How Does My Body Know How to Grow? | Complete Human Body STEAM Unit

Instant digital download. No physical item will be shipped.

After purchase you can instantly download 5 files: the 72-page printable teaching unit (PDF), the read-aloud slideshow (PowerPoint and PDF), and the semi-animated read-along video with music (MP4: Part 1 and the full video).

Why don't I stay the same size?

In How Does My Body Know How to Grow?, Leo's favourite jacket will not zip. Leo, Zoey and Spencer follow the clues into the human body to discover growth plates, living bone, muscles that pull, teeth waiting in the jaw, hair, skin, organs and a brain that changes with practice. This unit lets your learners investigate the same questions with real measurements, real data and real movement.

Written by an Ontario-certified teacher with 25 years of classroom and special education leadership experience. Every activity opens with a clear learning goal, a Bloom's Taxonomy level and "I can" success criteria checklists for two levels, so mixed age groups learn side by side: Explorers (ages 7 to 9) and Engineers (ages 10 to 12).

What's inside (72 printable pages)

• Teacher guide: unit blueprint built with backward design, learning goals by Bloom's level, materials list, five-day pacing guide and five daily lesson plans
• Neurodiversity toolkit: supports for every learner, a visual schedule, First and Then strip and calm choice cards
• Science background for adults
• Literacy and word work: 18 illustrated vocabulary cards, word parts (bio, neuro, derm, plast, ology), word families, predictions, comprehension in two parts, sequencing, grow or stay sorting, character traits
• Writing challenge in 5 formats: a fiction letter, a recount, a non-fiction report, an email to an expert and a text message conversation, with a planner, writing paper and a 4-level rubric
• Science: label a growing long bone, body systems match, and 3 hands-on labs (Measure Me, Heart Rate Detectives, Paper Bones Strength Test), each with picture icons beside every material, data sheets and a lab rubric
• Math (8 illustrated pages): growth charts, measuring bones with a true scale ruler, teeth math, heartbeat math, sleep and time, hair growth rates, plate fractions and body proportions, plus a problem-solving rubric
• Move and Create: a six-station Bones and Muscles fitness circuit with station cards and a record sheet, plus a Moving Arm model craft with template
• Assessment: exit tickets, a two-part unit quiz, the Growth Detective Report performance task with rubric, and a certificate
• Complete answer keys

Digital extras

• Read-aloud slideshow (PowerPoint and PDF) with discussion prompts in the speaker notes
• Semi-animated read-along video (MP4) with gentle original music

Perfect for

Homeschool families, classroom teachers, co-ops, microschools, tutors and summer learning. Low-cost household materials only.

Terms

For use by one teacher or one family. Please do not share, resell or post the files online. School or co-op licences are available on request.

AI disclosure

The author, a certified teacher, wrote the story, lesson design and all activities. Illustrations were created by the author with the help of AI image tools, then selected, edited and arranged by the author.