"My Body Grows!"

A lesson for SPROUTS ages 2-6. My body grows and I can take good care of it!

PURPOSE

My child will recognize that all things God made grow and change. He will appreciate how much he has grown since he was born and be aware that healthy foods, exercise, and keeping clean all help him grow properly.

MATERIALS

For sensory activity: soccer ball, basketball, tennis ball or baby clothing

For craft: scissors, glue, magazines

INSPIRATION:

“All things are designed to reach completion only after passing through a set growing period.” - Sun Myung Moon, Divine Principle page 41

“...everything reaches perfection by passing through three ordered stages of growth: the formation stage, the growth stage and the completion stage.” - Sun Myung Moon, Divine Principle page 41

SENSORY ACTIVITY

Choose 1:

EXERCISE: Say, “Let’s do some exercise to get our blood flowing, boost our energy, and make our bodies feel good!” Lead your child in some simple exercises such as: Jog in place, jumping jacks, touch toes, yoga poses (Downward Facing Dog, Child’s Pose, etc). To make it more interactive, encourage counting to 10 together for each exercise. More fun: Play with a ball! With your child, kick it, toss it, roll it, bounce it! Be creative!

BABY CLOTHES: Collect some old baby clothes of various sizes. Lay them out for your child to look at and play with and remind him of how he went from teeny tiny to small to medium to a big boy like he is now! Optionally, try the old clothes onto a doll or other stuffed animal and play together.

INTRODUCTION

We’ve learned how God loves us so much that he put all of his energy and creativity into making our bodies. Did you know that God also planned exactly how our bodies would grow? For us to grow the way God wants to see us grow, we need to take good care of our bodies through doing exercise, eating nutritious foods, and keeping our bodies healthy and clean.

*TEACHING MOMENT*

Read this script to your child like a story time.

ALL ABOUT GROWTH:

God, who loves us to the moon and back, wants us to get bigger and stronger every day. To do that, we need to love and nurture our bodies. The best ways to make sure we grow well are to eat nutritious foods, do regular exercise, and keep ourselves clean!

Did you know that all living things that God created GROW? Have you ever noticed anything in nature growing? Flowers and trees grow from tiny, tiny seeds into big, beautiful things. Let’s think about the four seasons. In the Winter, new plants are waiting patiently in the soil and getting ready to come out to meet the bright sun. By Spring time, pretty little flowers start popping out of the ground and take in sunlight, air, and water. What do we see in nature in the Fall? Trees have grown lots of leaves that start to change colors and fall off. This is all part of a beautiful cycle God created.

God made a plan for all growth and learning to have its own special time and place. As we grow bigger, we learn more. Since you were born, your body has grown so big! Your arms and legs and torso have grown longer and become stronger. You’ve grown in all of your baby teeth- you may even lose some soon. Your hair has grown and you’ve probably already had your first haircut. Some of the ways your body grows are more obvious like your fingernails which you have to trim often. Other growth takes more time and you may not notice until you step on a scale to check your weight, check your height with a mark on the wall or you outgrow your shoes or favorite dress!

Do you remember when you didn’t know how to talk or how to walk? Even if you don’t remember, it’s true; there was a time that you would only lie down and say “Goo goo ga ga!”. As time goes on, you will keep learning and growing. There are some things you will learn sooner than others. There are some things that you don’t need to know right away, and that’s ok! The right time will come, I promise. Whenever there is anything that you become old enough to learn about, Mommy and Daddy will make sure to explain everything so that you understand.

TAKING CARE OF MY BODY:

What do you think are some ways we can take good care of our growing bodies?

The best foods for us to eat are fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy. Fruits are the sweet, juicy, tangy, or sour things that often grow on trees or vines! They have seeds, and they can be apples, oranges, strawberries, grapes, watermelon and more! Vegetables come from plants and often grow underground or close to the ground. Have you ever been to a farm and seen lots of different beautiful vegetables? Vegetables can be zucchini, potatoes, onions, broccoli, cauliflower and more! Some grains are breads, pastas, oatmeal, rice and more. Whole grains are even better for us! There are so many types of protein! Protein can be chicken, beef, fish, beans, tofu, peas and more! Dairy is so yummy! Dairy can be milk, cheese, yogurt, and more! We should eat very little sugary foods like cookies and candies and stay away from too much added salt and chemicals.

We need to exercise because exercise teaches our bodies how to be strong and fast and to feel good!

Exercise helps us to stay healthy and not get sick. Another way to say exercise is “being active”. Being active helps us to move well and grow well. Anything that makes you MOVE is exercise! Running, walking, stretching, and dancing are all exercise. If you sweat, that means you’re REALLY working hard and building big, strong muscles! Grown-ups exercise too. Everyone needs to exercise. Being active is fun! Playing soccer or baseball, swimming, jumping rope - these are all fun ways to be active!

Another way to care for our growing body is to keep it clean! God loves to see us keeping ourselves clean! We should brush our teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste in the morning and at night (go to the dentist now and then to get a special cleaning). We should take a bath when Mommy or Daddy say it’s time and scrub-a-dub-dub with soap and water, scrubbing fluffy bubbles all over ourselves - from our faces all the way down to our ten wiggly toes! Lastly, we should always remember to wash our hands! Great times to wash our hands are before and after school, before we eat, and very importantly after we use the toilet! When we use the toilet, we can get germs from our private parts onto our hands and make ourselves or others sick! Remember to always wipe properly with toilet paper when you go pee pee or poo poo, and then wash your hands sparkly clean! Singing the ABCs while washing your hands is a fun way to make sure you are washing them long enough to get all the dirty stuff off! Being clean makes us feel good.

By doing all these things, we stay healthy and happy!

DISCUSSION

• How has your body grown since you were born? How has your brain grown? What new things have you learned since you were a baby?

• How else do you think your body will grow as you get older?

• Can you think of something else that grows? Why do you think God created a process for everything to go through stages of growing?

• Why do we need to exercise? What are some of your favorite exercises?

• Why do we need to eat healthy foods? What are some of your favorite healthy foods?

• Why do we need to keep our body clean? Are there other things you enjoy cleaning?

CONCLUSION

We are made to grow. When we are children, we grow the most and it’s important to take good care of our bodies! By eating healthy foods, keeping clean, and keeping our bodies moving and working hard, we make sure we are growing to be the best we can be!

PRAYER

Dear God, I am grateful for my awesome body. I know that if I feed my body the right foods and keep it active and clean, it will grow big and strong! If I take care of my body to help it grow well, I will be able to enjoy my life very much. Thank you for my growing body!

Use these activities together with your child over the next month to create ongoing conversations on how bodies grow! Click on the blue links!

STORIES

See how we move! A First Book of Health and Well-being by Ritchie Scot

I Eat A Rainbow by Bobbie Kalman

I Can Eat A Rainbow by Lizzie Swan and Marlowe Bechmann

Look Inside Your Body by Louie Stowell

Parts by Tedd Arnold

How Many Teeth? by Paul Showers

SONGS

"Growing Up Song" by Moonbug TV-Cartoons & Kids Songs

MORE SONGS:

I Eat the Rainbow Song by Lanny Meyers

I Can Eat A Rainbow Book to Song by Swingsetmamas

How Things Grow by Play Kids

VIDEOS

"The Bath Song" by Super Simple Songs

MORE VIDEOS:

Family Workout by Moe Jones

Yoga for Kids by Yoga for Beginners

Cosmic Kids Yoga Adventure (more advanced, for older children) by Cosmic Kid Yoga

CRAFTS

FOOD GROUP COLLAGE: Collect various magazines for your child to look through. Flip through to find pictures of different types of food. Help your child cut the pictures out with scissors (older children may be able to use scissors independently) and paste them accordingly in the proper places in this printable food group template: My Plate worksheet

PICTURE COLLAGE: Using drawings or photos, make a growth timeline of your child with a picture of each year of life: birth, age 1, age 2, age 3… Revisit fun memories and notice together how much your child has grown in both their body changes and also abilities and new found talents!

EXPERIENCES

GROCERY STORE TRIP: Take a trip to the grocery store to help children apply the nutrition lessons she’s learned to real life. Create a list of healthy foods together. Some examples are fruits such as strawberries, pears, apples, oranges, bananas, and tomatoes (They are considered fruits because they have seeds!), and vegetables such as zucchinis, potatoes, celery sticks, carrots, spinach, and radishes. You may want to print out pictures to paste on your list to help younger children. Create a fun game of finding the ingredients in the produce aisles! For added fun, make it a competition: 1) See who can find more ingredients within 10 minutes OR 2) See who can find all fruits and vegetables on the list first!

HEALTHY SNACK: Make and share a healthy snack together like “ants on a log!” (a celery stick filled with peanut butter and topped with raisins!)

NATURE WALK: Take a nature walk to observe flowers, trees and creatures. Talk to your child about their favorites and reiterate how everything was once smaller and has now grown to the size it is, just like him!

DOLL BATH: Practice bath time together on a dollie! Let your child practice washing all of the different parts of the baby doll as you talk about cleanliness, or sing a bath time washing song!

THE END.