Note: In the church manual, this lesson is followed by lessons about different parts of the body. I found it easier to combine this lesson into the other lessons so things don’t get repetitive. I start each of the “body parts” lessons reminding the children that of these things are parts of our whole body.
Welcome everyone by name.
Practice the Hand Raising game. Children at this age need to practice hand raising without calling out. We usually start each lesson with a small snack and we practice raising our hands to respond to questions without calling out. We will make statements like, “Raise your hand if you like graham crackers,” or “Raise your hand if you are wearing red today.” We emphasize that they can answer the question not with calling out, but by raising their hands.
Start the lesson by singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” After the song, ask the children if they know what our Head Shoulders Knees and Toes make up. Our bodies.
There is a great video that goes through all the parts of the body. It is about 5 minutes long. I ask the children to follow along and point out the parts of their body that the boy in the video is talking about. I pause the video at times to ask the children about their body, like “what are some of the things you can do with your feet?” etc.
Today we will focus on one part of our body. Can you guess? We have two of these things. They help us to eat, and dress and do many things. They bend, they hold things, they have five fingers each. Hands.
Show Power Point slide show, or pictures of hands. I have a slide show that shows an Xray of the hand so the children can see all the bones and joints that help our hands work. I show a close up of the finger tips and our finger prints. The slide show includes all the things we can do with our hands, focusing on taking care of ourselves, serving others, and taking care of animals.
I created a “matching game” with clip art and a color printer. I have two columns on a piece of paper, one column has different animals, including a human, and the other column has paws, claws, hands, etc. The children draw lines with a crayon matching the correct “hand” with the correct creature. You might point out how different the human hand is and how animal paws are suited for what they need.
Return to the picture of the fingerprint. Have the children look at their own fingerprints. Talk about how Heavenly Father made each one of us as individuals and no one has the same fingerprints as us. Bring in finger paint set and some card stock paper. Have the children make some fingerprint art for their mothers. This lesson is often around Mother’s Day so it would work to have them create a fingerprint card for their mother. Bring wet wipes or wet paper towels to clean up.
Bring several tactile items (one for each child) in a container. Without letting the children see, put one of the items in a paper grocery bag. Ask a child to reach in and touch the item. The bag should be big enough so the child can use both hands to investigate the item. Ask them to describe what they are feeling. You might have to help them by asking questions like, it is smooth or rough, soft or hard, big or small, sharp or rounded etc. Ask them to guess what the item is. Give each child a chance to do this and stress how much our hands and sense of touch can help us discover and explore the world. Alternately, you could blindfold the child and hand them the object and have them use their hands to figure out what it is. You will have to remind the other children not to call out answers.
Bring in several socks and have the children put the socks on their hands. Ask them to do things like take off and put on their shoes, comb their hair etc. with the socks on their hands. Explain how wonderfully Heavenly Father designed our hands to do so much.
Have the children do a task with their hands, like stringing macaroni or beads or loop cereal onto yarn. Tell them to watch their hands as they do it and notice how carefully their fingers work together. You could use masking tape to wrap around their fingers and tell them to try to continue to string beads. Notice the difference. Explain that they should take care of their hands by washing them often, and being careful around tools or anywhere they might hurt their fingers or hands.
Have several pictures of people doing things at church or in service. Blessings, passing the sacrament, holding scriptures, raking leaves etc. Ask the children to talk about how they can use their hands for good things.
Explain how some people use their hands to communicate. You can learn some basic ASL to teach the children (My name is…., I love you.), or find a video that shows American Sign Language.
There are several hand crafts the children can do if you have time.
http://www.pinterest.com/jeanoram/hand-and-feet-kid-crafts-for-kids/
LDS Lessons in a Box 