Learn Body Parts for Preschool

Children can learn body parts for preschool using various songs, games and other activities. These basic anatomy lessons teach the student how to recognize parts of the body such as the eyes, nose, hands and feet as well as understand their use. Students that excel in preschool anatomy can go on to build an extensive vocabulary and understanding of advanced biology to pursue careers related to medical science or in art forms that involve using or portraying the body through dance or other media.

Steps

Anatomy in Preschool

  1. Familiarize yourself with what students are expected to learn about body parts during preschool. As a brief outline, preschool students should know the name and function of the following parts of the human body.
    • Head (including hair, eyes, ears, nose, lips and teeth)
    • Neck
    • Shoulders
    • Arms (including elbow and wrist)
    • Hands (including fingers and thumb)
    • Chest
    • Stomach (preferably also know other names such as belly and tummy)
    • Legs (including thighs)
    • Ankles
    • Feet (including toes)

Ways to Learn Body Parts For Preschool

  1. Show the student where each body part is located by pointing it out and saying its name. Ask the student to point and repeat the name.
  2. Say the name of a body part out loud and ask the student to move it. The movement creates a link between the child's mind and body because the name is processed from thought into action, which increases the chances of retaining the name in the child's memory.
  3. Ask students to match images of different body parts to their names. This will help the child learn how the name of each body part is spelled.
  4. Play the "Simon Says" game. In this game, you ask the students to perform different tasks involving parts of their body. For example, you could ask them to touch their nose or lift their leg. Explain the game to the students and make sure you say, "Simon says" when you want them to do something otherwise they will not do it (this is the main rule of the game).
  5. Sing songs that help students learn about anatomy. 1 of the most popularly used songs is James Weldon Johnson's "Dem Bones" (also known as "Dry Bones" and "Dem Dry Bones"), which describes how different parts of the body are connected to each other. Here are some more songs you may want to sing with the children.
    • The Bone Dance" by Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus.
    • The Bone Bounce" by Lucy Jensen.
    • The Parts of You and Me" by The Little Blue Globe Band (Toddler World TV)
    • The Bone Song" by Animaniacs (this song describes the importance of each body part in relation to the rest of the body).
  6. Put some music on that the students enjoy and ask them to dance by moving specific parts of their body. Dancing is a fun way for children to learn preschool anatomy.
  7. Tickle the students on different parts of their body and ask them if it tickles. Then ask the students to name which parts of their body are ticklish - preferable places are the sides, belly, armpits, collar and knees.

Tips

  • It is usually more effective to teach basic anatomy by making the children think of the anatomy lessons as games. This increases the student's level of interest and involvement in the lesson.

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Sources and Citations