I want to welcome my guest today who is Asia from Fun at Home with Kids. Asia, along with the help of her adorable daughter, is here to share with you this amazing life size anatomy made from felt!
I am so thrilled to be able to guest post for Deborah today; what an honor! I’m Asia and I write over at Fun at Home with Kids. I’m a former teacher (M. Ed) who now stays home full time with my two kiddos: X, a one year old, and S, a four year old. S has been very interested in learning about human bodies and anatomy for about a year now. I was a Biology major in undergrad and kept my Anatomy textbooks, which she loves to peruse. She’s also recently discovered the allure of the Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body book. I’m always looking for ways to make concepts S is interested in more accessible to her. I have seen so many amazing models of human bodies, but I felt like their small size left a bit to be desired. So I settled on creating a life-sized felt double of her body to teach her a bit more about anatomy.
To make the body double, I had S lay on a few yards of felt and I traced her and cut the resulting outline out with some nice sharp scissors. Using an anatomy book, she chose which parts of her body she wanted me to make. I eyeballed the size and shape of everything; since she is 4 I wasn’t too concerned with making everything super accurate – the general idea was fine.
As we created the different parts from felt, we’d talk about the role of each in her body. As we created the digestive tract, for instance, we talked about the path food takes through her body. When we created bones, I would have her press on various parts of her body to feel a bit of the bone underneath and inhale sharply to see the outline of her rib cage beneath her skin.
We talked about how her heart was the size of her fist, and how it wasn’t shaped like the hearts you make on Valentine’s Day (she may have not been entirely sold on that last concept, haha). We talked about how her heart gets food and air to all the parts of her body.
And finally, we made her the anatomy model by laying the felt body parts on top of her shirt. Felt is slightly sticky, so everything held together. We happen to have a Giant Feltboard downstairs that we made as one of our DIY projects, so we can use all these pieces there as well. It took less than 30 minutes to create the body and all the related parts. S really seemed to grasp the scale of things and enjoyed her peek at what goes on inside her body.
See more ideas from Asia
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Thank you Asia (and little S) for sharing with us today!
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What an absolutely awesome idea! My son has recently become interested in the Magic School Bus books and videos. Guess which are his favorite?! This is something we will definitely be trying later this month. Great fun, great teaching!!
Thank you Mary Catherine! Isn’t Magic School Bus the best? I really want Ms. Frizzle’s outfits. Thank you so much for the sweet comment!!!
We made paper ones, but I love the felt idea, so you can put it on their bodies!
Yes, paper ones are also so much fun! I still remember decorating a life-sized paper version of myself back in middle school!
I am absolutely in LOVE with this!!! My 5 year old has been so interested in learning about the body~ this will be perfect!!! Thank you for this fabulous idea!
Thank you, Chelsey! I hope it’s a big hit at your house as well!
This is so amazing! My son keeps asking to come back and read it again. I see a felt anatomy model in our future. Thank you for sharing this with us, Asia and Deborah!
Thank you! And so glad to have such a great fan of the post! So long as you have felt on hand, it’s a surprisingly quick and easy project!
this felt game is really a very good idea ..kids come to know about internal organs in such a interesting way..ur efforts are appreciable..keep it up
do some of motivated activity for creative writing and vocabulary development..so that could helps the child’s higher thinking ability.
Thank you, Tahmina! And such a great idea about this being a jumping off point for creative writing! I love it!
This is fantastic! I can’t think of a better way for a young child to learn about anatomy. Well done, Asia!
Thank you so much, Ann! You are so sweet to say so.
When I first opened this in my email and saw the picture of S, I wondered if I had actually clicked on my email for FunatHomewithKids instead…then I read that it was a guest post! I love that two of my favorite resources combined. Great job, Asia. I love how inspiring you are, and the smiles on your sweetie pie are evidence of how much she loves it too. Perhaps I could borrow your brain for a year? 😉
Best. Comment. Ever. Thank you so much, Katie! This totally made my day!!!!!
Well you deserve it! I appreciate everything you (and Deborah) do to keep us all staying creative! Feel free to check out my blog at https://www.preschoolinspirations.com.
It looks like you are off to a good start Katie!
I appreciate that so much Deborah! Your ability to blog and teach from your own preschool has given me hope that it can be done :). Thank you for being such an incredible source for those who have preschoolers!! Preschool can be such an amazing experience, and you really shed light to the world about how to make that happen!
You are super sweet to says so Katie! Enjoy your blogging journey and keep in touch!
Everything genius is simple. Indeed
Thanks so much for the inspirational post! I will have to add this felt body idea to our human body learning basket.