Elise is getting to the age where she can start to learn some of her body parts. I thought it would be fun to do a learning theme more geared toward Elise. Carter could help me teach Elise her body parts so she could start to point to a few. I thought it would be fun to include our inside body parts for Carter. With him we would learn about bones/our skeleton, organs, and muscles. It turned out to be perfect timing as we were talking about our skeleton close enough to Halloween that I was able to find lots of skeleton stuff at Dollar Tree to use during our learning theme. Carter was fascinated and loved learning about what is under our skin. He especially liked learning about what it is like for a baby inside it's mommy. One of our books had a picture of a baby inside it's mom and we ended up talking about it for a long time because Carter didn't want to turn the page and had lots of questions. I love that he's so engaged in learning themes and that he gets excited about what we are learning about and what we'll learn about next. One day in the car he told me he likes learning about inside body parts. Then he asked me what we were going to learn about next and got so excited hearing about our upcoming learning theme. Read about the first body parts learning theme I did with Carter when he was around 2 years old here.
Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks. I have revisedour objectives to really hone in and focus on specific skills Carter will need to master before kindergarten and are appropriate to his age and development right now. I plan to continue to implement activities to practice and reinforce our previous objectives while putting more emphasis on our new objectives. Some of them won't necessarily be targeted with specific activities during our weeks, but I wanted to list them to help me remember to practice them continually.I'm also adding in a section for Elise now that she is a year old. I don't considers
her bullet points objectives, they are experiences I want to make sure
to expose her to frequently. Her experiences are listed below Carter as bullet points rather than numbers.
The highlighted objectives below are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:
Begin to organize and focus on writing. (Dictate stories, plan out a story, draw pictures and scribbles to create a book).
Understand same and different.
Accurately tell stories as well as retell the story from a book.
Use
age appropriate scissors. (I'm moving on to looking for a thumb and
forefinger grasp with writing tools and holding scissors appropriately)
Develop a better understanding of time (for example, be able to describe when things happen using morning, afternoon, night)
Group objects based on a category (sort by defining feature).
Count with one-to-one correspondence, begin to identify numerals, being to use ordinal numbers (first, second, last).
Experiences Elise was exposed to during our theme this week are highlighted below:
Pretend play/Imitate the behaviors of others.
Begin
to identify and point at body parts.
Group based on simple characteristics. (This is something I will do while talking aloud and allowing her to feel objects)
Fill and empty containers.
Begin to hold writing tools and scribble spontaneously.
Identify sounds around her. (Point out sounds and ask her what is making the sound).
Activities/Movement:
I wrote body parts on a sentence strip and we used the same procedure as usual to discuss letters and their sounds as well as segmenting and blending words. I told Carter he was going to learn about inside body parts while Elise learned about the outside body parts. Then I showed him the words organs, bones, skeleton, and muscles. I told him those are the main things inside our bodies and explained each one a little bit, having him feel different parts of his body where he'd be able to feel a bone or a muscle and then had him put his hand on his chest to feel his heart beating. I could tell just from our short intro on the topic that he was going to love this learning theme. He was fascinated and kept asking questions. Then I said each word slowly so he could hear the beginning sound in the word and had him point to the sentence strip he thought showed the word written out.
Flexing his arm to feel his muscle.
Pointing out the word skeleton.
When we talked about our organs I told Carter they are the inside parts that do really important jobs for us. I had him put his hand on his head and told him our brains are in our skulls. Then I had him put his hand on his chest to feel his heart beat. I told him our heart pumps blood through our entire body. Then I had him put his hands on his chest and breathe deeply. I told him our lungs are how we breathe. Carter loved getting to feel those organs work from the outside. Then we read more about those organs as well as others in a book.
I pulled out our Mrs. Potato Head for Elise to play with. Carter got to it first and I was surprised by how much fun he had with it. As he put it together Elise was watching so I said the name of each body part as he added it to her body. When it was Elise's turn she did such a great job sticking the body parts on right where she'd seen Carter do it. I told her the name of each body part as she worked and pointed that body part out on myself and on her to show we also had those body parts.
I stopped at Dollar Tree with Elise one day while Carter was at school to pick up some skeleton items for our sensory bin. I was quite pleased with what I found. I used beans for the base of our bin and then added the Mrs. Potato Head, sentence strips, a skeleton hand, a small skeleton, and a heart maze. Carter loved playing with the skeleton and would point out the bones he remembered as he played. His favorite thing to play with was the Mrs. Potato Head. He liked putting her together and then taking off her hat and putting beans down into her body. He also found a hole in the skeleton hand and would put beans down in it, then turning it over and pouring them back out. He always finds creative ways to play with our sensory bin that I hadn't anticipated!
Something fun we did that Carter absolutely loved and kept playing later with Elise was tickling body parts. I would tickle Elise on a body part to see if she was ticklish there. Then I'd tickle Carter in the same place. We'd talk about it and decide whether they were the same or different about being ticklish in that spot. I'd tell Elise, "I'm tickling your neck," or whatever body part I was tickling. Then I'd say, "Let's check Carter. Is he ticklish on his neck?" She won't point to her body parts when you ask her to, but she is starting to pick up names because when I'd say, "I'm going to tickle your _____," she'd pull that body part away from me before I reached for it and start laughing.
Tickling Elise's feet.
Something I always do as I dress Elise is tell her what body part we are dressing. I continued that throughout our theme and made sure to also do it as I undressed her. I'd say things like, "I'm putting one leg in your pants. Now you have two legs in your pants."
Carter and I had a lot of fun playing in the mirror to watch our muscles move. We made different faces and then felt our faces to see how our muscles moved to help us show emotions. It was also good practice with Carter on emotions because I'd tell him to make a sad face or surprised face or whatever and he would. Then I'd make a face and ask him to guess my emotion. Carter loves playing in the mirror so he loved doing this activity.
Making surprised faces.
We talked about and named all the bones in the body at different points throughout our theme, but I focused mainly on bones I thought Carter would remember. We talked the most about skull, ribs, pelvis, and femur. Carter loved touching each area of his body to feel his bone underneath, especially his ribs. I got a large skeleton at Dollar Tree and wrote the names of those bones on sentence strips. I had Carter take the names of the bones and match them to the skeleton. At first he was doing great with pelvis and at some point during the week got confused and started calling it our testicles. So that was interesting yet hilarious!
He just placed the word pelvis and was getting ready to place femur where it belonged.
As we read books with different animals in them we talked about what body parts the animals had and how they are the same as us and how they are different. We also compared our bodies to Harper's (our dog) and discussed how our bodies are the same and how they are different. Then we read Bones by Steve Jenkins and got to compare animal bones to our bones. Carter pointed out that our bones and monkey bones are more alike than any of the other animal bones are to each other. I was fascinated by this book. I had no idea all animals have the same number of bones in their hands and arms. It was also very interesting that we have the same number of bones in our necks as giraffes, our bones are just bigger!
Carter's teachers sent an e-mail out to parents saying they are working on learning to recognize the letters in their names and will then start working on writing them. They asked that we start working on that at home as well. It's something we've already been working on here and there but now I am making sure to incorporate it into each of our learning themes in some way. I wrote his name on a sentence strip and then had him outline the letters by putting skeleton candy on them.
During our baths throughout this theme I'd give Elise soap and tell her which body part to scrub. She has head, tummy, and hands down. It's so cute to see her scrub the body part I asked her to scrub and then quickly switch over when I ask her to scrub the next one. When I'd tell her a body part she wasn't sure about, I'd take my hands and scrub there for her so she'd know which body part I was talking about. I also took a syringe bath toy we have and sprayed her body parts while saying out loud which body part I was spraying. I did the same with Carter, but named the bones that were under his skin where I was spraying.
Spraying Elise's tummy.
When Carter was little we got a large mat super cheap at a daycare moving sale. I pull it out randomly for us to do exercises on. During our learning theme I pulled it out for us to do different exercises and movements. As Carter was playing, I would ask him, what muscles are we using? We'd talk about where he felt his muscles working. Elise had a blast, trying to do somersaults like Carter. As I helped her do them I'd name the body part I was touching.
Doing a somersault.
I wanted to make Elise a book about her body. My plan was for Carter to take pictures of Elise's different body parts and then I'd print them off and make them into a book. I was shocked when I suggested it to Carter and he said no thanks to taking pictures of Elise. He normally loves taking pictures! I thought he just wasn't in the mood that day so I suggested it a different time and he still didn't want to so I took the pictures myself. I made them into a book titled Elise's Wonderful Body and put the pages into Ziploc bags which is always a hit with her. As I was making the book I had Carter count to see how many of different body parts we have so I could add that to the book. He loved helping me. She rolled around on the floor looking at the book and crinkling the pages. Carter even wanted me to read him the book and giggled at different pictures as we read.
Elise loved reading her book.
I planned to print an outline of a body for Elise to color but our printer was out of yellow ink so it wouldn't print (even just black and white). So instead I drew a body which turned out kind of crazy looking, but Elise didn't mind. I showed it to her and pointed out the body parts as I labeled them on the sheet. Then she colored the person.
Elise coloring the person I drew, not well, for her.
We played Simon Says to practice with body parts. I would tell the kids certain things to do with specific body parts. Elise watched us and copied what we did for a little while and then ran off. Carter decided he wanted to be in charge after a few rounds and I was cracking up over how he played. He tried to intimidate me into doing things when Simon hadn't told me to by telling me things without saying "Simon Says" first. Then when I didn't do them he'd say it again more forcefully and then would eventually yell at me so we had to stop the game and talk about how he wasn't playing nicely. I'm not sure why, but I secretly thought it was hilarious. But then I pictured him doing it to his friends and felt sad.
To get in some more practice with what letters are in his name, I made a name puzzle for Carter. I traced my hand and wrote a letter of his name on each finger as well as the space between my thumb and index finger. Then I cut them apart to make a puzzle. We talked about how many fingers we have on one hand and Carter counted his. Then we talked about how many letters are in his name and we counted them. I told Carter since he had more letters in his name than I have fingers, I needed to add another spot for a letter. He loved putting it together and Elise was watching so I made one for her too. Carter helped me count the number of letters in her name and he was excited when he realized her name would fit on just my fingers. Carter put his puzzle together and wanted to try Elise's when she was done, but she had decided to tear hers apart. As he worked I had him tell me what letter came next in his name and then he'd find it. I had to help him a little bit by saying his name slowly so he could hear the sounds.
Putting his hand puzzle together.
Elise watching Carter put his puzzle together.
For a little more practice talking about body parts with Elise I used teddy bear cookie cutters to make bears on a piece of paper. Then I showed her the body parts and labeled them before she colored them.
Teddy Bear pody parts.
Craft:
Something fun we used to do during science in school was outline our bodies on butcher paper. I thought it would be fun to outline Elise and Carter. Then we'd label Elise's body parts and she could color her body. Carter would add bones inside his body and then color it. Last time we visited Gma and Gpa's house they outlined their bodies with sidewalk chalk and Elise laid on her side for the activity. I was surprised when I laid the paper out and told Elise what we were going to do and she laid right down on her back. I expected her to lay wonky again. I told Elise the names of body parts as I added the names to label her body. Then I asked her to color specific body parts. That backfired a little because when I asked her to color her leg, she colored her actual leg. She did eventually color on the paper after I reminded her. When she got tired of that she started coloring all over. Carter drew a few bones on his and then asked me to draw the rest while he colored.
Ready to make her outline.
Carter adding bones to his body outline.
I had seen somewhere when I was looking at Halloween crafts last year an idea to make x-ray or skeleton hands with Q-Tips. I traced Elise's hand on black paper using a white crayon and urged Carter to do the same but he wanted to outline his hand with an orange marker so I let him. Then I cut up Q-Tips to use as the bones in their hands. I had the Bones book by Steve Jenkins turned to a page with a human hand for reference. We counted how many bones were in each finger as we worked so Carter could make an accurate hand. Then we counted the hand bones in the bottom and he added them. He was so proud of himself to count the bones and place them on his handprint. It was a little tricky since his hand was much smaller than the Q-Tips and they were harder to cut than I had imagined. Elise loved getting to use the glue. I showed her how to turn the bottle upside down and squeeze with both hands to get the glue to come out. Then as I was helping Carter he said, "Look, mommy, sissy's doing it with one hand!" I looked over and sure enough she was squeezing glue out with just one hand. It was coming out super slowly, but that was a good thing. When Elise had added a sufficient amount of glue I gave her Q-Tips to place on her handprint. She did a few and then decided she hated the way glue felt on her fingers and wasn't able to put them on without getting glue on her fingers so she was done. They both turned out really cute!
Working on their x-ray hands or skeleton hands side by side. I love that!
Elise loved squeezing the glue bottle to make the glue come out.
Their finished hands.
Special Snack:
I got skeleton candy for a special snack. Before we ate it I had Carter sort the bones into piles for what bone it was. Then I asked him to name the bones. He identified the skull, hand, foot, and ribs but wasn't sure about the other bone. It could have been many different ones. After he had them sorted I asked him which bone he thought we had the most of. Then we counted to see which one we actually had the most of. Then Carter thought it would be fun to put the bones together to make a skeleton. It looked pretty cool. Elise also got a bag of skeleton candy but she just ate hers.
The skeleton Carter made out of his bones.
Make Believe:
Carter loved playing with the large skeleton, making him talk and playing pretend with him. He did the same with the small skeleton in the sensory bin. Elise cracked me up because every time she got into the sensory bin she would put on the necklace made of fake bones and wear it around the house.
Songs:
We sang the obvious Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes all throughout the week. Carter would point to his body parts with me as I sang. Elise would just sit on the floor and watch us. A few times I sang with her in my lap. I'd point to her body parts as I sang.
We sang One Little Finger a few times during the week. Carter got so excited because he remembered it from when he was little. Elise danced along but didn't do any of the actions with us.
Carter enjoyed listening to and dancing along with Skeleton Dance. We sang and listened to it many times throughout the week.
We had fun singing and dancing to the Hokey Pokey. Elise again watched us and danced but didn't follow along with the actions. I held her and put her body parts in when we sang, but she didn't like that so we only did it once. Carter was awesome at the Hokey Pokey.
Technology:
I downloaded an app on my phone called Dem Dancing Bones. It was basically just the song with a skeleton dancing to the music. When you clicked on one of the bones shown across the side, it would light up on the skeleton. Carter liked it for one time through and was done playing it.
I found a neat game on the computer here where you slid the bones onto the skeleton where they went. I liked that when you clicked on the bone, it told you it's name. So if you didn't recognize the bones by looking at them, you could figure out where they went from knowing their names. I helped Carter know where a lot of the bones went but he recognized a few just by looking at them and was able to guess where a couple went without really knowing.
He was having a hard time getting the bones to slide because the game didn't seem to be made for a touch screen.
Field Trip/Interactive Experience:
We went on a couple different walks and talked about about bodies while we walked. We discussed which muscles we used to walk and to touch things or pick things up. I had Carter run ahead and when he stopped I had him pay attention to his breathing and we talked about how his lungs are what helps him breathe. I also had him put his hand on his chest so he could feel his heart and we talked about how it beats harder when you are exercising. Then I took Carter on a bike ride and we talked about how we use different muscles to ride a bike but we still rely on our heart and lungs.
Books:
All About Meby National Geographic Kids
Feet That Suck and Feedby Diane Swanson
Go Away, Big Green MonsterbyEd Emberley
The Foot BookbyDr. Seuss
Eyes, Nose, Fingers, and ToesbySesame Beginnings
Ten Little Fingers, Ten Little Toesby Mem Fox
My Nose, Your NosebyMelanie Walsh
Hands Canby Cheryl Hudson
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and ToesbyZita Newcome
Here Are My Handsby Bill Martin Jr. & John Archambault
Eyes, Nose, Fingers and Toesby Judy Hindley
Dem Bonesby Bob Barner
From Head to Toeby Eric Carle
From Head to Toe: The Amazing Human Body and How It Worksby Barbara Seuling
Why Do I Have Bones?by Joann Cleland
Hello Toes! Hello Feet! by Ann Whitford Paul
Ears, Eyes, Nose by Rookie Toddler
From Nose to Toes, You Are Yummyby Tim Harrington
BonesbySteve Jenkins
Inside Your Outside by Tish Rabe
The Busy Body Book by Lizzy Rockwell
Bend and Stretch byPamela Hill Nettleton
Skeleton Hiccupsby Margery Cuyler
You Can't See Your Bones With BinocularsbyHarriet Ziefert
The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole
I seriously wish you lived near us!! I want you for a teacher!!
ReplyDeleteLol! I love you!
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