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The Huff-Puff Club
A 3D tour of the lungs that follows one puff of air, from the nose down to the tiniest air sacs and back out, for children about five to eight. Free, with no ads and no sign-ups.
What your child will learn
- You have two lungs, one on each side of your heart. The left one is a little smaller, to make room for it.
- Air comes in through your nose, where little hairs and sticky mucus catch dust and germs.
- It goes down the trachea (the windpipe), which splits into two bronchi, which branch into little bronchioles, like an upside-down tree.
- At the very ends are millions of tiny air sacs, the alveoli, wrapped in capillaries. Oxygen goes into the blood there, and carbon dioxide comes out.
- The diaphragm, a dome of muscle under the lungs, pulls down to breathe in and goes back up to breathe out.
- A little flap shuts when you swallow, so food goes the right way, and breathing out is how you talk and sing.
How it works
Story. A whipbird tells it in seven short chapters. The camera follows one puff of air (it wears an orange ring) in through the nose, down the trachea and bronchi to one bunch of alveoli, where it meets the Lub-Dub Club's blood cell, and then back out again. Every word is spoken and shown.
Explore. Turn the chest round, open the lungs to see the branching tubes, pick a breathing speed (a sleepy koala, a walking whipbird or a running emu), follow a puff of air, or tap any part to hear what it does. What's this? shows the parts one at a time.
Quiz. Six picture questions, read aloud, so it works before your child can read. A wrong answer greys out and they have another go; nothing is ever lost. Finishing brings a new animal for their My mob book, and a card of the words they now know.
The real words it teaches
The tour uses the real names for the parts, and says what each one means the first time. These are on the card at the end, and a tap on each says what it means.
- Trachea: your windpipe, from your throat down to your lungs.
- Bronchi: the two tubes the trachea splits into, one for each lung.
- Bronchioles: the little branches of the bronchi.
- Alveoli: the tiny air sacs at the ends, like bunches of grapes.
- Diaphragm: the dome of muscle under your lungs that makes you breathe.
- Oxygen: the part of the air your body needs.
- Carbon dioxide: the used-up gas you breathe out.
What it practises
- My body. How the body works, and the real names of its parts: the heart's atria and ventricles, arteries and veins (the Lub-Dub Club).
AC9S1U01 (Science, Year 1); AC9HPFM03 (Health and Physical Education, Foundation)
The codes are from the Australian Curriculum v9 (Foundation to Year 1). Each links to the official wording. Air is one of the basic needs children learn about in Year 1; the tour shows where the air goes.
Things to try together
- Put a hand on your tummy and breathe in slowly. Feel it push out? That's the diaphragm pulling down.
- Breathe on a cold window or a mirror and watch the little cloud: your breath has water in it.
- Count your breaths for a minute sitting still, then again after twenty star jumps.
- Hold a hand in front of your mouth and say "huff, puff". You can feel the air you talk with.
- The sheet to print has the lungs to label, a breath counter and a box for the window cloud.
What's simplified, and why
- The air is shown as one ringed bubble. Real air mixes, and each breath reaches many alveoli at once.
- The airway tree is drawn with a few hundred branches; a real one has many thousands.
- The alveoli are drawn hugely enlarged, and only one bunch is shown up close.
- Blue and red blood follow the heart tour's colours: blue means needs oxygen.
- "Like a bendy straw" is a picture for the trachea's rings, not a description of them.
- The rib muscles help with breathing too; the tour only names the diaphragm.
Where the facts come from
Every fact the tour states was checked against the page linked beside it.
- You have two lungs, and the left one is smaller because it shares space with the heart.
In the tour: The left one is a little smaller, to make room for your heart.
healthdirect — Respiratory system - Mucus and tiny hairs trap dust and germs to keep the lungs clean.
In the tour: Little hairs and sticky mucus catch dust and germs.
healthdirect — Respiratory system - The epiglottis, a small flap, closes when you swallow so food doesn't go into the trachea.
In the tour: A little flap shuts every time you swallow, so food goes down the other pipe.
healthdirect — Respiratory system - The larynx (voice box) produces sound for speaking.
In the tour: Past your voice box. That's where your voice comes from.
healthdirect — Respiratory system - The trachea has stiff rings of cartilage that keep it open.
In the tour: Stiff rings keep it open.
KidsHealth — Lungs and respiratory system - The trachea splits into two bronchi, which branch into smaller bronchioles.
In the tour: The trachea splits into two tubes called bronchi… into little bronchioles.
healthdirect — Respiratory system - There are millions of alveoli (KidsHealth says hundreds of millions).
In the tour: You have millions and millions of them!
Lung Foundation Australia — How your lungs work - Oxygen moves from the alveoli into the blood through the capillaries, and carbon dioxide moves from the blood into the alveoli.
In the tour: Our oxygen hops across into the blood… the cell hands over carbon dioxide.
healthdirect — Respiratory system - The diaphragm contracts and flattens to breathe in, and moves up to breathe out.
In the tour: When it pulls down, your lungs get bigger… when it relaxes, it goes back up.
healthdirect — Respiratory system; KidsHealth - Breath carries water: people breathe out up to 17.5 ml of water an hour.
In the tour: Your breath has water in it too.
Lung Foundation Australia — How your lungs work - When you exercise, your muscles need more oxygen, so you breathe faster and deeper and your heart beats faster.
In the tour: When you run, you breathe faster to bring in more oxygen, and your heart beats faster too.
Frontiers for Young Minds — Ready, Set, Go! How the Heart and Lungs Respond to Exercise - We take thousands of breaths a day.
In the tour: You breathe thousands of times every day.
KidsHealth — Lungs and respiratory system
Every word it says
The whole script, for reading along, or for a child who'd rather read than listen.
1. Take a big breath
- Hello! I'm Whipbird. Listen to my call!
- That whip-crack takes a big breath!
- Take a big breath in with me… and out.
- Where did all that air go? Into your lungs! You have two, one on each side of your heart.
- The left one is a little smaller, to make room for your heart.
- Let's follow one puff of fresh air. See the bubble with the ring? That's our friend.
2. In through your nose
- In it goes, through your nose.
- Little hairs and sticky mucus catch dust and germs. Yes, that's snot, and it's a good thing!
- Down the back of your throat, a little flap shuts every time you swallow, so food goes down the other pipe.
- Past your voice box. That's where your voice comes from.
3. The upside-down tree
- Now it's in your trachea, your windpipe.
- Stiff rings keep it open, like the rings on a bendy straw.
- Look! The trachea splits into two tubes called bronchi, one for each lung.
- They branch, and branch again, into little bronchioles, like an upside-down tree.
- Our puff goes down this branch!
4. The tiny balloons
- Let's look really closely! At the end of every twig are tiny air sacs called alveoli, in bunches like grapes.
- You have millions and millions of them!
- Each one is wrapped in capillaries, tiny tubes full of blood.
5. The big swap
- Here comes a blood cell. Do you remember it? It's our friend from the Lub-Dub Club!
- Our oxygen hops across into the blood, and the cell turns bright red. Ta-da!
- And the cell hands over carbon dioxide, the used-up gas. Now our puff carries that out.
- Off goes the blood, back to your heart. Bye!
6. The diaphragm
- What makes the air go in and out? Your diaphragm, a dome of muscle under your lungs.
- When it pulls down, your lungs get bigger, and air rushes in.
- When it relaxes, it goes back up, and air goes out.
- Put a hand on your tummy and breathe in. Can you feel it push out? That's your diaphragm working.
7. Huff-puff!
- Now the used-up air goes back out: up the bronchi, up the trachea…
- …and out! Breathe on a cold window and you'll see a little cloud, because your breath has water in it too.
- When you run, you breathe faster to bring in more oxygen, and your heart beats faster too.
- Breathing out is how you talk and sing. Try it with me: huff, puff!
- You breathe thousands of times every day, without even thinking about it.
- Thanks for breathing with me. Welcome to the Huff-Puff Club!
The quiz
Quiz time! Let's see what you remember. The right answers are in bold.
- Where does air come into your body? (Your nose and mouth / Your ears / Your toes)
- What catches dust before it gets to your lungs? (Your teeth / Sticky mucus / Your hair)
- What's another name for your trachea? (Your backbone / Your tummy / Your windpipe)
- Where does oxygen hop into your blood? (In the alveoli / In your nose)
- What pulls down to make you breathe in? (Your heart / Your diaphragm)
- What gas do you breathe out? (Carbon dioxide / Blood / Food)
For every child
- Every word is spoken and written, so it works with the sound on or off.
- It works with a keyboard: the arrow keys turn the chest in Explore, and What's this? steps through the parts.
- If your device asks for less motion, the camera cuts instead of flying, the breathing is gentler and the confetti stays still.
What it needs, and what we collect
A recent browser on a phone, tablet or computer. The first visit downloads about 6 MB, and after that it keeps working with no signal. Nothing about your child is collected: the My mob card and the sound setting are kept on your own device. The privacy page has the whole story.
More in the series: What Makes Me, starting with the Lub-Dub Club.