For grown-ups: this lesson in words
Year 6 · Science
The heart, blood and healthy living: I can explain how my heart, blood vessels and blood work, why my pulse changes, and how to stay healthy.
Here is the inside of a chest. Your circulatory system has three main parts: the heart, blood vessels and blood.
The heart is in the middle of the chest, between the lungs. It is a strong muscle, about the size of your fist.
Blood vessels are tubes, full of blood. The blood flows through them to every part of your body, and back again.
Picture: A drawing of the heart and lungs inside a chest outline. Labels: heart and blood vessels.
The heart is a pump. With each beat, it squeezes and pushes blood out.
Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart.
The blood flows to the muscles and to every other part of the body.
Veins are blood vessels that bring blood back to the heart. Then it goes round again.
Picture: A cycle called Blood goes round with 4 stages: Heart pumps, then Arteries carry blood away (a picture of a red circle), then Muscles and other body parts (a picture of a strong arm), then Veins bring blood back (a picture of a blue circle), and back to Heart pumps.
Your turn: One part is ringed. It sits in the middle of the chest, between the lungs. What is it, and what does it do?
Picture: A drawing of the inside of a chest. There is a ring round the part in the middle of the chest, between the two big spongy parts.
Choose one:
- The heart, which pumps air round the body
- The heart, which pumps blood round the body
- The lungs, which pump blood round the body
Answer
The answer: The heart, which pumps blood round the body
It is the heart. The heart is a muscle that pumps blood round the body.
Picture: A drawing of the heart and lungs inside a chest outline. Labels: heart. The heart is ringed.
Words to know
- circulatory system:
- The heart, blood vessels and blood, which move blood all round the body.
- blood vessels:
- Tubes that carry blood. Arteries carry blood away from the heart. Veins bring it back.
- oxygen:
- A gas in the air. Every part of the body needs it.
- nutrients:
- The goodness in food that the body needs to grow, move and stay healthy.
- pulse:
- The beat you can feel in your wrist each time your heart pumps.
- drug:
- Something that changes how the body works. Medicines are drugs that help.
The rest of this lesson is locked
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