Try making a stick and stone skeleton sensory board this Halloween! This makes the perfect not-so spooky piece of wall art that children can touch while learning all about human bones. This is perfect for tactile and kinesthetic learners who prefer learning through touch and tend to retain information better when some type of physical activity is involved.
Halloween is a week away so decorations are EVERYWHERE! They’re in our neighborhood, in the stores and on TV. My boys love looking at them and have so many questions about allll the Halloween things! They are particularly interested in skeletons and are so curious about which part of the body the different bones belong to.
So I decided to make a simple DIY stick and stone skeleton sensory board to let my boys touch and investigate the the skeleton of the human hand. I plan on making more sensory boards for different parts of the body, but this is a good start and will hopefully spark some inspiration for you!
Supplies:
You probably already have these supplies in your home!
- Sticks and stones
- Cardboard
- Hot Glue Gun
- Marker
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Here’s What We Did:
Step 1:
Gather and prepare the supplies. I snapped the sticks into similar sized pieces. They don’t need to be perfect!
Step 2:
Outline hands. I outlined my own hands, but it would be fun to outline kids hands to involve them more in the process.
Step 3:
Add the stones to make carpals.
I looked at an image of the bones in the human hand and tried to replicate it as realistically as I could.
Step 4:
Add sticks for the rest of the bones in the hand.
I glued three sticks on the thumb and four sticks for the rest of the fingers. You could always glue one long stick for each finger, but I think the smaller sticks look more realistic and help kids learn the names of the individual bones.
My boys loved learning the names of the bones and thought some of the words were pretty funny! They will never forget the word “phalanges” EVER!
Step 5:
Now kids are ready to investigate the hand! Invite them to touch the board while they count the bones and discuss the names of the bones. You could label the bones if you would like!
If this activity sparks a million and one MORE questions about bones, you can play Skeleton Dance on Youtube. It’s a cute song and dance video that teaches about the entire human skeleton. It’s perfect for tactile and kinesthetic learners that need to get up and move around!
Please pin this activity if you love it!
I hope you give this fun sensory activity a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.
∼Tara
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