Zena Tarabishi
Fall, 2013
How Do the Circulatory System Work?
Grade: 5
Subject: Life Science
Standards: CA 2.b Students know how blood circulates through the heart chambers, lungs, and body
and how carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) are exchanged in the lungs and tissues.
Objective: Students will learn how the heart and circulatory system work by studying the steps in the
circulatory system, understanding key vocabulary terms, and through the curriculum-related activities.
Anticipatory Set:
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What does the heart do? What are blood vessels?
What does circulate mean? What function does the circulatory system have in the body?
Instruction
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Investigation Time! Have students feel their pulse on their wrists and count how many beats
they feel in one minute and log that in their science journals.
o Point out that this “pulsing” is actually their blood vessels pushing blood through to
parts of their bodies.
The heart’s function: the pump of the body and is about the size of your fist.
o Relate to: bike pump pushes air into the bike tires
o Human heart has four chambers, other organisms like earthworms don’t
Watch: Circulatory System Bill Nye on the Heart (Part 1)
How the heart works: (students will draw and fill in a flow-chart)
o Step 1: The right two chambers of the heart fill with oxygen-poor blood (carried there by
veins) coming from the body
o Step 2: The heart contracts, sending the O2 poor blood into the lungs where it exchanges
CO2 for O2
o Step 3: The oxygenated, or O2 rich blood returns to the heart and is pumped out to body
through the vessels called arteries and capillaries.
 Remember! Arteries = Away
 Note- what they felt when checking their pulse was the heart contracting, and
pushing blood through a vessel in their arm
Fun facts about your heart:
o In the average human, about 2,000 gallons of blood travel daily through about 60,000
miles of blood vessels.
o In under a minute, your heart can pump blood to every cell in your body.
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o Beats 2.5 billion times approx. in a lifetime
o Heart is about the size of your fist
The Circulatory System: carries blood loaded with oxygen and nutrients to every cell of the body
o made up of 3 parts: heart, blood vessels, and blood
o blood cells are formed in the bone marrow, and is made up of liquid and solid parts Liquid: plasma- made up of mostly water- nutrients from food dissolve in the
plasma and are carried to cells in the body, plasma also carries waste away from
the cells
 Solids: Red/white blood cells and platelets
 Red blood cells- carry oxygen to all body cells
 white blood cells- fight infection
 platelets- help make clots to stop bleeding from cuts and scrapes
o Remember blood flow in ABC order: Arteries, capillaries, veins
Related Systems: respiratory system (breathing), skeletal (blood is made in the bone marrow),
digestive (absorbing nutrients), and excretory, or urinary (filtering out wastes)
Illnesses and diseases related to the Circulatory System:
o Aneurysms (artery wall balloons and bursts causing dangerous bleeding),
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure) when the heart works too hard, it can lead
to strokes (blood flow to the brain is blocked, killing brain cells) or heart attacks;
arteriosclerosis (fatty deposits in the arteries causes the walls to stiffen and
thicken the walls, blocks blood)
Guided Practice: Students will fill in the attached table and use it throughout the whole systems chapter
to document what various systems do and how they interact.
Closure: Students will share their findings from their table and (if time allows) watch a short video, “The
Body Systems Rap”
Independent Practice: Students will complete the attached crossword puzzle highlighting key terms and
concepts related to the circulatory system.
Vocabulary
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Circulatory system: a group of organs that transport needed materials throughout the body.
Blood Vessels: Transport blood to and from the heart,
o Arteries- carry oxygenated blood away from the heart to the body
o Capillaries- smaller blood vessels that carry blood to cells, they exchange materials
between the blood and the cells by crossing through the thin walls of the capillaries
o Veins- carry blood back to the heart for oxygenation
Systems of the Body
Circulatory
What are the parts
of this system
What does this
system do?
What other
systems does it
interact with?
What kinds of
illnesses are
related to it?
Fun facts!
Respiratory
Digestive
Excretory
Name: ______________________
Date: ______________________
The Super Circulatory
System Crossword Puzzle
Across
3. The liquid part of the blood
4. Number of chambers in the human heart
10. White blood cells are responsible for fighting off ____ (plural)
11. Help make clots to stop bleeding from injuries
12. _____ blood cells carry oxygen in the blood
Down
1. Tiny blood vessels
2. A waste product that is filtered out in the lungs and exhaled
5. What the blood becomes rich in when it goes to the lungs
6. This system is responsible for the transport of needed materials throughout the
body
7. Blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart
8. Where oxygen-poor blood goes after it comes back to the heart
9. Blood vessels that transports blood back to the heart
Answer Key:
Circulatory
parts of this system
Heart, blood vessels, and blood
What does this system do?
Circulates blood, oxygen, and nutrients throughout the
body
Systems it interacts with?
Respiratory, digestive, excretory, skeletal
Illnesses related to it?
Aneurysms (artery wall balloons and bursts causing
dangerous bleeding), Hypertension (HBP) heart works too
hard, can lead to strokes (blood flow to the brain is
blocked, killing brain cells) or heart attacks,
arteriosclerosis (fatty deposits in the arteries causes the
walls to stiffen and thicken the walls, blocks blood)
Fun facts!
In the average human, about 2,000 gallons of blood travel
daily through about 60,000 miles) of blood vessels.
In under a minute, your heart can pump blood to every
cell in your body.
Beats 2.5 billion times approx. in a lifetime
Heart is about the size of your fist