Looking for some fun skeletal and muscular system activities? The skeletal system and the muscular system are so much fun to teach about to your middle school students. Of course, there is a TON of vocabulary, but fortunately, at this age level, they are not required to know all of the terminology but mainly the functions of the systems, important characteristics, and how these systems work together and with the other human body systems.
In this post, I want to share with you how you can bring the WOW Factor while teaching how the skeletal and muscular system work together. First, I will share some introduction activities to get your students excited about learning the topic. Second, I will share a lesson that will help tie all of the information together and hit some of the important vocabulary. Finally, I will share some engaging skeletal system activities and muscular system activities that will help widen student knowledge.
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Introduction to the Skeletal and Muscular System Relationship
If you have been following all of my WOW Factor ideas, you know that I believe in “hooking” your students in to help them to become internally motivated to learn more about a topic. Human body systems are naturally exciting for me to learn about because I love biology; however, it may not be the same for middle school students. This is especially so due to all of the vocabulary that is associated with this unit. As mentioned, they are not required to learn it all at the middle school level, but they will be learning some important terms and widening their knowledge with others. Here are some skeletal and muscular system activities to help your students WONDER!
Skeletal/Muscular Hand
One common thing that I’ve seen it classrooms it to create a model of a hand. This is a great model to show students how the skeletal system and the muscular system actually work together. There are great instructions to create one of these on Go Science Kids.
You’ll need:
These sites explain things better than I can in this post. Once again, here is the link to the Go Science Kids example. You can also check out this video by Hungry SciANNtist that has a great visual to follow.
Once students see this, the lesson will make more sense, and they have already had some fun! They have “seen the skeletal and muscular system working together!”
Which one of these skeletal and muscular system activities will you choose?
Life-Size Diagrams
Another thing for them to do before diving deeper into the content is to allow them to do a little bit of research for themselves.
If you have never done a life-size diagram in your classroom, it can be chaotic, but so much fun!
You’ll need to get some large sheets of the bulletin board paper and some markers, crayons, colored pencils, etc.
Students should have access to either a textbook or a computer where they can research the parts of the muscular system and skeletal system.
I suggest you put your students into groups of 3-4. They can trace the outline of one of their bodies and begin. They can work together to either draw a life-size version of the skeletal system or the muscular system. You can have them to create a skeletal and muscular system diagram if time allows, but one will be easier.
At the end, you can have a discussion about what they think are the most important parts of each system and how they think they work together.
Skeletal and Muscular System Lesson
How does the skeletal system work with the muscular system? Now that your students are hyped up, it’s now time to dive deeper into these systems and look at some more of those terms. In addition, really focus on the relationship between these two systems and the relationship between the rest of the systems in the body. They are all connected!
This interactive lesson is a great way to do this. Interactive lessons focus on helping students learn and retain information and store it into their long-term memory. These lessons follow the 7 steps to help students retain information like a rockstar!
In this skeletal and muscular system lesson, students learn how both the skeletal and muscular system function and about their structures. They learn important characteristics and how the systems work with other body systems to maintain homeostasis.
There are interactive activities that are embedded within to help students to process the information in chunks. These include drag-and-drop activities, answering questions in text boxes, an anticipation guide, checking out outside resources like a skeletal and muscular system video, and more! This goes way beyond your regular skeletal and muscular system worksheet.
Activities to Widen Student Knowledge on the Skeletal and Muscular Systems
Here are some fun skeletal and muscular system activities top widen student knowledge!
Chicken Wing Dissection
This is another popular activity to show the skeletal and muscular system relationship! You can choose to let your students ACTUALLY dissect a chicken wing, or they can watch the chicken wing dissection demonstration video and answer the questions that go along with it!
If you choose to do this dissection, you’ll need for each group of students:
- a chicken wing
- dissection tools such as dissection scissors, forceps, and a probe
*Make sure students wear gloves and wash their hands thoroughly!
Check out this activity in the Bright in the Middle Shop or on TPT!
Stretch Activity
Another activity that is fun and will widen their knowledge on the muscular system (and skeletal system) is to set up “stretching stations” around the room. Students can practice the stretch and identify what muscle is being stretched!
Here are some examples:
- hamstring stretch: stretches the hamstring muscles that are in the back of your thigh
- quadricep stretch: stretches the quads in the front of the thigh
- tricep stretch: stretches the muscles in the upper arm
- chest stretch: stretches the chest muscles
- neck stretch: stretches the neck muscles
I could go on, but you can have students to practice these stretches and come up with the scientific name of the muscles they are stretching!
Bonus: Simon Says – Bones Addition
You are never too old for Simon Says! You can play Simon Says – bones addition with your students to help them to remember and widen their knowledge about the names of important bones in the skeletal system.
For example:
- Simon says, touch your clavicle bone.
- Simon says touch your patella bone.
You can also have one bone touch another. For example:
- Simon says touch the tibia bone to the femur bone.
- Simon says, touch the ulna bone to the radius bone.
I hope you enjoy these WOW Factor Ideas! Which one of these skeletal and muscular system activities will you choose?
Help your students master science content!
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