Human Body - Week 4 - Blood Type Activity

Week 4: We did an activity to learn about the four different blood types.

People have four main blood types; A, B, AB and O.

People with Type A blood can receive Type A and Type O blood.
People with Type B blood can receive Type B and Type O blood.
People with Type AB blood can receive Type A, Type B, Type AB and Type O blood.
People with Type O blood can receive Type O blood.

Materials
Eight Stuffed Animals
Tape
Paper
Pins

First the stuffed animals were each given a blood type. Each child was responsible for two stuffed animals.

 Next we held a blood drive and asked which animals would like to donate. The ones that chose to donate were stuck with a pin.

This was our blood bank. Some of the animals chose to give blood and some did not.

Then the animals were given time to play. The children immediately started playing catch with the animals. As soon as one fell on the ground it was greatly injured and needed blood. The children chose what type of blood to give the injured animals. If they chose the wrong type the animal would die or have severe complications.

It didn't take long for the supply to run out, so we held another blood drive. A few of the animals didn't make it to the next round because there was no blood available to make them better. This cycle was repeated several times. It didn't take long for all of the animals to want to give blood.

Then we ran into another problem. Most of the needles were destroyed and only three were available for the blood drive. The children had to select the three animals to donate blood. Guess what? They selected all the animals with type O blood first!

We ended the activity with all the animals going for a car ride. The car crashed and they all needed blood. I'm happy to say that they all survived the crash.

The kids LOVED this activity. It was so cool to hear them discussing what type of blood they thought was best to have - AB was their conclusion - because they could receive any type of blood.... but they also remarked that if someone were to donate blood it was best to have O.

So simple--- and they learned so much!

To see our other science activities please visit our science page.

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