Students in 4th grade sort eight sentences into the four jobs of the skeleton on this 3-page worksheet: support, protection, movement and making blood cells. Page 2 shows a skeleton with five numbered lines. Students label the skull, ribs, spine, pelvis and kneecap, then match each bone to what it protects. Page 3 is the answer key. It supports NGSS 4-LS1-1.
4-LS1-1
“Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.”
Page 1 asks students to match examples to how bones support, protect and move the body and make blood cells, and page 2 links five bones to what they protect.
Eight lettered sentences sit in a box, such as marrow inside the femur making red blood cells and muscles pulling on arm bones to lift a cup. Students write two examples, or their letters, under each of four job boxes.
A skeleton with five numbered lines comes with a word bank of skull, ribs, spine, pelvis and kneecap. A table has a column for the bone name and one for what it protects, chosen from brain, heart and lungs, spinal cord, bladder and lower organs, and knee joint.
The sentences grouped under each job with their letters, and the filled table, such as the pelvis protecting the bladder and lower organs.
Card sort
Cut the eight sentences into strips so groups can move them around before anyone writes. Sentences D and H, both about muscles, start good talk about movement.
Blood cells surprise
Sentences B and G catch most students, who expect bones to do nothing but hold us up. Tell them aloud that marrow inside bones makes blood cells.
Short review at home
Send page 2 home after the lesson. Each bone has exactly one match, so a parent can check the table against the list.
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