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Interactive Body Part Games

Most people teach their child about body parts beginning in early infancy. It's natural for parents to show baby his nose or eyes and make up games and songs such as "chin chopper" or "10 little fingers." As children grow older, preschool body parts games allow children to explore their bodies and learn the names for more obscure parts. Teachers can easily integrate additional learning opportunities into the games such as counting or colors.

Classic Games
- While most of these games are geared for preschool and early elementary-age children, you can adapt them for older children by making them slightly more difficult. Try using trickier body parts or even skeletal structures or anatomy. For a new spin on the classic musical chairs game, assign one square mat or piece of cardboard to each child and arrange them haphazardly throughout the room. Instruct each child to stand on a square while you start the music. Call out different ways of moving such as crawling, hopping or skipping. When the tune stops, children must hustle back to their square and put their hands on the body part you call out.
  
  Put a new spin on the classic song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" by asking children to name body parts and writing them on the board. Include more obscure parts such as toenail, knuckle or eyelid. Allow children to elect four favorite body parts and re-create the song using these parts, sing faster and faster and watch them try to place their hands on the right parts in time with the music.
New Favorites
- Play body part dice by finding or making a large cube and posting pictures of different body parts on it. Children take turns rolling the dice and touching the body parts portrayed on the cube.
  
  Cut out an outline of a child from felt as well as different-colored versions of the child's body parts such as arms, feet and hands. Attach velcro to the outline in addition to the body parts. Hang the dummy up on the wall and place the body parts on a table at the other end of the room. Select children one at a time to "pin the body parts on the child." When their name is called, they must run to the table, grab the body part and quickly affix it to the correct part of the dummy. If you made two outlines and sets of parts, this would make a great relay activity for teams of students.
  
  Play an elimination game by instructing everybody to stand up and then choosing one child and naming one of their attributes such as "brown hair," "freckles on their nose" or "blue eyes." Children who do not share that attribute must sit down while the others remain standing.

Kids Games