Your body moves when muscles pull on the bones through ligaments and tendons. Ligaments attach the bones to other bones, and the tendons attach the bones to the muscles.
If you place your relaxed arm on a table, palm-side up, you can get the fingers to move by pushing on the tendons below your wrist. We’re going to make a real working model of your hand, complete with the tendons that move the fingers! Are you ready?
Here’s what you need:
- five flexible straws
- scrap of cardboard (at least as big as your hand)
- five rubber bands
- 5 feet of string or thin rope (and a lighter with adult help if you’re using nylon rope)
- hot glue with glue sticks
- scissors
- razor
Exercises
- What types of muscles are connected to our bones?
- Which type of connective tissue connects our muscles to our bones?
- What do extensor tendons in our wrist do?
- What do flexor tendons do?