Fun Friday: Making Blood

My class needed some motivation last year to make sure they had all their work done and behaved well during  the week.  After a schedule change in March, we had a 30 minute block at the end of the day on Friday that was too short for a lesson, but too long to not do something productive.  We called it “Finish Up Friday.” Students with everything finished were rewarded with a fun project related to our 5^th grade standards.  Click on the tag “Fun Fridays” to see other ideas you might want to try. 

Blood Models

Thanks to Jen over at Runde's Room for this awesome Fun Friday activity! I "borrowed" her photo because my hands were a bit messy and couldn't manage to pull out the camera to snap my own pics.  We used cheerios soaked in red food coloring (soak them for a few hours to make them really red) for the blood cells, lemonade (from a powder mixed with water) as the plasma, little white marshmallows as the white blood cells, and candy sprinkles for the platelets.  Lots of fun!  

Duct tape on the lids -- highly recommended at the end!

We studied body systems prior to this activity.  All students watched a video and read a selection about the circulatory system and blood.  Students completed a foldable and a minibook related to these systems.  Only students who had completed all of their work for the week were allowed to make blood.  Some of my students were very disappointed on Friday when they were working on book reports and math homework instead of making their own blood model.  The next week, everyone had everything done by Friday.    

I found this idea through Pinterest.  Check out my other great finds!  Follow me to see the great things I find next!