
Skeleton Hiccups is a fun and easy to ready story by Margery Cuyler. It is a perfect unit study for Fall. With its main character being a poor skeleton who is plagued with a case of the hiccups, he tries everything to get rid of them until he comes upon the perfect cure. While its Illustrated dark and spooky-the silly and simple story keeps it from being scary at all. Though it is a lighthearted book, it opens up a lot of opportunity for Science study- be it learning about bones or delving deeper into what causes hiccups and what cures them. A trip to Dollar tree for a few basics can really make this unit exciting.
Math
Using q tips for manipulatives/math counters lay out visual mathematic equations for your child to solve. Separate q tips into pairs or sets of five and use them to teach skip counting. Use them to point out even or odd numbers on a homemade number line. Using concrete objects in a fun theme helps your child to enjoy while learning, therefore retain it better.
Using a printout or model of a skeleton (larger libraries often have them available for loan) have your child count the bones in the hand, foot, leg, etc.
Provide your child with a ruler, and several “bones” these can be plastic ones from the dollar tree or simple homemade cut outs of various sizes like these
Use the same printout of bones, cut them out of the paper and have your child size from smallest to largest or vice versa.
Pick up some skeleton candy like this Bone Candy to have your child graph by colors, and bone type.
Language Arts
All literacy skills begin with reading to your child. Read the book, several times, if your child can read let them read it to you.
For younger children write down several sight words such as; a, his, with, eat, the, and it. Have your child mark each one off as they find them in the book.
For older children provided them with a prompt such as; The silly skeleton, The time I ran into a skeleton, My bones can…
Sensory Activities
A fun base for a skeleton sensory bin is black beans to mimic a spooky night sky or even the background of an xray. Include rubber skeletons or bones from Dollar Tree in your bin. Q tips also can be used here to represent bones. Include clear Christmas lights under the beans to add another dimension of fun. Include a small container and spoon for scooping, pouring, dumping, and measuring- great activities for building fine motor skills. Include wind up teeth if you can find some.
Paint bones on your child up and down their arms and legs with glow in the dark paint, go into a dark room for the full affect.
This awesome mold is a ice cube mold found at Dollar Tree, we used ours to play with play dough. Pinching, rolling, and molding play dough is also a great fine motor skill.
Art
Using chalk and black construction paper trace your child’s hand, allow them to draw in lines for bones.
Provide your child with black construction paper, glue, and various pasta’s encourage them to create a skeleton picture from the materials.
Use qtips and glue to create a skeleton, dip a thumb in a little white paint and press it down to create the skull, color in features with a black sharpie.
Science
Here is a great opportunity to advance your child’s computer and research skills as well. Research what causes hiccups (according to WebMD its’ eating too much too quickly, carbonated beverages, swallowing too much air, sudden change in stomach temperature, and emotional stress or excitement)
Research different cures for hiccups, ask friends and family members how they stop hiccups, have or help your child record their answers.
Explain to your child that bones give our bodies shape, and protect organs. Talk about X-rays and that they take “pictures” of our bones on the inside.
Print out a simple skeleton outline and have your child label basic parts, skull, arms, ribs, legs.
For older children here is a fun game where they can label or assemble a skeleton online.
http://www.abcya.com/skeletal_system.htm
Skeleton themed snack idea:
Melt white chocolate chips, dip thin pretzel sticks in completely, lay on waxed paper to dry. Give your child white chocolate covered pretzels, and small and medium marshmallows- Demonstrate how to connect them together to create skeleton shapes. Use a large marshmallow for skull and smaller marshmallows to connect joints.
Here is a great youtube video that you can play, dance with your child to the song, have them point to the various body parts and do the motions that are sung out.
Skeleton dance–
We found this great skeleton that is about 3 feet tall at DollarTree. I hung it up kid high and cut a bow tie from scrap paper, put rolled up masking tape on the back and played pin the bowtie on the skeleton.
Skeleton Resources:
Skeletons are a little less scary when they have the hiccups. This particular skeleton can't seem to shake them–not in the shower (nice fuzzy bat slippers!), not while brushing his teeth (woops! there goes the bottom jaw!), not while polishing his bones, carving a pumpkin, raking leaves, or even when playing baseball with his friend Ghost. Ghost, instead of Boo-ing! away his buddy's hiccups right away as we might expect, advises Skeleton to hold his breath and eat some sugar and drink water upside down. When he finally does Boo! it still doesn't work. But when Ghost finds a mirror and holds it up to Skeleton's face, he sees his reflection and screams in fright! The hiccups jump away, hic, hic, hic. While it's novel to see a skeleton eating sugar, drinking water, showering, etc., it may be tricky to find the right audience for this unusual picture book that's more about hiccups than Halloween. (Ages 4 to 8)
Construct a realistic-looking human skeleton from head to toe, exploring how the bones support the body, relate to the circulatory system and protect organ systems.
– Photo-illustrated instructions make assembly easy
– Perfect for demonstration or centers
– Features skull, rib cage, humerus, spinal column, radius, ulna, hand, pelvis, femur, tibia, fibula, foot and partial circulatory system
– Includes 41-Piece plastic model, display stand and guide with skeleton facts
– Skeleton stands 9.2″H when complete
– Grades 3+
The Skeleton Inside You Paperback- supplemental science book
Your skeleton helps you leap, somersault, and touch your toes — without it, you would be as floppy as a beanbag! There are over 200 bones living and growing inside you that make up your skeleton. There are also ligaments and joints that hold your bones together, and cartilage in your bendable parts like your ears and your nose. Learn all about what a skeleton can do — because this isn't some make-believe Halloween skeleton, this is the real skeleton inside you
Make spooky 3D skeletons. With this candy mold and easy-melting Wilton Candy Melts, it's a breeze to create great tasting and colorful 3D candies. Mold contains 6 designs, 20 cavities
I never thought to use those ice cub trays like that for play dough before. We have those same ones and a couple other ones I picked up at the dollar store. We have the book but we have never read it yet. The lesson plans you have created for this book sound fun.