My daughter Y is 15 months old and she knows about her body and can identify body parts either on you or herself in Chinese. She’s been learning about her body parts since she was born,my parents and I have been reinforcing the concept and words to her. My husband doesn’t speak chinese, which makes me the only parent that can speak chinese with her. It also makes a little difficult in teaching her but husband is learning now too and sometimes I see Y trying to teach her dad parts of the body too. Now I wanted to introduce play and make her more self aware and aware that other animals, people, things have the same body parts. I’m pretty impressed with her since she knows hair, eyes, nose, teeth, tongue, ears, hands, fingernail, feet, bum, and bellybutton. I was trying to find some activities to help her play with 3d toys that identify body parts in addition to any printout or paper crafts. Here are 4 fun chinese body part awareness activities for toddlers and perfect introduction for babies 15-18 months old.
4 Fun Chinese Body Part Awareness Activities
Body Parts in Chinese
In this activity, I just emphasized on 2 body parts the hand and foot. Since she’s only 15 months old we simplified that the whole arm is a hand and the whole leg is a foot. When she grows older I will probably create another activity that goes into more detail that there is the upper arm, forearm, wrist, hand, fingers, fingernails etc…
- Arms, Legs (shou, goek /手, 脚)
a) Chinese Body Parts Awareness – Drawing
I used 2 sheets of paper. One on paper I wrote hand, and the other foot. Markers were used to draw my hand first and then hers. She would see the final result of her hand imprinted on a paper.
What you need:
- Any white paper
- Black sharpie
- Washable markers
Result:
At first I wanted to draw her hand on the paper but she didn’t know what I was doing so I drew mine first. She allowed me to draw her her hand and partial foot. I think she was just excited to see what was happening on the paper. When she saw her hand and foot on the paper she picked up the paper and was carrying it everywhere. She also loves the markers so that’s why I recommend the washable ones. There was marker everywhere, on her hands, feet, clothes, floor…
b) Chinese Body Parts Awareness – Stickers
In continuation from the last activity of drawing the hand and foot on paper, I used some Christmas stickers I had and handed them to her. I would tell her to put the sticker on the hand paper or foot paper.
What you need:
- Any white paper
- Black sharpie
- Washable markers
- Stickers
Result:
I would talk the whole time in Chinese and ask her to put stickers on a designated paper either the hand of foot. She had fun putting the stickers on randomly but after I pointed and said put on the hand or foot paper, she would. Eventually I didn’t have to point to the paper and knew where to put it. There was a learning curve but that’s what play is all about. Just have fun. She even put on her own hand and foot too.
c) Chinese Body Parts Awareness – Dolls
I purchased some barbie like dolls and took off the arms and legs, threw them into a sensory bucket and asked her to take out the arms and legs for me. She was then to put the arms and legs on the correct paper that was created in (a) activity above.
What you need:
- Any white paper
- Black sharpie
- Washable markers
- Barbie doll
- Sensory bucket – mac and cheese, popcorn kernels
Result:
I just filled a bucket with uncooked pasta and threw the arms and legs in of a barbie doll. We all rip the arms and legs off those dolls when we were kids so that’s just what I did. I threw them in a bucket and let her play. After allowing time to play, where pasta just got everywhere in the room I started to ask her to take out an arm or a leg. She didn’t know what I was talking about. I think she was mostly intrigued by the arms and legs in a bucket. She’s never seen something like that before. So she was a little distracted and didn’t do too well in this activity. It’s probably an activity to repeat when she gets a little older. She did manage to get pasta everywhere in the room, I’ll probably be picking up pasta for days. Please do not leave your child alone when the sensory bucket is out because they will definitely try to put anything and everything in their mouth. The mac/cheese pasta and popcorn kernels are choking hazards.
d) Chinese Body Parts Awareness – Doll Puzzle
Following the last activity with dolls in a sensory bucket, we tried to tackle putting the doll back together. I would ask her where does the hand or foot go? and I would put a doll back together to show her.
What you need:
- Any white paper
- Black sharpie
- Washable markers
- Barbie doll
Result:
She had the right idea of holding an arm to where the arm socket goes, but she held it the wrong way. So she understood that the arm goes there but didn’t know how it attached back together. I asked her where does the foot go, but she didn’t tackle the foot. She only gravitated to the arm and held onto it very tightly like she wanted to do it herself and not have her mommy do it for her. So we played and I put the dolls back together and took them apart again to show her. She understands a little how it goes back together but this is another activity need to repeat again when she’s a little older. Please do not leave your child alone when the sensory bucket is out because they will definitely try to put anything and everything in their mouth. The mac/sheet pasta and popcorn kernels are choking hazards.
Overall:
We had fun with this activity. My husband was a little perturbed with all the barbie body parts lying around but I told him that they were for her little arm and leg activity. She didn’t do too well with this activity but she’s still young. Will be trying this activity again in the future.
