Theme of the Week Preschool: The Body

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The theme for preschool this past week was the body. With this being the first week of “organized” and “planned” activities I wanted them to be pretty simple. The last thing we needed was a huge meltdown. From either of us.

Overall things went really well and we all had a lot of fun. So here’s the play by play and all you need to recreate it yourself.

Activities

Q-tip (bone) painting

We pretended that Q-tips were bones and used them as paintbrushes. We stuck with white paint (and a little bit of green to prevent a meltdown) on black construction paper. The original idea was to draw skeletons, but Batman had other plans. He thought this activity was super fun though. The rest of the week, anytime he saw a Q-tip he wanted to paint.

Body tracing

We used chalk on the driveway to trace body outlines. I mean, who doesn’t love their front yard to look like a crime scene. At our home any activity with chalk goes over amazingly.

PomPom Blowing or Milk Bubbles

This one will work better for an older preschooler. Batman loved playing with the pompoms and the straws but never quite understood the concept. For this activity you line up pompoms on a table and the child blows them off of the table using the straw. You can then discuss how you used your lungs to blow and the importance of our lungs to breathe. Instead we switched to blowing bubbles in milk.

Blowing bubbles in milk was soooo much more fun for my almost 3-year-old. He LOVED using the straw and as an added bonus he drank some extra milk. Warning: this could get messing!!!

Beanbag Balance

For this activity all you need is some beanbags. You can read all about how easy it is to make your own beanbags here. We practiced balancing the beanbags on our heads, our knees, our feet, our elbows, our noses. Even my 1-year-old joined in on the fun. He loved putting the beanbag on his head, letting it fall off, and doing it again.

Playing Doctor

I was planning on setting up a little doctor’s office for Batman. I thought he could be the doctor and his stuffed animals could be his patients. We got this awesome kit for medical play from the American Childhood Cancer Organization when Batman was first diagnosed with Leukemia.

It just so happened that we ended up at the Oncology Clinic the day I had planned to do this activity. Rather then switch to a different day I improvised. They had a doctors kit at the clinic that Batman just happened to grab of his own accord and start playing with. He took my temperature, my blood pressure, listened to my heart and lungs, even gave me a pretend shot. I love that and activity I had planned became his idea and was perfect for child-led play.

Supply List

Here’s the list of all that you need for the above mentioned activities.

Chalk
Paint (I only needed white)
Paper (we used black)
Q-tips
Beanbags
Pompoms
Straws
Medical Play Kit/ Doctors Kit

Suggested Books

Reading is so important to a child’s cognitive development. For that reason it is a staple in our house. In fact, I think it’s an integral part as to how Batman learned is ABC’s so early. You can learn about that here.

Most of these books we already had and read quite often. A few of them I picked up at the local library.

The Foot Book: Dr. Suess’s Wacky Book of Opposites
The Eye Book by Dr. Suess
The Nose Book by Al Perkins
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins
Who has Wiggle-waggle Toes by Vicky Shiefman
Where is Baby’s Yummy Tummy by Karen Katz

Songs

I love these songs because they get kiddos up and moving.

Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes

Head, shoulders, knees and toes,
knees and toes, knees and toes.
Head, shoulders, knees and toes
Eyes, ears, mouth and nose.

Hinges

I’m all made of hinges ’cause everything bends
From the top of my neck way down to my ends.
I’m hinges in front, and I’m hinges in back;
But I have to be hinges, or else I would crack!
         (“Hinges,” Children’s Songbook, #277)

Snack Ideas

Cheese and cracker stick men
Fruit smiley faces
Pretzel stick men – These were the biggest hit. Batman would make the stick figure and then scarf it down and immediately start making another one.

Tot School

During the pompom blowing I placed a bunch of straws and pompoms in a gallon size Ziplock bag and gave it to Superman. It was a great sensory play activity for him to move the contents around without the risk of choking on the pompoms or stabbing himself with the straw.

As I already mentioned, Superman really enjoyed the beanbag balance activity and I didn’t even have to do anything to adapt it for him.