Teaching a young child about his body

Who isn't fascinated by the body?
One kindergarten teacher in Raymore, MO introduced her students to the brain. She told each to take a really large page of a newspaper and crinkle it up into a ball. Each tiny pair of hands made these big paper balls and giggled as they squeezed them tight. Then the teacher told them that was about the size of their brains. The children were then instructed to open up the paper and try to smooth it out. Of course, that is not possible as the lines from the folds remain. The teacher told her students that is how big their brains were and everything they put into their brains is like the folds - it cannot escape. So if they have big brains and nothing ever escapes, think how smart they will become!
Another way to help a young child understand how the muscles move is for the child to trace an outline of themselves on paper or in chalk on a driveway. The child then uses string or yarn to trace how many nerves might be needed for the brain to make the body work.
Yet another way to teach the basic parts of a child's anatomy is take washable markers and draw the different parts on the child... this is where your lungs (draw 2 lungs in pink on the child's chest) and here is your heart (have him put his fist to his chest to obtain the right size and use the red marker to show it). Continue to draw the parts of the body the child is ready to learn. The lesson is also fun because you are bound to hit some tickle spots along the way