Healthy Bodies

Dramatic Play

Doctor's Office. The kids had been begging for this center all year, so we finally got it back out!

 
 
 

 


Blocks

Small wood blocks


My Job Leap Frog puzzle (you can see on the shelf above)

Magnatiles. Again, another request. When these are out, they don't play anything else. So they were out two days due to popular demand.


Art

Playdough and face mats


Body shape stamps and paint


Making bread for snack. Than glue and magazine face parts to make faces. The things they made cracked me up!

Scrub brush painting. They were pretty unsure of this one, wondering why I let them paint with scrub brushes. I had to reassure them that it was ok.

















Small Manipulatives

Vegetable dot pages and flat marbles


5 Little Monkeys books and tape. They were so confused when I had to rewind it. It was pretty funny! And they enjoyed the story.

Doc McStuffins Memory game


Food lacing cards


Bunch 'ems. I recently found them on clearance at Target, and love finding more open-ended building toys. They're like a velcro ball. The kids liked the texture and playing with them, but just built a few simple things, then were easily frustrated it wasn't a big statue or something. They were asking me to build things for them, but I kept encouraging them to figure it out. Hopefully they'll get it after a few more times.















Emotion faces on the magnet board. They could change the eyes and mouths for more expressions.


Fruit and vegetable matching game in the pocket charts.


Writing

Stamp markers

People color crayons


Snack

Each day we tried new food groups and talked about how they help our bodies (giving vitamins and minerals, giving us energy, helping us grow, etc.)

Day 1, fruits. We had bananas, strawberries, blackberries, and grapes.

Day 2, vegetables. We ate cucumber, tomatoes, bell peppers, and carrots.

Day 3, we had grains and ate the wheat bread we made. Well, the bread I made the day before, then at the end of the day, they took home a slice of bread they made.

Day 4, we ate dairy and protein by having yogurt and trying different nuts.

Outside

Sensory Table:  dried macaroni with toy fruit and scoops. Kinda random, but just wanted something new. They had a lot of fun with it.


Large Group

Day 1, we learned how to take care of our teeth. We read Going to the Dentist. I used the big model teeth and toothbrush and we learned to brush all sides of our teeth. Then the kids stood up, shoulder to should, like teeth, and I "brushed" them with the giant toothbrush, front, back, and on top of their heads. It was hard with all the giggling and shaking they were doing! Then I flossed them with a jump rope. After that, they got to use dry erase markers to color germs all over the laminated teeth. Then they brushed it off with toothbrushes. Some of it didn't come off well, so I improvised and squirted on a little hand sanitizer for toothpaste, and it came right off! It ended up a great object lesson.


Day 2, we learned about germs. One of our class moms who is a nurse, which by the way, I could have invited more than half the moms in our class, came and talked to us. She showed us how to wash our hands properly. Then she talked about what it's like to visit the doctors. The kids each got to listen to their hearts with a real stethoscope.

Day 3, we had run out of time last time, so we did more talking about germs. I used fingerpaint at the germs and "coughed" it into my hand, then I high fived kids, and shared pencils with them until we all had fingerpaint on our hands, to show how germs travel. Then we all washed our hands to show how to get rid of the germs, instead of passing them.

Day 4, we wrapped up talking about all the foods we'd been eating. We talked about the different food groups from our lacing cards. I spread them out on the floor, then they each got a food ad. They could cut out as many food items as they wanted, then they put them in the group they belonged to. It was great cutting practice, which they all need! Miss Kim and I were repositioning hands a lot, making sure they keep their thumbs on top, and cut away from themselves.

As we talked about food here and at snack, I never referred to it as healthy vs not healthy, or bad vs good food. It was all just food. I talked to them about the importance of eating a variety of food groups and colors of food, not just the same thing all the time since we need all the unique things each food offers. And we talked about things like sweets being a "sometimes" food, since it doesn't give us the nutrients we need and it may have ingredients not good for us. So we just eat them sometimes. But we need the other food groups each day. I was very impressed by their willingness to try new things at snack, even if they didn't like it. I just ask that they taste it.

Small Group

We read about Bones and found the different bones on my toy skeletons. They cut out a picture of a body with the outside, and the bones on the inside too. It was mostly for the straight line cutting practice.

The other group made foods out of play dough with food molds I have, and fed them to Cookie Monster, so he could have a variety of food besides cookies!

The next week, they wrote in their journals about their favorite foods, and did a counting game with Miss Kim.

Feelings and Emotions

Dramatic Play
Doctor's Office



 
 
 

 
 The pictures pretty much explain it all. There was a waiting room, receptionist desk with calendar and notebooks, plus a phone, then the dr. office. There was a big chair for the big patients, and a baby bed for the dolls. We have all sorts of dr. tools, plus empty pill bottles, ace bandages, q tips, and popsicle sticks. Each day, I added something new to make it interesting. Day 2, I added glasses and band aids (those were a hit), and the 3rd and 4th days, I added dentist items so it could also be a dentist's office.

Blocks
Cardboard bricks


Puppet Theater


Art
I managed to not take many pics of art this week, but here's what we did:
 
Play dough face mats

Watercolors

Collage faces

Paint

Small Manipulatives
Feelings puzzles and game

Lacing cards

Bristle Blocks

Links, and whatever this collection of things from Wendy's are called.



















Writing
Blank faces for drawing in emotions


Outside
Snow! We switched our schedule to go outside last, to accommodate how long it takes us to get ready to go outside. The snow was so much fun! They love tubing down our little hill, and all tried it. They also love eating the snow. The second week, I also added bottles of colored water to color the snow. We've had a lot of fun outside this week! Please remember we go outside all winter, so pack all the winter clothes they'll need out there. We've had lots of cold hands this week. I have a few extra gloves, but not enough for everyone. And I've appreciated the labeled ones, since a few have been left at school and I've been able to get them home to you.

Large Group
Day 1, we read Meet the Moodsters. The Moodsters help a little boy overcome and talk about some strong feelings. I found it on clearance at Target a few years ago, and the kids love it because it came with a "Moodster Meter" that helps them share their feelings. They loved the book and the meter!
We did an activity with feelings cubes, where I would roll one cube with emotions on it, and another with animals, and they have to act out that emotion and animal. It's fun to watch.

Day 2, we read My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. He uses colors to talk about feelings. We than painted our own feelings. The papers came home just a bunch of mixed colors, but the process was wonderful! As they chose colors, they actually talked about what feeling they were showing with that color. We had a lot of great conversation going on as we painted.

Day 3, we read The Way I Feel. We played the feelings cube game, and acted out lots of different emotions from the book. We also watched a Sesame Street clip about jealousy.

Day 4, we read Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day and talked lots about grumpy feelings. After small group, we got together as a large group again to talk about empathy and thinking about how other people are feeling. We've had a few problems outside, with kids not taking turns with the snow tubes, or just jumping on them in front of other, instead of waiting in line. We watched a Sesame Street clip about empathy, then as we got them dressed in their snow clothes, they watched part of a Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood episode about the same topic. It was nice to discuss a relevant topic, and we related that once outside, that they needed to think about how other people are feeling before they used a tube twice in a row, or butted in line, or took it from another person. The talk definitely helped!

Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood are awesome resources for learning about feelings! I love how they describe and show them on a child's level. I especially like the songs Daniel Tiger sings. We used the song about anger all week, "When you feel so mad, that you want to roar. Take a deep breath, and count to 4." I recommend looking up episodes of both of these shows if there's a particular thing you want to teach your child, or help them with. It's most helpful when you also take the time to discuss it with them.

Small Group
Week 1, I talked to the kids about anger and sadness. We read a book about anger, then role played several situations that could make them feel angry. We practiced taking a deep breath and counting, then talking calmly to express our feelings. They were GREAT at role playing, and without much prompting, knew exactly how to express their feelings. Although, minutes later, they were fighting over blocks again and yelling, hitting, and throwing, instead of taking deep breaths and talking about it. But, that's why we're still in preschool. We'll keep working on this throughout the year.

Miss Kim did this Sesame Street worksheet to help kids talk about their feelings.

Week 2, my group and I role played different feelings with puppets in the puppet theater. I had it out in the block center this week for them to play with, so it wouldn't be new. I know they wouldn't be able to use it how I intended in a lesson, if they hadn't had a chance to play and explore with it first.
They were a lot of fun, and I loved role playing with them. Even the kids who don't like to talk in front of the class, were fine doing the puppet show. It was cute watching them choose an emotion and then act it out. It was also fun watching them doing it again during free time, after having done it with me.

Miss Kim helped the kids make pipe cleaner faces. She read an emotions book with them, and they would change their pipe cleaner to make that face expression. Then they glued on the mouth to bring their face home.

Healthy Bodies

Following up our Safety unit with Healthy Bodies was a great transition.  We went from keeping ourselves safe, to keeping our bodies healthy. With only 3 days in this unit, though, I feel we barely scratched the surface!

Dramatic Play
We played in a doctor's office, complete with tools like real (and pretend) stethoscopes, bandages, medicine bottles, medicine dispensers used as shots, and other tools to check ears, eyes, and reflexes.


For some reason, that's my only picture, but you can check out last year's here for an idea.

My favorite part was, like last year, they'd sit and patiently wait in the "waiting room" for their turn. Our doctors were great at diagnosing too (and I recently learned they know the word diagnosis thanks to Doc McStuffins; I hadn't heard of her last year). We wrote our diagnosis in our notebooks for writing practice, and got a lot of good reading done about the human body too.
On Day 3, we changed a little to add dentist items, and the kids played a mixture of both doctor and dentist.

Art
We decorated faces. Some added the hair and eyes in correct spots, but most just explored with the items and made great collages.
 
We also painted with people-shaped sponge stamps. They asked for eyes, so I got the googly eyes back out and they ended up covering their paintings.
 
I loved this project because I watched 2 kids over there (who usually don't do art) playing together for 30 minutes. It's what preschool art is about....the process, not the product. They started with people and added 2 eyes (they were the ones who requested it). I was in the reading center reading to a few kids and watched these 2 transform their pictures into all different creations with the paint, stamps, and eyes. They were laughing and talking as they described the silly things they were making. Another reason I love open-ended art. I provide the supplies, and they put their imaginations and language to work.

Blocks
We built and played with Mega Blocks and cars, just because they're a favorite.

Small Manipulatives
We did a community helpers and a Doc McStuffins puzzle.
We played with the community helpers sorting we game we had done in small group last week.
Played DocMcStuffins memory.

Large Group
Day 1 we read The Amazing Human Body and talked about it. Seriously, that took the whole 15 minutes. It wasn't meant to, but we had great questions and discussion. We talked about our hearts and lungs and exercising. We found and flexed our muscles. We found our bones and skulls and blood vessels. What a fun day of discovery and vocabulary!

Day 2 we learned about germs and how they travel and enter our body. We watched a short clip from Sid the Science Kid that helped them visualize how a germ can travel from one person or thing to another, and then how washing it down the sink got rid of it. One kid sat there with his hands in front of him, totally disgusted, then got up to wash his hands once we were done. All the kids requested some sanitizer too. We then learned our new songs.
tune "Happy and You Know It"
When you go to the bathroom, wash your hands,
When you go to the bathroom, wash your hands,
When you go to the bathroom, then you need to wash your hands,
When you go to the bathroom, wash your hands.

When you need to sneeze or cough, wash your hands,
When you need to sneeze or cough, wash your hands,
When you need to sneeze or cough, then you need to wash your hands,
When you need to sneeze or cough, wash your hands!

We also sang another verse about sneezing or coughing into your elbows to not get the germs on our hands.

Day 3 we learned about keeping our teeth clean. We read a book called Going to the Dentist. We then practiced brushing teeth with our giant teeth and toothbrush. Each kid got a turn to brush, following the directions on our poster. Then I lined them up shoulder to shoulder to be the teeth, and I used a giant piece of floss to floss between them and get all the plaque out.
 
 
We has started an experiment on Tuesday, and checked on it Thursday. We had 2 boiled eggs and put one in Coke and one in water for 2 days. We compared the differences after, and talked about the effects that unhealthy food and drinks can have on our teeth. We were able to brush off some of the brown stains and talked about why it's important to brush.
 
 
We also sang the Raffi song, Brush Your Teeth.
When you wake up in the morning and it's quarter to 1, and you want to have a little fun,
You brush your teeth, ch ch ch ch, ch ch ch ch ch, you brush your teeth, ch ch ch ch, ch ch ch ch ch
...quarter to 2, and you want to find, something to do,
...quarter to 3, and your mind starts humming, tweedle dee dee,
...quarter to 4, and you think you hear a knock on the door,
...quarter to 5, and you just can't wait to come alive!

Small Groups
Week 1 we only had 1 day, so we did 2 10-minute small groups.
In one, our volunteer grandma helped the kids cut straight lines, and it was no easy task! They had 2 lines to cut on a picture with the outside and inside of the body. It was great practice for them, and lots of work.
In my group, we wrote in our journals about ways to stay safe (reviewing last week).

Week 2, we learned about healthy foods and exercise.
Our mom volunteers helped the kids sort (sneaking in some math skills) our play food into healthy and unhealthy foods. Then they drew their favorite healthy foods in their journals.
I talked to the kids about exercising. We read From Head to Toe by Eric Carle to get our bodies moving like the animals. Then I showed them a healthy bodies app on the ipad and we looked at the heart and lungs. We could make the person "run" and watched their heart beat faster and lungs go faster. Then we did some exercising to get our hearts and breathing to go fast. It was a lot of fun!

Snacks
We had to eat healthy all week, so we tried some fun things.
We tasted 4 different types of apples, then picked our favorites to color and add to our fall tree. We learned about apples growing in the fall too.
We made egg salad. They each got to peel their own boiled egg (which was tedious and time-consuming, but a good fine motor skill) then we mixed them with mayo and a little salt and pepper for our salad. They devoured it on crackers.
I don't remember the third snack, but I think it was just crackers and juice that we ate, and then also got the rare treat of watching a video during snack. Dr. Rabbit taught us about sweets and soda causing plaque, and how to fight the plaque with flossing and brushing.
You can go to Colgate's website here for more videos and games to help teach your children about dental hygiene. I know this lesson helped me be better with my own daughter (we weren't flossing and often only brushed at night, but we're doing much better!). I also printed off a chart from here, a smaller version of the classroom one I have, that shows her all the parts of her teeth we need to brush.

Congrats to all your kids who finished their homework and teeth brushing chart. They were thrilled to earn their toothbrush prize! (although 1 did ask what the real prize was :)

We wrapped up the unit with a journal entry on their favorite way to stay healthy. Most said eat strawberries. At least they learned 1 good thing!

Whew! In 3 days we covered body parts and functions, nutrition, exercise, oral health, dr and dentist visits, and germs. Hope they caught onto something here!