Hey there! Want to try something cool? Take two fingers and place them on the side of your neck, right next to your throat. Hold them still for a moment, and you’ll feel something bumping around. That’s your pulse! It’s the feeling of blood moving through your body, and it means you’re actually feeling your heart beating.
Your heart is always beating, all day and all night, even when you’re asleep. It never takes a break because it has a super important job: moving blood all around your body. Your heart can do this because it’s a muscle, just like the ones in your legs that help you run or in your jaw that help you chew food. But your heart is the hardest working muscle of them all!
Make a fist with your hand. That’s about how big your heart is. It might seem small, but it’s incredibly strong. The constant squeezing of your heart muscle keeps all that blood flowing.
But why does your blood need to move around? Think of your blood like a delivery truck. It carries lots of things your body needs to keep going, especially oxygen. Oxygen is a gas in the air that people and many animals need to live. When you breathe in, you’re bringing oxygen into your lungs, and your blood soaks it up. With the help of your heart, the blood sends oxygen all over your body, from your head to your feet and everywhere in between.
As your blood travels, different parts of your body take the oxygen and use it to do their jobs, like making your leg muscles move so you can run or helping your stomach digest your lunch. But your body also has waste to get rid of, like a gas called carbon dioxide. After your blood drops off oxygen, it picks up this waste and carries it away.
When your blood returns to your heart, it gets pushed to the lungs again, where it drops off carbon dioxide and picks up more oxygen. So, when you breathe in, you’re taking in oxygen, and when you breathe out, you’re getting rid of carbon dioxide. It sounds like a long journey, but your heart can pump blood to every part of your body in less than a minute!
Your heart beats at least 100,000 times every day, constantly sending blood to your lungs and the rest of your body and back again. That’s some serious work!
Have you ever noticed your heart beating faster when you’ve been running around? That’s your heart working extra hard. When you’re active, your body needs more oxygen and nutrients, so your heart pumps faster to deliver them and to get rid of extra waste. The more you exercise, the more you exercise your heart!
So, who’s up for some jumping jacks to get our hearts beating faster? If there’s something you’d like to learn more about, ask an adult to help you leave a comment or email us at kidscyshow.com. See you next time!
Heart Rate Exploration: Find a quiet place and sit down comfortably. Place two fingers on your wrist or the side of your neck to find your pulse. Count how many times you feel your pulse in 15 seconds. Multiply that number by 4 to find out how many times your heart beats in one minute. Try this activity after sitting quietly and then again after doing some jumping jacks. Discuss with a friend or family member why your heart rate changes.
Oxygen Delivery Game: Pretend you are a delivery truck like your blood. Use a small toy or ball to represent oxygen. Start at one side of a room (your heart) and move to different parts of the room (your body) to deliver the oxygen. Once you deliver it, pick up a different toy or ball to represent carbon dioxide and bring it back to the starting point. Talk about how this is similar to what your blood does in your body.
Heart Model Craft: Create a simple model of the heart using clay or playdough. Make sure to include the four chambers: two atria and two ventricles. Use different colors to show how blood flows through the heart. Discuss with an adult how the heart pumps blood to the lungs and the rest of the body.
