I knew this would get your attention!! Don't worry. I am not bragging about myself. This is about the December Human Body Lab. Children are often told that they are unique, special, and that they are an amazing creation from God. We are "fearfully and wonderfully made". In this lab students actually got to see how incredible their body really is. They were surprised when they found out how "cool" and unique their fingers are and they didn't even realize it until now.
There are basically three types of fingerprints. Here is how we found ours. I know you can buy fancy fingerprint kits but I prefer to use materials found at home. That way kids don't think they have nothing to do unless we take them to the store to buy something. 
We wrote our names on a 3X5 and made a mess on the card with a pencil. Some of the children really got carried away with this part.Let's just say it took a while to clean the table after the lab...
On the back of the 3X5 we wrote RT for right thumb, RM for right middle, and RP for right pinkie. We then took these fingers and got them really dirty with the pencil scribble scrabble. Some of the children dove into this task with gusto
but others were afraid that their mothers would get mad at them for getting dirty. Just to let you know where I stand on this issue:CHILDREN LEARN BETTER WHEN THEY GET DIRTY!
We lifted the prints off the dirty fingers with clear tape.
Then, we stuck the tape on the back of the 3X5 cards and examined them with a magnifying lens.
Here are some interesting prints we took. Nathan, my trusty lab assistant and youngest son, placed them under the microscope so we could get a better look.
The children were really captivated by their own uniqueness. 
Here is a good chart to help you identify the prints if you choose to do this at home. Next year I am going to give all the students this identification form. It is the best I've found for children and would be good to have in a file somewhere.
You can download it here:fingerprints
Now, when your child is bored at home just tell him to take his fingerprints!
Or why not toes???
3 comments:
What a great lab! That's so cool!
Hi Mrs. Kahue!
It's been a while since I've dropped by. -LOVED this post and again, I'm adding it to my file of ideas for Science topics. This is great. (And yes, children DO learn better when they get messy, I agree!) :) Thanks for the great idea and sharing the link.
Ellen McBride
SOOOOOOOOOOOO cool...I am going to try this with Caleb. Have you ever seen the artwork projects made using finger prints. I did that when I was younger. I think I am going to have Caleb do that, too.
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