Real X-Rays With Preschoolers Science Experiment

Making and looking at real x-rays with preschoolers is a fun science experiment and a great way to talk about the human body and engage young children in real-world science! It also ties into skeleton and body themes, which make fun Halloween science topics for kids too! 

I will be sharing Letter "X" preschool activities all week!  Be sure to join us!!

As part of our Letter "X" day, we looked at real x-rays with our preschoolers.  This is a fabulous way to jump into the science of the human body!  Here are a few discovery points for x-rays, skeletons, and preschoolers:

* Bones are inside our body!  Encourage your preschoolers to find hard bones on themselves.  (Elbows, arm bones, and leg bones were the first bones bones our kiddos pointed out.)

* Look at a picture in a book (or print one from the internet) showing a skeleton.  Most people have about 206 bones.  Each foot has 26 bones!  Can you find them in the picture?

* Bones re-grow constantly!  Ask your children if they have ever broken a bone?  It can take about two months for a bone to re-grow.

* X-rays machines work like cameras.  They send x-rays (instead of light) into your body.  The x-rays can pass right through tissue like skin, but most x-rays bounce off of hard things like bones.  In the picture above, you can see the bones and the foot around them.  The soft parts of the foot look like a cloud.

Looking at x-ray films requires light to shine onto the film.  You can hold the x-ray film up to the window, use a pre-made light box, or make your own simple light box.  (If you want to buy one, I have affiliate links at the bottom of this post.)

I prefer to use a simple home-made light box.  I have a string of white Christmas lights that I keep handy for when I need one.  Just place your string of lights inside a large transparent bucket (I use a big Sterilite container), snap the lid back on, and plug them in!  Ta da!  Instant light box!  Turn off surrounding lights for the best effect!

To use it with your x-rays, simply place the x-ray on top of the lightbox.

We had an x-ray of my daughter's foot because she broke some toes last summer.  If you don't have any x-rays, you can use pictures, buy an x-ray set (see affiliate link below), or make your own x-ray images like The Measured Mom.

You can also find and print real x-rays of other bones by doing an image search in Google! See how different parts of the skeleton are similar and different! Or even compare skeletons from different animals!

I will be posting more Letter "X" science experiments and activities during the next week...be sure to check back and get in on all the fun science projects!!

Are you looking for more Halloween Science Experiments? Check out our collection!! We love combining Halloween and science, and these are our favorites experiments and activities!

Happy Educating, Carla

I may share at any of these parties!