We began our study of the human body on the outside and worked our way in — as most Montessori learning goes!  Here is how we spent the first week of our human body study:  studying the outer body.

I have a preschooler to teach as well as a toddler.  As with any multi-aged classroom, the materials we use have to be suitable for both age groups.  I searched everywhere for a set of body part 3-part cards, and I found many — but they were all composed of photographs or illustrations of almost entirely white people’s body parts.  So I made my own!

I made a set of diverse human body part 3-part cards to use as we begin our outer body portion of the human body study.  Yes, L and N can already name most of their outer body parts — these cards can be used for matching.  N can match the photographs and L can match the words.

We examined different qualities of the skin through books (see below) and by examining our fingerprints!  We used an inkpad to color each of our fingertips and then pressed them on the paper to see the different whirls and swirls.  The girls loved examining their fingerprints with our magnifying glass!

The girls also enjoyed looking at different hair colors with Every Star is Different’s My Body Activities for Tots & Preschoolers printable.

We rely heavily on wonderful children’s books for all of our themed studies, and here are the books we used for this first week studying the outer parts of the human body:

Here Are My Hands, by Bill Martin, Jr. & John Archambault

The Barefoot Book of Children, by Tessa Strickland, Kate Depalma, & David Dean

Why Do People Come in Different Colors?, by Isaac Asimov & Carrie Dierks

I’m Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem, by Jamie Lee Curtis & Laura Cornell

Your Body Belongs to You, by Cornelia Spelman

Is There Really a Human Race?, by Jamie Lee Curtis & Laura Cornell

Stay tuned as we continue to dive deeper into our human body study!

 

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