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Are you wondering how the human body and a fun summer fit together? Well for our four year olds, there is no better combination! Currently our kids are OBSESSED with the human body so naturally we needed to dedicate an entire fun summer week to the theme of the human body. Here is what we did!
Fun Summer Schedule
Each summer I pick nine different themes. Each theme is broken down by day of the week. Then every day has a focused activity to encourage vocabulary development, language in natural contexts, and create hands-on experiences. Here is the daily schedule we will follow for the entire summer regardless of the theme!
- Make It Monday
- Take A Trip Tuesday
- Water Wednesday
- Thinking Thursday
- Foodie Friday
- Cinema Saturday
- Sensory Sunday
Too many other things going on this summer? Don’t stress! Pick only a couple of activities or do it all. Incorporating vocabulary and language into even just one activity can help increase your child’s retention and application of concepts. Most importantly, just have fun together!
Make It Monday
For this week’s craft, we made a DIY stethoscope. This was a great craft for not only direction following, but it also provided lots of opportunities for imaginative play throughout the week!
Here is what we used:
- 2 funnels
- 2-3 feet of tubing
- 1 balloon
- Electrical tape
- Scissors
We first cut the end of the balloon off and stretched it over the wide end of one funnels. We secured it with the electrical tape. My son helped me place the end of the tubing into each of the funnels. I opted to secure the tubing with electrical tape as well.
We then practiced listening to each other’s heart beats (as well as the dog’s!) and taking deep breaths. Luckily, everybody passed the health check in our house. I loved how this craft was used all week for some great thematic, imaginative play!
Take A Trip Tuesday
Since this was a requested theme week by my son, I struggled coming up with a Take A Trip Tuesday for human body week! We are not terribly far from The Museum of Science and Industry in downtown Chicago which has a fantastic Human Body exhibit, but scheduling wise that just wasn’t going to happen this week. So I did some research and came up with something else!
We opted to head to the Morton Arboretum in the Chicago suburbs to check out their Human & Nature exhibit. It did not disappoint! We saw eight HUGE sculptures depicting humans interacting with nature by the artist Daniel Hopper. While it was arguably the hottest day of the summer, we were able to get up close and personal with these amazing pieces of art and admire the human form in a very unique way.
Water Wednesday
Water Wednesday was a more of an experiment this week rather than our traditional water play activities. However, my son really had a good time with it and ended up playing with the materials for quite awhile. We practiced washing hands with some food coloring to see how germs can stay on our hands. See the list below for what we used!
- Food coloring (preferable a darker color such as blue or purple)
- Dish soap
- Bowl
- Paint brush
- Small container of water
- 2 hands!
We first put some dish soap into a small bowl then added several drops of blue food coloring. My son mixed everything up with a paint brush until the soap was a very dark color.
I painted his hands and explained everywhere the blue soap was touching could be a germ or dirt. Once he placed his hands in the water, he practiced washing both hands thoroughly to get all the germs off. He even painted my hands to test out my handwashing abilities!
Thinking Thursday
For our fun summer Thinking Thursday book, we read Me and My Amazing Body. This was an internet find, but a solid choice. Click here to grab a copy of your own. Lots of great pictures with kid friendly explanations!
We also found this awesome freebie on TPT to introduce the parts of the heart and color by number. Super easy, but a very engaging activity. Check out DyerTyme’s TPT store to grab this heart diagram color by number freebie today.
Foodie Friday
Nothing says “yum” like the theme of human body. 🤦♀️ But seriously, this week’s Foodie Friday was a bit of a challenge. (FYI I don’t recommend Googling human body food activities. Things got a little strange!) But we did come up with a great themed idea to keep your fun summer schedule going!
Mandy and her girls made people sugar cookies decorated like the members of their family. They first rolled out the premade sugar cookie dough (if you are feeling ambitious feel free to make your dough from scratch…we were not!). Once rolled out, Mandy’s daughter cut out people shaped cookies then decorated them with faces, names, and even some cute outfits!
This was a perfect way to target facial body parts as well as descriptors. Plus it was much more appetizing than some of the other suggestions out there!
Cinema Saturday
We love a good movie night for a fun summer activity! For this week’s Cinema Saturday we decided on Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out. A cute and funny movie to talk about a very important aspect of the human experience…our emotions.
Sensory Sunday
So our human body sensory bin consisted of red blood cells and body parts. I promise you this isn’t what you think! Check out how we were able to make an awesome sensory bin for this week’s theme!
I found plain red water beads (click here to see the ones I purchased) to replicate red blood cells. Then we added in a Melissa and Doug Human Body Magnetic Play Set (we used this one!). I filled a large bin with about 3 inches of water and added the red water beads. They took about three hours to expand. Once expanded, I placed the magnetic pieces around the “blood”. We were able to look at the different body systems while enjoying the bright red of the water beads. My son said he was having fun on more than one occasion. Success for Sensory Sunday!
That brings us to the end of human body week! We had a blast with all seven of our fun summer schedule days even if we had to think a bit outside of the box for some of the activities. We love a challenge just as much as we love a theme!
Want more fun summer themed weeks? Check out our farm week and zoo week posts! Be sure to add your email to our mailing list so you don’t miss a new fun summer themed week. And for this coming week, dust off your magnifying glasses because spy week is up next!
Happy human week, fellow SLPs and mamas!
Talking Mama Bears