X-RAY (October is the PERFECT time of year for THIS!

What a GREAT time of year for webs and x-rays!  October is THE perfect time for our letter's W and X and all things spiders, webs, x-rays and bones.  Since the children are seeing ALL of these when out shopping with the family and these items are in abundance for our preschool activities we thought we would make the MOST of it!

We began this week discussing what an x-ray is.  We decided to explain it like this since most 2's and 3's have never experienced an x-ray (that they remember, at least) and also do not quite grasp that we have ANYTHING inside our bodies except for poo!!  (Gross, I know, but if you have a todder or pre-k you can give me an AMEN!)  What I mean is that unless they can actually SEE it in or coming out of their bitty bodies they don't really understand that its inside.  SO, we explained that an x-ray is a picture that makes things look different and helps us to see things on the inside that we wouldn't be able to see.  We cut out friendly skeletons (which you can barely see under the film) and placed them underneath the "picture." We talked about the bones in our body with the "Dry Bones" song, and practiced finding our skull, spine and collarbones. 

We made these x-rays by cutting out frames with black posterboard and attaching colored clear plastic wrapping paper to the backside.  The children took these around the class, inside and outside, viewing things through them. 

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Pictured here you can see on of our little students placing her bones under the x-ray. 

BONES, BONES WE LOOK FOR BONES!
We also, from the same sweet girly got the idea to make bone puzzles from the same happy skeleton and make a matching game with them after she excitedly pulled off his little arms and legs and tried to re-assemble him!

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We have been discussing that an x-ray is the way we see the bones in our bodies and also decided to make some white playdough so that the children could "make" bones.  We molded, rolled and pounded and shaped bones the size of our fingers and arms.  We talked about big, small and medium sized bones and compared and contrasted the sizes of our playdough bones in comparison to the bones in our bodies!

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Bones, Bones, We Look For Bones...

We have also been reading the book, Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones,  by Byron Barton.  If you click on the title it will take you directly to a point of purchase.  This is a great sing - songy, rhyme book that talks about how bones are found in the earth and what happens to them once they are dug up.  We have read this book many times and they LOVE it for its meter!

Another "Bones" activity has been our song...Dry Bones.  This is a fun way to teach the basic parts of the body and it too has a fun meter, melody and rhythm!