Bodies and Families

2 weeks ago we studied the Human body and Families.

On Monday, we looked at our handy dandy encyclopedia, and learned that each part of our body serves a purpose. We talked about the big ones- Skin protects our body, muscles help our body move, bones keep our body upright, our senses help us learn about our world.

Then we painted self portraits. First I drew a large girl, and they painted it in. Here’s Sophia’s:

For Family Home Evening that night, we talked about germs. To teach about germs spreading, we put glitter glue on our hands, then walked around and touched door handles, our noses, walls, computer, etc. Then we washed them all off and looked for it around the house.

On Tuesday we played Daley family Guess who. You start out with a Bingo board with your extended family on it. Like these below:

Then pick a person, they pick a person, and you ask questions to figure out who it is. Use paper or markers (clear rocks in our case) to cover up the eliminated people.

And we measured our bodies to compare sizes and talk about growing.

 

The girls picked which parts to measure ( the best was our smile and our belly button).

On Wednesday we did 5 senses:

For sight we used our eyes to look at a the Dora eye chart, as printed off of nickjr.com. And we looked at pictures of close up photographs and guessed what they were (From the back of our Aldi cereal box)

For hearing I made noises from behind the couch and they had to guess. I did a noisy toy, a xylophone, shoes, zipper, bell, etc.

For taste, the girls closed their eyes and guessed the food I placed in their mouth. I put a huge variety of food on a tray so they could see and not be scared, then fed them randomly.

For touch, the girls closed their eyes and guessed what I put in their hand. A lot of teachers put objects in boxes or under a blanket and let the kids feel without seeing.

For smell,the girls sniffed spices and told me what they smelled like. It was funny to see what they associated them with. Cinnamon they knew, but oregano was “spaghetti sauce.”

 

Last but not least, during this week we went on a few walks and went to the park. Sophia conquered the monkey bars- all the way across by herself, and Natalie did the rock climbing wall by herself. They were so excited to go home and tell John. I need to remember to bring my camera next time we go to the park and document their newfound abilities.

Some other Body and Family ideas:

• Do fingerpainting with shaving cream or different materials
• Add cutouts of major organs (brain, stomach, heart) to self portraits
• Trace body on sidewalk
• Do fingerprints, footprints or handprints on paper, make into animals
• Paint with koolaid- draw the fruit the color smells like, then say “The grapes taste like grapes! The snozeberries taste like snozeberries!”  (current favorite movie around here)
• Make a family tree on a wall, add family pictures
• Show pictures of your grandparents, tell family stories.