American Heart Month

February is American Heart Month, so we thought we would take a minute to talk about that strong muscle in your chest that keeps you alive.

Your heart is like a pump that pumps blood all around your body.  Blood provides the body with oxygen and nutrients that it needs and carries away waste.  The right side of your heart receives blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs.  The left side of your heart receives blood from your lungs and pumps it out into the body.  Before each beat, your heart fills with blood and then contracts (squeezes) to pump the blood along.

Your heart is made up of four chambers.  The two on top are called atria and the two on bottom are called ventricles.  The atria are the chambers that fill up with blood returning from the body and lungs, and the ventricles are the chambers that pump blood back out to the body and lungs.  Running down the middle of your heart is a thick wall of muscle called the septum.  Its job is to separate the two sides of the heart.

Movement of blood around your body is called circulation.  It takes less than 60 seconds for blood to reach every cell in your body!  Blood travels through your body in arteries and veins.  Arteries take blood away from your heart.  Veins return blood to the heart.

Your heart is a muscle, so if you want to keep it strong, you have to exercise it.  Try to be active in a way that gets your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes every day.  Eating healthy foods and staying away from smoking and vaping also contribute to a healthy heart.

Heart Pump Model Activity
Materials:
Small jar
2 bendy straws
Balloon
Tape/glue
Water
Bowl
Red food coloring (optional)

Directions:
1. Fill your jar or glass halfway with water and add some red food coloring.
2. Take your balloon and cut the neck of it off. Save the neck part.  Take the top part, stretch it out a bit, and put it over the top of the jar so it is taut.
3. Poke a hole in the top of the balloon.  Make a second hole about an inch away from the first.  Try to make the holes as small as you can.
4. Take your straws and push one through each hole with the bendy part sticking out the top.
5. Take the neck of the balloon that you sent aside and use it to cover the opening of one straw.  Place the bowl under the opening of the open straw.
6. Push up and down on the balloon between the two straws.  The water will come up and out through the open straw!