02 MeDullas and ManDibles

M.D. = MeDullas and Mandibles When Judy walked into Class 3T (seven minutes late!) on the un-mumpsy day of Monday, Class 3T was dry as a bone. Or bones! There were bones everywhere. Mr. Todd had made a new bulletin board: Our Amazing Body: From Head to Toe. It had a tall poster of bones with long scientific names. On the front board he taped a chart that showed rodent bones. It looked like the insides of Peanut, the dwarf guinea pig in Class 3T. And . . . sitting behind Mr. Todd's desk in Mr. Todd's chair, using Mr. Todd's pencil, was a glow-inthe- dark skeleton! Class 3T had turned into a bone museum!

Bones were not drippy. Bones were not noisy. Bones were not boring. Bones were dry and quiet and very, very interesting! Things were sure looking up for a no-mumps Monday. Judy handed Mr. Todd her late slip. "Sorry I'm late," she said. "I almost had the mumps." "Well, I'm glad you're healthy, and here now. We're starting a new unit on the Human Body from head to toe." "We're going to get to jump rope," said Jessica Finch. "And measure our heart rates." "And play Twister," said Rocky. "To learn about muscles." "And sing a song about bones," said Alison S. "I can't believe you started the human body without me!" said Judy. "A person can miss a lot

in seven minutes." "Don't worry. I think you'll catch up," said Mr. Todd. Mr. Todd taught them a funny song that went, "Da foot bone's connected to da ankle bone. . . ." He read them a book called Frozen Man, the incredible, real-life story of a fivethousand- year-old mummy.

And Class 3T got to turn out the lights and use the glow-in-the-dark skeleton named Bonita to count how many bones were in a human. Two hundred and six! "We'll be learning a lot of new words in this unit. The scientific names for bones and body parts come from Latin. So they may sound a little funny." "Like maxilla is your jaw?" asked Judy, looking at the bulletin board. "And so is mandible," said Jessica. Jessica Finch had already learned to spell microbes (a fancy word for germs, as in cooties!) and medulla (a fancy word for brain stuff). "Can you spell headache?" Judy asked. Frank Pearl cracked up at that one. Then Mr. Todd passed out owl pellets. They

got to poke them with a pencil to find bones. Rodent bones. Judy and Frank stared at their fuzzy gray lump. "Double bluck! Just think. This is owl spit-up!" said Frank. "It's still interesting," said Judy. "Real bones are in there. Skulls and stuff." "You poke it," said Frank. So Judy poked it

with her Grouchy pencil. They found a jawbone, a rib, and a bone Mr. Todd called a femur. They glued each bone onto paper and drew in all the missing bones to make a rodent skeleton that matched the one on the board. "Do any rodent bones have the same names as human bones?" asked Mr. Todd. Judy raised her hand. "Tibia," called out Jessica Finch. "Very good," said Mr. Todd. "That's what I was going to say," said Judy. Jessica Finch was a rat fink (like Stink!) for not raising her hand. A rodent fink. "Now let's talk about your Human Body projects," said Mr. Todd. "Projects will be due in two weeks. You can do your project on bones, muscles, joints, the brain —"