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November 18, 2018 by Jenae - 45 Comments
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy.

What is blood made of?

What is blood made of A hands-on science demonstration



What is blood?

Blood has become a familiar sight in our household these days. Whether it is a scraped knee or bloody nose (from intense allergy issues), blood is quite intriguing to our boys. After one of our recent encounters with blood, Big Brother asked the question, “What is blood made of?”

We checked out some library books on the human body and began our research. I have used water beads in sensory tubs before and immediately knew the perfect way to demonstrate the various parts of blood in a fun and hands-on way!

*Please note:  This activity is not suitable for children under the age of 3. Please be careful with younger siblings as the water beads can be a choking hazard.

Parts of Blood Activity

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • a large plastic container (or sensory tub)
  • red water beads
  • ping-pong balls (super cheap on Amazon)
  • water
  • red craft foam

Blood Activity Instructions:

parts of blood

Step 1.  Follow the instructions on the packaging to hydrate the red water beads. Go ahead and put them (and the water) into your plastic tub / sensory table to soak. Our package instructions indicated that once you add the water, it takes 10 hours for them to fully hydrate.

 

what is blood made of?

STEP 2.  Cut the craft foam into small pieces to create your platelets.

 

 

what is blood made of?

STEP 3.  Put the “platelets” and several ping pong balls in your plastic tub of blood.

 

 

parts of blood

 

parts of blood

STEP 4.  Let your kids explore the “blood” for a while and then talk with them about the parts of blood:

 

Red water beads = Red Blood Cells (that carry oxygen)

Ping Pong Balls = White Blood Cells  (that fight germs, bacteria, and viruses)

Craft Foam Pieces = Platelets (that help heal cuts)

Water = Plasma (helps the blood move through veins and arteries)

 

IMG_8026

This was a huge hit for the boys…and they were able to give Daddy a full synopsis once he came home from work!

 

IMG_8029

From the book:  The Human Body 

 

IMG_8032

From the book:  Body:  An Amazing Tour of Human Anatomy

This post was first published June 2014. Updated 2018.

What is blood made of science demonstration

Overall, a great learning experience for us all! What is your favorite science activity?

Click here for more about the human body:

Anatomy Books for Kids & Toddlers

Why the Human Body Needs Both Muscles & Bones

Human Body Preschool Activities

Fun Body Parts Song for Toddlers

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tanya says

    June 3, 2014 at 2:00 pm

    This is fantastic! Thanks for sharing. I cannot wait to do this with my little man.

    Reply
    • alina says

      January 2, 2015 at 10:57 pm

      Im a 5th grader and its interesting

      Reply
      • Jenae says

        January 3, 2015 at 9:04 am

        So glad you liked the idea! Thanks Alina! :)

        Reply
        • amanda says

          March 22, 2018 at 1:35 pm

          im in 7th grade I love boiology this is cool

          Reply
  2. Jill says

    June 3, 2014 at 10:18 pm

    This is a great idea! For a fun treat you could reinforce the same concept by making Kool-Aid: cherry crystals (red blood cells), sugar (white blood cells), ice cubes (platelets), and water (plasma.)

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      June 3, 2014 at 11:55 pm

      That’s a great idea!

      Reply
  3. Janine says

    June 3, 2014 at 11:16 pm

    This is one of the coolest ways to teach children about blood that I’ve seen! Love it! Great idea.

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      June 3, 2014 at 11:55 pm

      Thanks so much, Janine! :)

      Reply
  4. Yuliya says

    June 3, 2014 at 11:41 pm

    I love this very much! I’ve definitely pinned for a future homeschool activity once we get there (and my child is older), but what a fantastic way to teach children about blood! It looks so inviting and not ‘scary’ or ‘icky’!

    Reply
  5. Joanna says

    June 4, 2014 at 2:15 am

    This is pure awesomeness! So creative – I love it! Pinning this to use with my kids when the time comes!

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      June 4, 2014 at 1:07 pm

      Thanks so much!

      Reply
  6. Ann @ My Nearest and Dearest says

    June 4, 2014 at 4:59 am

    Fascinating!! What a creative way to learn about blood. So cool!

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      June 4, 2014 at 1:07 pm

      Thank you! :)

      Reply
  7. [email protected] says

    June 4, 2014 at 5:27 pm

    I love that you came up with a way to study blood that is on a large scale and that removes the gross factor for kids! Pinned for later.

    Reply
  8. Brenda Johnston says

    June 6, 2014 at 12:01 am

    I love anything hands on! We are studying the human body next year and this is so fun! Thank you! Pinning this!

    Reply
  9. Lezlie says

    June 7, 2014 at 9:20 am

    LOVE this!

    Reply
  10. Dorothy says

    June 14, 2014 at 11:29 pm

    Thanks for the idea,this is a great idea for my son who is blind. For him everything is hands on a nod this will help me explain blood to him. Thank you!

    Reply
  11. Martha says

    November 18, 2014 at 12:59 pm

    I am a retired science teacher. I used candy in salad oil. Candy: white jelly beans (white blood cells), red hots (red blood cells), candy sprinkles (platelets). The salad oil is the plasma. Make sure your ratio is reasonably correct.

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      November 18, 2014 at 2:17 pm

      That is a great idea! Thanks Martha! :)

      Reply
  12. Martha says

    November 18, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    P.S. Your platelets are too big.

    Reply
  13. Ariana says

    January 23, 2015 at 11:05 am

    This is such a wonderful idea. I don’t think *specific* size and ratio matter, this is clearly an activity for little kids… little kids don’t need things to be literal. Especially considering they have images in their science books to refer to :)

    Where can you buy red water beads? Are they sold in stores like Super Target or a specialty store or do I have to order online? I ask because I just read to my kids about blood in our science book and don’t want to wait four days to receive them to do this with my kids, it looks that fun!! ha

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      January 23, 2015 at 5:13 pm

      You should be able to buy them at craft stores (in the floral department), but there is also a link in the post to where I purchased them (on Amazon). :)

      Reply
  14. Kelly Grisham says

    February 24, 2015 at 10:29 am

    I created this model for my second graders and also took it to our Math and Science night. The students had so much fun “feeling” the contents of their blood. They will never forget it either! Thanks for sharing :)

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      February 25, 2015 at 10:17 am

      Yay! So glad they enjoyed it! We did this last summer and my boys STILL talk about it! :)

      Reply
  15. Amanda says

    February 25, 2015 at 4:34 pm

    I love this idea for teaching younger children! I’m thinking about doing this for my little preschoolers. Do you know approximately how long it took for the water beads to fill up? I want to have it prepared and ready to go, you know how impatient kids can get.

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      February 28, 2015 at 7:22 am

      My package says it takes 10 HOURS for the water beads to fully hydrate, so I would definitely do that the evening before so they are ready to go the next day. :)

      Reply
  16. Patricia says

    April 6, 2015 at 11:51 am

    Hi there can you tell me how many packages of the beads you used – we have 10g packets and I am not sure how many we need to fill a tub.

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      April 6, 2015 at 9:52 pm

      I didn’t even use an entire packet…just a couple tablespoons. I think you use 1 tablespoon per 10 cups of water, so they expand quite a bit!

      Reply
  17. Pattie Small says

    May 24, 2015 at 1:58 pm

    Platelets are actually the fragmented bits of a huge cell — maybe instead of little rectangles you could cut circles into little piece

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      May 24, 2015 at 10:31 pm

      Good idea! :)

      Reply
  18. MamaGames says

    July 17, 2015 at 5:15 pm

    Thanks for such a great idea! We made this bin today with two small changes – we couldn’t find cheap ping pong balls, so we used the hollow plastic “practice” golf balls instead ($2 for a dozen) and we cut small discs out of pink foam to be our platelets. My daughter brought down some of her dollhouse dolls so she could recreate scenes from the Magic School Bus! :)

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      July 18, 2015 at 8:11 am

      Awesome!!! So glad you enjoyed it! Those sound like excellent modifications. :)

      Reply
  19. Jeni says

    August 27, 2015 at 3:20 pm

    I came across this on pinterest and love the idea! Having an 8 year old, a 4 year old, and a 2 year old I love something they all can enjoy. I was thinking about making this safe (aka edible) for my 2 year old by using red tapioca pearls (red blood cells), twizzlers (platelets), and marshmallows (white blood cells).

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      August 27, 2015 at 10:01 pm

      Thanks so much! The tapioca pearls would be a great modification and I like your other ideas too!

      Reply
  20. Bianca Bowman says

    March 16, 2016 at 11:11 am

    Thank you so much for this. It is such a great way to illustrate the concept and parts of blood. I am fascinated and I’m pushing 50! Love this so much. Adding the books is a great way for kids to learn how to find their own answers. I’ve shared this on my Facebook.

    Reply
  21. Melissa says

    April 11, 2016 at 2:50 pm

    Hi! This is an amazing idea….I am a transfusion medicine physician and I volunteered to speak to my son’s first grade class about what I do. We are going to make this awesome blood. I have one question: I purchased the same red water beads (also from Amazon)…mine are very pale when they are hydrated (I tried a couple to see how they would look). Yours seem much darker than mine….did you color the water you hydrated them? with food coloring? I have never used them before. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      April 11, 2016 at 3:16 pm

      I’m so glad you like this idea! On their own, they are pretty pale, but when you put them all together they should be relatively dark just like the photos. The more beads you use, the darker the overall color will be. You can always add some food coloring (or liquid watercolors) if necessary, but I doubt you will need to once you get enough beads. :)

      Reply
  22. Sandy Miller says

    June 4, 2016 at 4:43 pm

    Love this idea. I work with latch key kids. Kindergarten through second grade.

    Reply
  23. Edna says

    June 9, 2016 at 2:49 pm

    Pure genius!!!!! I could have used this idea in Kindergarten. Now it’s too late, I’m retired.

    Reply
  24. Liezl says

    June 20, 2016 at 8:12 am

    This idea is very useful to me. I am a student teacher and going to demo teach about blood and its components I am surfing in the internet for some activities about blood before we start to the lesson proper. It really helped me a lot since the materials are cheaper and easy to find.

    Reply
    • Jenae says

      June 24, 2016 at 3:00 pm

      Thank you so much!

      Reply
  25. Kalai says

    April 7, 2017 at 4:30 am

    This is an amazing idea. Thank you

    Reply
  26. Rebecca Smith says

    September 11, 2017 at 2:48 pm

    I saw this idea and pinned it for a homeschool lesson over a year ago, and I’m FINALLY getting to use it. Thanks so much for the great illustration of the parts of blood. This human body unit is going to be awesome.

    Reply
  27. Janelle Durham says

    March 13, 2018 at 3:17 pm

    I LOVED this idea! We were doing a unit for 3 – 6 year olds on the human body (you can see all our activities here: https://inventorsoftomorrow.com/2018/03/13/anatomy-for-kids/), and we did this in the water table. We used white pompoms for the platelets as those are closer in appearance to real platelets, and colored the water yellow to represent plasma. We also added some pumps to be “the heart”.

    Reply
  28. Kristine says

    March 7, 2019 at 12:22 pm

    I just did this with our homeschool co-op but substituted little pieces of cut up gauze for the platelets instead of foam. With that substitution I was able to demonstrate how when cut, the platelets stick together to form a plug which catch the red blood cells. The red blood cells can be strained through gauze and smooshed to form a jelly like clot which then dries to make a scab.

    Reply

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