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Description

Heart Body Mind - Bones
This activity helps girls to understand how the hand works

Resources

o craft foam
o paper straws
o sticky tape
o white pony beads
o twine (or string)
o scissors
o chopsticks
o pen
o nailpolish (optional)

Instructions

Step 1: Trace your hand on craft foam, and cut it out.


Step 2: Cut paper straws into small pieces, and stick them on the hand and fingers to represent the bones and the tendon sheaths that are attached to them. (Leave gaps between each piece, as this will allow the fingers to bend later.)

Feel your hand and see if you can work out where the major bones are. We discovered there should be three small bones for each finger, and only two for the thumbs. Each set of finger and thumb bones connect up to corresponding longer bones in main part of the hand.



Step 3: Tie beads to five long pieces of twine. Thread each piece of twine through the straws on the finger and thumb, into the corresponding straws in the hand.
Make sure your twine is long enough so that you can easily pull on the other ends at the wrist. If in doubt, make them longer. You can always shorten them later on.

Step 4: Tie a further five beads to the other ends of the twine.

Step 6. Turn your hand over, and paint fingernails.

Step 7: Tape a chopstick to the palm to act as a handle.
This makes it much easier to be able to hold and manipulate the hand.

And now, have fun playing with your new hand!

Hand Anatomy
There are 3 bones in each of your fingers, and 2 in your thumb. These bones are called phalanges. The phalanges connect to 5 bones in the main part of your hand, called metacarpals. (There are also 8 bones in your wrist called carpals, which aren’t featured in our craft.)
The muscles that move your fingers and thumb are in your forearm. Long flexor tendons extend from these forearm muscles through your wrist and palm to your fingers and thumb. The tendons slide though a snug tunnel, called the tendon sheath, which is attached to the little bones in your fingers and thumb and keep the tendons in place. When the muscles in the forearm contract, they pull on these tendons to move the bones.
The straws in our craft represent these tendon sheaths, and the twine represents the tendons. Because the tendons are connected from forearm to fingertip, if you sever a tendon at a lower joint, it breaks the connection to the upper part of the finger as well.
Also in your hand are arteries and veins that transport blood to and from your fingertips. And there are nerves that allow you to feel what your hands and fingers are touching. Hands are such wonderful things!

Tags

• bones
• GGNZ

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