In what has become a fall tradition for Oakhill Day School fourth grade students, Bodies and Bagels is a fun morning showcase where students show off their creativity and smarts by giving their parents a walk-through of their recycled material human bodies.

Students work in groups to apply skills learned during their life science unit when building their bodies. At this point, each fourth grade student recognizes that the human body has many different systems that work together, the skeletal, central nervous, respiratory, digestive, circulatory, and muscular. Their job is to translate functions like what happens to food during digestion, or describe the path blood takes to reach the heart, lungs, and the rest of the body with found recycled materials like two-gallon milk jugs, old garden hose, balloons, and cardboard toilet paper tubes.

“I think our recycled body project helps the students really get a handle on the parts of the body and how they function,” says Dena Cole, Lower School Science Specialist. “I don’t know what makes them light up most, when the group finally comes up with a name for their recycled body or when they have it all put together and they pull on the diaphragm and see the balloon lungs inflate with air!”

Not only is Bodies and Bagels a hit with the students, but the parents love it too. Dorothy Beckham, Fourth Grade Parent said, “It’s a great opportunity to spend the morning engaging with your child and their peers over breakfast as they walk you through the parts of the body. I was surprised by how much I actually learned from them.”