Curious kids start catching on early to the fact that our bodies do some pretty incredible things. Take the mystery out of the topic by helping them label all their body parts and explaining what they do.
EXPLORE
At the start of the week, explain to your kids how moving our body is one of the main things that keeps it healthy. Each day try and do at least one activity that encourages them to move their bodies in new ways.
Try:
- Set up an obstacle course inside or in the backyard
- Take part in an online class. Since social distancing has been introduced there’s been an influx of services offering online yoga, Zumba, and fitness classes for kids.
- Do a yoga or dance video or playing other active indoor games inside if the weather’s not ideal
- Jump on the trampoline, ride bikes and scooters, play tips, “What’s the time Mr Wolf” or any other number of outdoor active games
MAKE
- Demonstrate how lungs work through this basic paper bag lungs activity
Cotton bud Skeleton from Clever Patch
- This felt anatomy activity helps kids learn about the parts of their body they can’t see (and can be traced around a doll or done on cardboard if you’re short on felt)
- Use cotton buds to make a cotton-tip human skeleton
- For an edible activity that will get kids thinking more about their bodies try this All About Me snack
PLAY
- Play game of Operation or Twister
- Set up a pretend doctor’s office and use a good old-fashioned game of Doctors to talk to children about how different body parts can feel when something is wrong.
- With little kids, a simple game of Simon Says will help them get better at identifying lesser-mentioned body parts likewrists, eyebrows, jaw etc
READ
The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole
Toes, Ears, & Nose! by Marion Dane Bauer
First Human Body Encyclopedia by DK
Your Amazing Digestion from Mouth through Intestine by Joanne Settel
My body! What I say goes! by Jayneen Sanders
LISTEN
Spotify:
Podcasts:
- Professor Hallux: The Human Body Podcast for Kids is an entire podcast dedicated to helping kids learn about their amazing bodies.
Other great podcast episodes for this theme include:
- Curious about the heart (Curious Kids Podcast)
- The Human Body (That’s Incredible)
- Body Bonanza (Brains On)
WATCH
Youtube has a collection of fabulous educational videos on how the human body works including:
- Human Body for Kids – Kids Learning Tube (Youtube)
- Bones- The Dr Binocs Show (Youtube)
- Digestion biology for kids – Operation Ouch (Youtube)
Other great shows include:
- Charlie’s Colorform City Season 1, ep 13 “Sick Charlie” (Netflix)
- Storybots Season 3 “How do eyes see?” (Netflix)
- Storybots Season 3 “Why do people look different?” (Netflix)
- The Magic School Bus Season 2, ep 2 “The Magic School Bus flexes its muscles”
- The Magic School Bus Season 1, ep 3 “The Magic School Bus Inside Raplhine”
Thanks for following along this week. We ‘d love to see which activities you enjoyed so please tag @mumsoftheshire on Instagram and use #BusyKids so we can share them with our community.
Still looking for something to do? Here you’ll find our back catalogue of Busy Kids articles or try checking out some other things to do.
