Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder and published by Penguin is an amazing book reminding us to be proud of our bodies. It talks about all different bodies in a rhyme and each rhyme finishes with the phrase 'bodies are cool'. My son loves to read that last sentence on each page. The pictures are bright and colourful and they feature lots of different bodies and include bodies that have parts missing, parts that don't work properly and bodies that need extra parts to help them work. Everybody can find a picture of a body in the book that is similar to their body and that's what makes this book so awesome to read and look at.
Activities
My amazing body activity
Talk about differences
Body exercises
Painting with your body
Physical activities
Sports day
Pop bubbles with body parts
Trip to the park/playground
Gingerbread people
Cook a meal together
Finger hotdogs
Indoor
The first activity could be for your child/children to draw a picture of themselves and talk about their different body parts and why they are so amazing. If your child/children don't want to draw then they could use a photo or if you have big paper available you could get them to lie on it and then you could draw around them. Whilst doing this activity could be a good time to talk about differences in bodies that people could have and this will help normalise things for them if they see someone with a body that they haven't seen before. They could look in a mirror to help them draw their face. You could save this activity and then when your children are older and they are having a hard time, which is body related, you could stick it on the wall to remind them how cool their body is. You could do some different exercises inside like Yoga or younger children could do some nursery rhyme exercise songs like 'If you are happy and you know it clap your hands' or 'Dingle dangle scarecrow'. There are lots of fun videos you could watch and follow online or you could just put some music on and dance around the house. A final indoor activity could be to do some body painting. If you get some paper and paint then your child/children could start with hand and footprints and then they could try painting or printing with other parts of their body like elbows, chins etc. If you think it might get messy then you could cover the floor with a waterproof table cloth or bin liner or you could do this activity outside.
Outdoor
You could do some fun physical activities like skateboarding, roller skating, climbing, running or you could just go for a nice long walk. This is a good time to get your child/children to talk to you about what is going on in their lives. Another fun activity could be to set up a sports day. You could do egg and spoon race, put some obstacles on the floor and do hurdles, running and if you have some hoops you could do skipping or jumping through them. You could also make a trophy out of card for the winner. Another activity could be for someone to blow bubbles and then your child/children need to catch the bubbles with different parts of their body. The bubble blower could decide what part of the body to use e.g. elbow. A final outdoor activity could be to have a trip to the local park or playground and have a play on the different apparatus there. On the way home you could talk about the different parts of the body that your child/children used.
Cooking/Food
The first body inspired food could be to make gingerbread people. That is my son's very favourite thing to do at the minute. Your child/children can decorate them in all different ways with different chocolates and sweets. If you don't have any icing available you could always stick the decorations on with jam or chocolate spread. You could choose a meal and then your child/children could help you with the preparing and cooking of it. You could teach your child/children how to peel vegetables, cut different foods and older children how to follow a recipe. These are all skills they will need for the future. A final body inspired food activity could be to do hotdogs for tea. You could make the hotdogs look like fingers by adding some lines across to make it look like the lines on fingers and your knuckles and then you could add a small bit of cheese at one end for the nail.
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