Taking Care of Myself: Human Body Theme (Preschool/PreK)

Last year in preschool when T and I did a unit on our bodies we studied how our bodies work and generally celebrated being alive. You can see the post here.

Recently I became more aware that T, although wanting to be independent, was doing his best to avoid some things that help keep his body healthy. Like blowing his nose. He preferred sniffing everything back in over blowing it out. Eating. It's normal but he was starting to prefer dairy and carbs for snacks over anything else. I knew we had to do something and this year's preK human body theme was the perfect opportunity.

I'm linking this post to Montessori Mondays at Living Montessori Now .

PreK Human Body: Taking Care Of Myself

Our activities were set up in baskets on shelves. T could access the activities whenever he wanted. By some activities I had sequencing cards. Most had a book or two sitting next to it that was also related. The bottom shelf had baby's toys although one of T's activities managed to sit there as it was baby safe.

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Horse stables tour!

Today was one of the best field trips ever! We went to tour a horse ranch. Well, the stables anyway.  T and the other children toured the stables, learned how they keep the horses warm as the weather turns colder, made "salad" for a horse, and even got a short ride.

Touring the stables. Most of the stalls were empty as the horses were in the various paddocks outside.  

One stall did have a horse, and the children were told to keep away. This horse was newly rescued and was still skittish.  Sadly the former owner had crossed a line between discipline and abuse (unintentionally according to our tour guide). Now they were working on getting the horse once again comfortable with people. 

The children were able to see inside the empty stalls. They were being cleaned during our visit. In fact after the visit T couldn't get over how dirty the stalls got! 

"Do you know what a horse's bathroom looks like?" T asked me. "It has hay on it."

The children were fascinated by the "bedrooms" and how they hung their hay on the walls. 

Making "salad" from hay, alfalfa, and carrots

All was so enjoyable. Best of all though was getting to ride. Now T says he wants to take lessons.


Or as he put it "Join the horse riding club."