Ask your student to show you where the diaphragm is in their body and how it works.
We built models of our respiratory system with soda bottles, balloons, plastic wrap and tape. It's a project that is easily replicated at home.
You can find an example similar to the one we built at:
http://www.adprima.com/respdiagram.htm
The lesson also provides me with the opportunity to share the very personal story of my father-in-law, who we lost to lung cancer in October of 2008. The understanding of the respiratory that the students develop in 5th grade allows them to understand the conditions of emphysema and alveolitis that dad developed. He had a lung transplant but eventually succumbed to cancer two years later.
We discussed how important it is to no take up smoking despite peer pressure that one might have during middle and/or high school. We also remembered that smoking doesn't make someone a bad person but instead that smoking is a very difficult habit to give up and one that shouldn't be started by young people who are informed.
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