With this printable set, make a life-size muscular system for kids to study anatomy the hands-on way!

A few years ago, we made a set of life-size paper organs for my son to study anatomy with. With their help, he could build paper models of a few body systems, including a skeleton.

But what good would bones be without muscles?

For years, it has been bugging me that we have a life-size paper skeleton, but not a life-size muscular system. This year, we decided to correct it! We have also added the other missing human body systems at the same time, so you can now study reproductive, immune, and endocrine systems.

I have also got a new little helper. My daughter is old enough to study anatomy now. She was eager to build a model of a muscular system that she tenderly nicknamed “еру muscle man”. While assembling him, she sang “Do you know the muscle man, the muscle man, the muscle man? Do you know the muscle man who lives on Drury lane?”

Here he is!

About the Life-Size Muscular System for Kids

This printable life-size muscular system gives kids an opportunity to build a model of how their own muscles looks. They can handle the printed muscles, place them in order, and even try them on!

There are several different kinds of pages featuring:

• all the muscles with their names
• all the muscles without any text
• colour-your-own muscles

There is also a card that acts as a reference to build the muscle system, and has an overview of the system with some fun facts.

The printable muscles are scaled so that their size would be right for an average seven-year-old child, but should also fit reasonably well for children who are two years younger or older. If you have a child who is significantly smaller, print the pages at a reduced scale (80 or 90%).

The life-size muscular system for kids also integrates well with our life-size skeletal system and showcases the interconnectivity of layers.

But you can absolutely use it on its own as well!

How to Make a Life-Size Printable Muscular System for Kids

First, take a big sheet of paper (about 24″ x 52″). You can glue/tape two sheets of poster paper together, use the backside of some wrapping paper, or fold down a large cardboard box.

Next, you’ll need to trace an outline of the child’s body.  Use a pencil for doing the initial outline, because you may need to make small corrections, as kids tend to wiggle. Later, you can go over the lines with a marker or even cut out the child’s silhouette.

Now, you can work with the outline on the floor and arrange all the muscles without gluing them onto paper…

…or you can cut the outline out, attach it to the wall and place the muscles with sticky tac or double-sided tape.

It can be assembled either with or without help of the reference card.

And here is the finished life-size muscular model! My daughter treated it like a puzzle and enjoyed building it. According to her, she definitely prefers it over the skeleton which is “a bit creepy”.

Get the Life-Size Muscular System!

Want more anatomy activities? Try our bundles – Anatomy for Kids: Basic Systems and Anatomy for Kids: Advanced Systems. Following this hands-on anatomy unit study, children get to build life-size anatomy models of themselves, play with anatomy dress-up dolls, complete anatomy puzzles, build organs from play-dough, colour, draw and play games! The anatomy bundle is full of creative activities for young scientists.

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