Preschool Science Activities - The Human Body

Your preschool science program must include a section about humans and the human body.

In my class our initial focus was on the concept that as humans "we are all the same but we are all different." We are all the same in a sense that all human beings have to eat, sleep, drink, move around and so on. We are all born, grow up and when we get old we die. Human beings can have babies. We all have bodies and our body parts. We are different because our body features are not the same. Our eyes, skin color, height and weight are different. We might not think the same way or like the same things. We are unique individuals.

Let's begin with some preschool science activities about our bodies:

Our Bodies - In and Out

Q: What are our body parts? Q: What role does each body part play? We have eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands, legs and so on. Inside our bodies we have internal organs, bones, muscles, blood. They each have a role in our body. What would happen if one was missing? For example: What would our bodies look without our bones?

• Arms - Help us keep balanced.

• Hands - Help us hold and touch things.

• Legs - Run, walk and move.

• Feet - Help us stand

Play a movement game to help explore balance, running, walking, standing and so on.

Create a life size drawing of the body and place the internal organs in their right spot. Heart - Pumps blood through our body Brain - Helps us think and talk Lungs - Breathe Stomach - Turns food to energy Muscles - Help us lift and move Bones - Hold us up

The Five Senses

We use certain parts of our bodies to learn about the world around us.

• Eyes - Vision - See the world.

• Ears - Hear - Listen to sounds.

• Nose - Smell - Smell things.

• Mouth - Taste - Sweet, salty, sour or bitter.

• Hands - Touch - How things feel.

Preschool Science Activities:

Place various objects in a dark bag. Ask your child to place their hand inside and to try to guess what they are feeling.

Smells Like...

Blind fold the children and let them smell different objects such as onion, perfume, chocolate. Can they guess the items behind the smells?

Tastes Like?

Blind fold the child and have a taste test. Try a variety of flavors and textures.

Ask one child in the class to close their eyes. Ask another child to approach the first child and say "who am I? Can you guess?" Can the child recognize his/her friends voices. For a little challenge have the children change their voice.

What's That Sound?

Play a tape of different sounds such as: bell, horn, toilet flushing, washing machine. Can they guess the sounds?

Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? by Eric Carle

Guidelines to taking care of our bodies and staying healthy:

• * Eat healthy food

• * Drink water

• * Sleep

• * Stay warm

• * Brush your teeth

• * Wash your hands and body

• * Exercise your body

• * Exercise your brain

• * Stay safe - wear a helmet, put your seatbelt on, wear sunscreen.

Preschool Science Healthy Activities:

1. Cut and glue and sort from flyers healthy and junk food. (Picture on the left).

2. Draw healthy food and Junk food in the right side of the page. (Picture on the right).

Put a drop of sparkle glue on the hands of each child. Tell the kids to rub their hands together. The sparkles represent the germs on their hands. Let the kids touch different objects in the classroom. Do you see how the sparkles remain on the objects? Have the children wash their hands with soap and warm water. Encourage them to remove all the sparkles from their hand. Focus on proper hand washing including back of the hands and in between the fingers.