I Heart Hearts

Today I went on a fieldtrip with Roo.

We went here:

I had never even heard of this place or had any idea that it even existed. It is a hands-on, one-of-a-kind museum designed completely around the heart.

It is set up for school tours, but I think it is also open to the public on certain hours…and it is free.

The first thing the kids did was explore the heart with games on the computer.

Also at this station was a VERY large model of a heart. We later found out that it is the actual size of a Blue Whale heart and their heart beats 8 times per minute on average.

We then went to a station where we compared different animals and the size of their hearts to everyday items. Did you know that the tree frog has a heart the size of a grain of rice?

After that we went to the Heart Right Supermarket where the kids learned about the food pyramid and portion control. They had the coolest plates for kids to display how much of each food they should be eating. I need 7 of them.

Then on to the 911 center where they learned about what to do if someone is having a heart attack and they were able to listen to their own hearts with stethoscopes.

Then we headed to

Lub Dub is the mascot at the museum. Here they talked about making wise food choices and eating food low in fat. Each child picked foods to make up a lunch with the lowest amount of fat. Roo scored the highest amount of fat with her enchiladas and brownie. She is her Momma’s girl!

Then the kids had a chance to get their heart rate up with a little exercise.

After running and jumping around they had this machine that used heartbeats to make beads jump in the tube.

We left the museum and went to a park to eat lunch before we had to be back at the school. We took this opportunity for our self-portrait.

After we got back to the school I stuck around for a few minutes for Roo to talk about her Student of the Week poster.

I love the chance to go on fieldtrips with my kids and every time when I am done I realize exactly why I didn’t go into elementary education and I am really thankful for the wonderful teachers my kids have.

I am so glad I got to spend the day with Roo.

She really is a sweet and funny little girl.