The Circulatory System

Life Science

The system that contains the heart and the blood vessels, and moves blood throughout the body.

Vocabulary Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood

away from the heart. Remember, A A Arteries Away, A A Arteries Away, A A Arteries Away.

Veins carry blood back to the heart . Capillaries connect arteries and veins. They

are tiny tubes that exchange food, oxygen and wastes between blood and body cells.

Red blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to all the cells of the body.

White blood cells are like soldiers protecting the body, they fight germs that cause diseases.

Plasma carries nutrients and waste Platelets are tiny pieces of cells, they repair

blood vessels and help stop bleeding.

The Heart

Inside the heart are four hollow chambers. Each chamber is a little pump. The pumping pushes blood all around your body.

Four chambers two atriums and two ventricles

Heart

Did you know that your heart is the strongest muscle? *Your heart is divided into two sides.

*The right side pumps blood to your lungs where it picks up oxygen.

*The left side pumps oxygen-soaked blood out to your body.

The body's blood is circulated through the heart more than 1,000 times per day. Between five and six thousand quarts of blood are pumped each day. Your heart is about the same size as your fist.

The Heart Your heart's job is to pump

blood around your body. Its muscles contract and squeeze out blood. The left-hand side pumps blood from the lungs to the rest of your body. The right-hand side pumps stale blood from your body back to your lungs for a fresh supply of oxygen.

Blood that is rich in oxygen appears red.   Blood that is poor in oxygen appears

blue.

Blood Blood is thicker than water and has a little bit salty taste. In

an adults body there is 10.6 pints of blood circulating around. In their blood there is billions of living blood cells floating in a liquid called plasma. Horned toads are small lizards

with toad-like faces. When cornered the horned toad will shoot small jets of blood from its eyes.

Veins and Arteries

Arteries Arteries are tough,

elastic tubes that carry blood away from the heart. As the arteries move away from the heart, they divide into smaller vessels.

Veins Veins carry the blood

to the heart. The smallest veins, also called venules, are very thin. They join larger veins that open into the heart. The veins carry dark red blood that doesn't have much oxygen.

Facts about circulatory system

Blood CIRCULATES--circles--all around your body in about one or two minutes.

One drop of blood contains a half a drop of plasma, 5 MILLION Red Blood Cells, 10 Thousand White Blood Cells and 250 Thousand Platelets.

You have thousands of miles of blood vessels in your body. "Bill Nye the Science Guy" claims that you could wrap your blood vessels around the equator TWICE!

Keep your heart healthy...it's going to have to beat about 3 BILLION times during your lifetime!

Platelets