed to break one piece completely off from one of the main structures, and then do it again. If the hoop falls before they get to the pieces, they must go back to the starting line and try again. The hula-hoop represents the protective chemicals the stomach uses against its own enzymes. As the students go back and forth, this looks like the crushing action of the stomach. The enzymes and acids in the stomach help digest the food into smaller pieces that will be absorbed in the small intestine. Only individual Lego pieces will be able to be absorbed in the small intestine; any pieces stuck together will not be absorbed moving through the body.

·      In the next round, the Legos are delivered to small intestine, whether they were completely broken up or not.  The job of the small intestine is to sort and absorb the individual pieces they need and deliver the rest to the large intestine.  The small intestine player is looking for individual pieces of protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamins, and minerals. The small intestine player must be a in a plank or pushup position, and when the instructor says, “go,” began taking the macronutrients and micronutrients that it can absorb, and toss water, fiber, and any pieces that are stuck together into a separate pile for the large intestine. Any Legos that are attached to another Lego cannot be absorbed by the small intestine because they were not broken down enough by the stomach. Any Lego pieces that were absorbed by the end of the round will be delivered to large intestine as well.

·      The large intestines job is to collect the fiber blocks and remove the water blocks from the remainder of the food that is delivered to them.  This mini-game will have one student with their eyes closed and the instructor sitting by the student and the Legos. The instructor and the student represent the large intestine and symbiotic bacterium, sometimes called gut flora. The instructor will be trying to verbally tell the student (with eyes closed) where the fiber and water blocks are. If the student is successful in picking up a fiber block, the instructor can take one of the undigested blocks (protein, fat, etc.) and absorb it because it got help from the gut flora. If the student is successful in picking up a water block, the student can take open their eyes for one second to get a peek of their surrounds, then must close their eyes again, and the water block is given to the instructor.

·      After several rounds of playing this game, the student(s) will begin to see what parts of the food were absorbed, and what parts made it through the process undigested. Pieces (other than fiber) that remain by the end of digestion were not absorbed, which would not be good for the body. The instructor can talk about why certain pieces were not absorbed. If there were not enough chewing, the stomach would have had a difficult time breaking up the food. If the stomach does not break the food into individual pieces, the small intestines cannot absorb. If the small intestine is not absorbing the macro and micro nutrients, then that will irritate the large intestine and make it hard to remove water from the food. Too much water in the stool is diarrhea. If the only remaining pieces by the end of round are the fiber Legos, that is a healthy bowel movement that shows complete absorption of the food (which is not easy to do).

·      At the end of the game, the teacher can take time to talk about the importance of macro and micronutrients. Fats and proteins will help build everything in the body (bone, muscle, brain, skin, etc.)  The carbohydrates will be separated so they can be used for energy.  The teacher can explain that fats can be used for energy as well. Vitamins and minerals contribute to lots of different bodily processes that keep the body running smoothly.

 

 Aims:

Direct:    For the student(s) to understand the functions of the digestive system

Indirect:  

Listening to directions

Teamwork and team building

Perseverance

              

Physical skills practiced: 

·      Small motor movement skills working with blocks

·      Hula-hoop

·      Jump rope

·      Holding a plank position for time

 

Control Of Error: 

·      The teacher

·      There should be a whiteboard or paper that has a key showing what each colored Lego represents within the game.

·      The remaining Legos at the end of digestion

 

Points of Interest:

·      The students will enjoy learning about the digestive system playing with an extremely popular toy.  They will also kinesthetically understand how food is literally broken down into smaller components and made into other things necessary for the body. The students will also enjoy talking about feces too.

 

Age: 6-9 or 9-12 (Depending on in depth you want to go with the biology of digestion)

The original individual lesson can be found here.

 

Montessori Physical Education

Human Body: Muscular System

 

 Introduction:

            The muscular system is traditionally taught with students looking at a diagram of the human body labeled with the names of muscles, and students are asked to memorize them.  Proof that this is not the best method is to ask a few adults to name some muscles of the body, and many of them will not really be able to name specific muscles after one or two. However, ask a bodybuilder to name some muscles, and they could probably name at least half of them correctly.  Not only do they need to know what muscles they are exercising, but also what exercises to choose to work the appropriate muscle.  Through lots of hard work and practice, bodybuilders develop something called the “mind-muscle connection,” which is the ability to really “feel” the muscles that are at work. 

Anytime we practice a specific skill, whether it is athletic, musical, etc., we are learning how to use our muscles in a coordinated way. Firing the muscles in the correct sequence over and over again perfects the movement pattern by synchronizing the correct firing of the motor neurons. While this is not the same as the mind-muscle connection, this practice of using our muscles in specific ways is a phenomenon that almost everyone can relate.

This lesson introduces the students to the names of the muscles by having them feel the muscles they are using and associate the name of the muscle to that feeling. Afterwards, we can use a game of tug-or-war to look at muscles working on the microscopic level.

 

Materials: 

·      A diagram of the muscles in the body as a control (optional)

·      A very strong tug-of-war rope, or at least a very strong climbing rope

 

 Prior Knowledge:

            No prior knowledge is needed, however the students should have had some type of introduction to the human body.

 

 Presentation 

·      Today we are going to learn about the muscles in our body.  Our muscles pull on our bones, which creates any movement that we can do with our bodies.  Our muscles are made up of fiber strands, almost like how our clothing is made of different fibers like cotton.  However, we have different types of fibers that work together by sliding and pulling past each other.  When the muscle fibers slide over each other, this is called flexing your muscles, or muscle flexion.  The origin of the word muscle comes from French, which means mouse, because it looks like little mice are moving under the skin when people flex their muscles. We are going to learn the names of some of the major muscle in our body and warm them up.

·      We are going to start at the top of our body and move our way down.  The first major muscle we are going to use is our trapezius muscle.  We use this muscle any time we need to lift anything from the ground.  To feel this muscle, shrug your shoulders as high as possible.  Try and touch your shoulders to your ears.  Have the students hold this for around ten seconds, and the students can count this out loud if they wish.  The goal is that they “feel” a burning sensation, which is lactic acid building up from the working muscle group.  This burning sensation will help the students identify where the work is happening and where they can identify their own muscles.

·      Next, have the students hold out their arms like an airplane.  This next active muscle group is called the deltoids, which are the muscles that surround the shoulder.  Have the students hold this position for at least a minute so the students feel the burning sensation.  The students can also hold their arms out like a zombie or mummy, and this will help them feel the anterior (front) deltoid.

·      Next, have the students make a fist and then try and touch their fist to their shoulder.  They are flexing their bicep muscle.  This is one of the most commonly known muscles because it is often used as the example of strength when someone flexes.  Again, have the students hold the flexion for at least ten seconds.

·      Next, have the students make their arm as straight as possible.  They will be flexing their triceps muscle, which is located on the back of their arm. If appropriate, point out the difference between the names bicep and triceps. Ask the students where they have heard the prefix bi and the prefix tri (bicycle vs. tricycle) and see if they can identify that these prefixes have to do with the numbers two and three. From here, explain that the biceps have two muscle heads (even though it feels like one) and the triceps has three heads (inside, outside, and upper). The triceps can have a horseshoe feeling to it.

·      Now have the students alternate between making the hardest, strongest fist they can make and spreading their fingers as wide as possible.  The students are flexing their forearm muscles, which are described as flexors and extensors. Flexors bring the fingers together; extensors extend the fingers out.

·      Next, have the students put their hands together like they are clapping, except they will push their hands against each other as hard they can.  They will feel their pectoral muscles flexing.

·      Next, have the students put their arms out like an airplane again, but this time let them bend their arms forward so it makes a 90-degree angle.  Now the students should try and touch their elbows together (which should be impossible) by retracting their shoulders back. It should look like the students are ripping apart an imaginary shirt (like Superman or Hulk Hogan). There is a large collection of muscles in the area, which in general are muscles surrounding the shoulder blade.  If you want to be more precise, you can use names such as the teres major and minor, as well as the infraspinatus and the supraspinatus.

·      Next, have the students put their arms out like an airplane.  Then have the students rotate their hands so their palms are facing upward.  Now have the students bend their arms so they are making a 90-degree angle.  You want the kids to look like the position a referee makes in American football when a field goal is good.  From here have the students pull down so their elbows to the sides of their body.  It should look like the students did an imaginary pull up.  The muscles the students should feel now are called the latissimus dorsi, or the “lats” for short.

·      Next the students should lie on the ground.  They should lift their legs slightly off the ground, but not too high that they are straight in the air.  While the students are suspending their legs in the air, the student should curl up their body, or perform or “crunch.”  However, the student should hold that position until they feel their stomach starting to burn.  The primary muscles around the stomach are called the abdominal muscles, or “abs” for short.  If you want to be more specific with the students, the muscles that run straight up and down are the rectus abdomen, the muscles behind them running diagonally are the transverse abdomen, and the muscles running vertically on the side are the oblique muscles. To feel the transverse abs, have the students twist at the torso, and to feel the obliques, they should tip over at the abdomen and then stand back up straight (similar to the motion of the song I’m a Little Teacup).

·      Have the students roll onto their stomachs.  Have the students put their arms out over their head like they are flying.  Now, the students need to elevate their chest and head off the ground as well as their legs.  Their stomach should be the only part of their body on the ground.  They are flexing their lumbar, or lower back muscles. This exercise is often referred to as the “Superman” pose.

·      Now have the students stand up.  Next the students are going to squeeze their butt cheeks as hard as they can.  To the delight of the students, you can describe how one must squeeze their butt checks together when one is holding in a poop.  The muscles that they are flexing are called the gluteus maximus, or the butt cheek muscles.  Sometimes these muscles are called the “glutes” for short.

·      Next, the students will make their legs as straight and as stiff as possible.  It should be like their legs turned into tree trunks or wooden planks, and they need to actively think about keeping their leg as straight as possible.  After several moments, have the students poke the front of their leg to feel the muscles contracting.  The muscles in the front of their leg are called the quadriceps.  For the students who are good with math prefixes, they might identify that quad means four.  There are indeed four muscles that make up the quadriceps muscles in the front of the leg.  Sometimes they are called the “quads” for short. Three of the four muscles can be easily felt, but the fourth lies underneath and is not as easily felt.

·      Now have the students bend their legs so that they are trying to touch their heel to their butts.  They may need to put a hand on a partner or a table or chair for balance.  The muscles they are flexing are called the hamstrings, but can also be called the leg biceps as well. The leg biceps is a misnomer however, because there are more than two muscles that make this muscle group.  An observant student may make the connection that their arm and leg muscles are in similar positions, but that one set is turned in the opposite way.  Four legged animals joints face the same way, but animals that can walk on two legs often have arm and leg joints opposite of each other.

·      Finally have the students stand on their tiptoes for as long as possible.  The muscles they are flexing when they stand on their toes, or when they jump, is the gastrocnemius, or the calf muscles. 

·      They have now warmed up their major muscles in their body, we can move onto the second part of our activity. An interesting fact that you can tell the children is that when they flex one muscle, they are stretching the muscle on the opposite side.  That means that not only were they waking up their muscles by flexing them, but they were also getting in a good stretch as well.

·      Part 2 – Tug-of-War

·      Now the student(s) are going to play a tug-of-war game, but they are also zooming inside one of their muscles at the microscopic level.

·      Muscles are made up of two fiber types, actin and myosin. Actin is the fiber that is pulled on. Myosin fibers have golf club looking arms that grab on the actin and pull on it to cause flexion. The tug-of-war rope is the actin fiber, and the students are the myosin fibers.

·      Make two even teams between the students and place them on either side of the rope. If you only have one student, the instructor may have to be on one side and the student on the other. The instructor announces the start the game and stays with the rope for safety if one team were to let go accidently. In this version of the game, the students are not allowed to move their feet however; they can only pull from their upper body. The goal is to pull the rope end over end to simulate the myosin heads grabbing the actin.

 

 

 Aims:

Direct:    For the children to learn the different names of the muscles in the body

Indirect:   Listening to directions

                Body awareness

 

 

Physical skills practiced: 

            The students will be flexing different muscles to build awareness of the different muscles in their body. They also will be using those muscles in a tough tug-of-war game afterwards.

 

Control Of Error: 

The teacher and a chart (if being used)

 

Points of Interest:

If the students flex hard enough, they will feel a burning sensation in their muscles.  This burning sensation is something not easily forgotten and will give them kinesthetic awareness of their body.  That burning sensation is lactic acid, which is a metabolic waste product, produced by muscles as they work.  The burning sensation stops when it is cleared out by the body. However, as the muscles work, they produce waste, and typically the body cannot clear out the waste as fast as it is being produced when the muscles are working hard.

 Age: All ages

 The original individual lesson can be found here.

 

 

 

Montessori Physical Education

Planet Distance (Home Version 2.0)

 

Introduction:  This game is an impressionistic lesson on the distances of the planets from the Sun. The student will do a lot of pushups, half pushups, or planks that will represent how far it would take to travel to get from the Sun to each planet. This lesson will create a lasting impression of the great distances between the planets through the effort exerted during the lesson.

 

Materials:  A small open space like a living room or bedroom

                   

Prior Knowledge: Introduction to planets and solar system

 

Presentation 

·      Begin with a quick conversation of distance. Ask the students to think how many miles their house is from the school. How many miles is it to their grandparent’s house? How many miles is it to one of the major coastal cities (LA or New York)? Explain to the students that some of those places are very far away and would take hours by plane or days by car. However, these distances are tiny compared to the distances of the planets from the Sun.

·      Next introduce the concept of a kilometer. Most children are familiar with miles, but some may not have heard of kilometers. A popular example is 5k running events, which some students have may have actually done. A 5k is just a little more than a three-mile run. With that in mind, see if any of the kids can make a good guess as to how far one kilometer is compared to miles. The answer is about 2/3 of a mile (more exact is .62).

·      Now it is time explain to the student(s) that because the distances from the planets and the sun are so long, sometimes astronomers use a unit of measurement called an AU. This stands for astronomical unit, and one unit is the distance from the Sun to the Earth. Here are the planets listed in their astronomical units:

o   Mercury - 0.39

o   Venus – 0.72

o   Earth - 1

o   Mars – 1.52

o   Jupiter – 5.2

o   Saturn – 9.54

o   Uranus – 19.2

o   Neptune – 30.1

·      Now, explain to the student(s) that the distance from the tip of their finger to their shoulder is going to be one AU. They are going to travel from the Sun to every planet in the solar system by using pushups to travel one AU each pushup. If the student cannot do a full push up, then they can do half push ups off of their knees. If this is still too difficult, they can hold a plank, and each second is an AU.

·      The first two planets are less than an AU, so they will only have to do a mini-pushup for Mercury and Venus. Earth is one push up because the distance from the Earth to the Sun is the definition of an astronomical unit (AU). Mars is only one and a half push ups. After that, the number of pushups goes up a lot, and that is where the challenge really begins.

·      For “extra credit,” Pluto is about forty AU’s away from the Sun.

 

Aims:

Direct:    To reinforce the names of the planets and build appreciation for the distances between them

Indirect:   To learn about astronomical units (AUs)

 

Physical Skills practiced:

Push Ups or plank holds (depending on the capability of the student)

 

Control Of Error:  The instructor and the student(s) keeping track of the distance

 

Points of Interest:

They are going to be tired and sore after this lesson, which will build appreciation for the distance of the planets from the Sun.

 

The original individual lesson can be found here.