Blood typing activity

You know what's really fun? Testing your blood to find out what type it is. I already knew my blood type, but I wanted to do this activity anyway because its so fun smearing your blood around on the little test circle and seeing it clot (or not)! I highly recommend it.

And since none of the kids knew their blood types, it was extra fun to find them out! I ordered these blood typing kits from Amazon (the five-pack) and we would have happily used a couple more. They are very simple to use; just make sure you read the instructions and have everything set out and ready before you start.

I told the kids the finger-prick wouldn't hurt. And it didn't. But some of them were a bit offended by it anyway. (Here is Daisy pretending to be offended.) It did help to soak the fingers in warm water first so the blood would flow. Although with Abe, our first subject, the blood flowed a little TOO well and got everywhere! So we soaked the later kids for a little less time. You really don't need much blood. You don't need to saturate the entire circle with blood like they do for an infant PKU test. You just need enough to react with the antigen.

And here are the finished samples! Kind of fun to have them all collected on little cards like that.