Heart Matters Part 1

The human heart is a complex organ. 

And teaching first graders about it can be complex.

As we spent the past two weeks studying the interconnection of the circulatory and the respiratory systems of the human body, several things all came together in an amazing way. 

Here are some of the puzzle pieces:

1. We had a Dr. Daniel Guerra, a Seabury parent and cardiologist, come in and shared his passion for the heart.   His specialty is putting in heart stents and he has saved thousands of lives.

2. We learned about the relationship of the circulatory and respiratory systems by walking to the beat of the drum through a room-sized model of the human body.

Oxygen (red cards) enters the mouth and goes through the trachea to the lungs where it enters the blood stream. It then goes to the heart and is pumped throughout the body through arteries.

Every single one of the 37.2 trillion cells in our body needs oxygen. Here we are dropping oxygen off at a few of them: the skin cells on the heel, the bone cells of the patella, and the organ cells of the appendix. In turn, we pick up the waste product, carbon dioxide (blue cards).

The waste product comes back to the heart through the veins, gets pumped to the lungs, is breathed out, and finds a lovely tree in our classroom where it is used in the process of photosynthesis (a sneak preview for our study of plants next year.)

Ta dum, ta dum, ta dum, ta dum...the involuntary muscle of the heart beats 24/7 through miles and miles of blood vessels--if all the arteries, veins, and capillaries were laid out in a line, they would go 2 1/2 times around the earth!

3. We experienced the effect of the amygdala (the part of the brain that triggers the fight or flight response) on the heart. 



YIKES! THERE'S A TIGER ON THE PLAYGROUND! (Shhhh, not really, but we think we saw a shadow that looked like one. 😱😱😱)

In fear, our hearts start beating faster and faster. We start to breathe really fast.  Our bodies are automatically getting ready to fight that tiger or run away from it. We are experiencing the AMYGDALA MONSTER! The amygdala is the almond shaped section of nervous tissue in the brain that is responsible for detecting fear and preparing us for emergency events. We have to hurry to deliver lots of extra oxygen to our muscles so we can survive!!

Fortunately, there really wasn't a real tiger on our playground and by taking some deep breaths, by telling ourselves the truth (the tiger isn't real), our heart started slowing down, our breathing became relaxed, and 17 children were back to walking through our classroom model,  safe, calm, and orderly--ta dum, ta dum, ta dum. 😌😌😌

4. We then pulled out our stethoscopes and started counting our heart rates. We made some great discoveries that relate to our Zones of Regulation curriculum. 


The average resting heart rate was about 85 beats per minute.


After taking 3 laps around the playground, our heart rates were about 110 beats per minute.

We then found a good spot and a comfortable position and listened to the book, I Am Peace. After about 5 minutes of mindfulness, we took our heart rates again. Our rates had decreased to almost 50 beats per minute. 

Throughout the year, we've been talking about various tools we can use to help understand and regulate our emotions. Now we have scientific proof that mindfulness does calm our bodies! To use the Zones of Regulation term, we were now in the green zone, ready to learn!! 

5. Check out Heart Matters Part 2 as we learn about how to cope with stage fright in a Shakespearean way!