How to Teach Kids About Anatomy and the Human Body

You don’t have to have studied medicine to know that anatomy is the most notorious subject for the majority of students. There may be more reasons for this bad rep but the complex Latin terminology is the main culprit. This is why teachers, as well as homeschooling parents, are a bit nervous when the time to teach anatomy to kids comes. Knowing that anatomy is a memory dependent subject with unfamiliar and hard names, it’s not surprising to see educators experiment with different approaches in teaching anatomy for kids. 

But with so many different approaches on the internet, the big question remains – what’s the most effective way to teach about anatomy and the human body? In this article, we’ll explore 10 different activities through which you can explain anatomy to kids in a fun and easy way. All the recommended activities are interactive and supported by experienced teachers who understand the struggle of this challenge.

Where To Start? 

Organising a solid lesson plan in anatomy for kids relays on three main aspects. First, you need to find out the children’s current level of understanding. In other words, start the lesson with a brief conversation on what kids know or wonder about the human body. Second, you need a good structure that won’t be too overwhelming or overloaded with information and big words. Finally, you need interactive tools that will help children consolidate the knowledge. 

Get Kids Thinking About the Human Body

Children are curious about the way their body works. Questions like “Where does our food go?,” “What happens when we sleep?,” or “Why do we blink?” are constantly popping in their head as they realize something that they can’t explain. Often we might overlook the fact that the human body is a mystery to the child’s mind, one that they’ll happily explore if we give them the opportunity and the resources. 

This means that it would be a smart idea to introduce the topic as an answer to all these interesting questions. First, start the lesson by asking children a fun question like “Do you know why your belly hurts when you eat too much?” and then tell them “…we’re going to find out in today’s lesson.”

Proceed by encouraging kids to ask similar questions about the way their bodies look or work. This way you’ll begin the lesson by making the kids curious, which will keep their attention focused on the topic at hand during the class. Increased motivation is crucial when the subject is challenging. 

Another way this approach works in your favor is that you’ll get feedback on what things children are unfamiliar with and how they think about the human body. From there, you’ll be able to relate the body’s organ systems and functions with the children’s current level of understanding. 

Introduce the Body’s Organ Systems

All of our movement, cognitive function, growth, and changes we see throughout life is possible thanks to the complex relationship between our biological systems. Biological systems, or more specifically our body’s organ systems, are nothing more than a group of organs working together to perform a specific function like digesting food, or thinking, or riding a bicycle. 

Depending on your student’s grade level, here you can go deeper into the basics and explain what’s an organ, tissue, and cell, or continue the discussion about the systems by encouraging kids to think “What organs or parts of the body do we need to be able to ride a bicycle and why?”

You can ask many interesting questions like these that involve different systems, such as “How does our body get well after being sick?” (the immune system), “What happens to our body when we run and jump?” (endocrine system, circulatory system), etc. 

There are 11 organ systems in the body and you need to make sure you introduce all of them with relatable examples as the ones described above. 

Organ Systems

• The circulatory system (heart, blood vessels)

“The system that transports blood and all the nutrients to all the cells in our body. It feeds the other systems.”

• The respiratory system (nose, trachea, pharynx, larynx, and lungs)

“The system that enables us to breathe. Takes oxygen from the air and releases carbon dioxide. It works together with the circulatory system to transport the oxygen to all the cells in the body.”

• The immune system (lymph, nodes, tissue, white blood cells)

“The immune system is the protector of our body. It attacks viruses and diseases and sends help when our body needs to heal.”

• The skeletal system (bones, ligaments, tendons)

“The skeletal system is the support that gives shape and strength to our body. The bones are the foundations around which all the other systems reside.”

• The muscular system (skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscles)

“The muscular system gives “life” to our body. It makes up the walls of organs so they can move and do specific functions, like pump blood. It also covers the bones so we can move them at our will”

• The digestive system (esophagus, stomach, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, intestines, rectum and anus)

“The system responsible for providing food in the form of nutrients. To accomplish this, it breaks down the food we eat into small substances that can be absorbed through the intestines in the circulatory system, which will transport the nutrients.”

• The urinary system (kidney, bladder)

“The system that filters fluid and excretes it from our body after the digestive system took all the nutrients beneficial for our body.”

• The endocrine system (glands)

“The endocrine system is the messenger that sends signals and information from one system to another. This way, even distant organs know when and how to act.”

• The nervous system (brain, spinal cord, nerves)

“The system that makes decisions. It receives information through the sensory system, analyses it and reacts by controlling the work of all the other systems.”

• The integumentary system (skin, hair, fat, and nails)

“This is another protective system that represents the wall or the barrier between the outside environment and the inside environment of the body.”

• The reproductive system (male and female reproductive organs)

“The reproductive system is a group of many different organs and substances which work together with the purpose of procreating.”

Make sure to emphasize the fact these are not isolated from each other but rather very well connected to make the biological system (the human body) a functional whole. Even if one organ in one system doesn’t work properly, many systems will be affected. 

For example, if your stomach hurts because you’ve eaten too much, this will affect the whole digestive system, your mood (nervous system), your muscles as we’ll be crunched (muscular system), and so on. 

Get Into the Details: One Body System at a Time

We’ve already covered some basic information about each organ system which you can use to introduce and familiarise students with the concept of the systems in general.

However, teaching kids about anatomy and the human body requires a more in-depth approach. To make sure you don’t overwhelm students with too much information, we recommend to divide the unit into several lessons. You can use the links we’ve provided for each system to download resources for creating fun and meaningful lesson plans. Start with an introductory lesson using the information from this article, and then continue with separate lesson for each organ system (if time allows) or group two systems in one lesson. A good example would be to group and teach the musculoskeletal system as one. 

Talk About Bodily Functions

The anatomical structure of each system is crucial for kids to know and differentiate between different parts of the human body, but that knowledge on itself doesn’t make much sense unless it tells us about the functional role each system and each organ of that system plays in keeping our body alive. 

For instance, when we try to answer the question “How does our body keep us healthy?,” we’re referencing the functional role of the immune system which is made up of special organs, cells, and chemicals. 

Functionality is what interests all of us, which is why you need to make sure to always address the functional role of the system or organ when teaching the anatomy. 

This is probably best accomplished by making vivid analogies in the form of an unusual and memorable story. For example, when explaining the immune system you can talk about each cell or chemical as a soldier and commander and the body’s army that goes to fight the intruder (virus, bacteria). 

In addition, make sure to explore some interesting bodily functions like blinking, yawning, or sneezing. Sharing amusing facts about phenomena like these will break the monotony and spark curiosity in kids. 

Interactive Activities to Teach Anatomy for Kids

Now that you have a basic idea on how to organize a captivating anatomy for kids lesson plan, here are some wonderful teaching resources that are essential for teaching and explaining abstract and complex concepts. These resources will help kids grasp the basic notions and gain knowledge by forming long-term memories facilitated by the connections between the anatomical terminology and the sensory activities. 

Use Human Anatomy Felt Board 

Big human anatomy felt boards are an amazing sensory tool to help children understand the idea of the organ systems, as well as learn the positions and structure of the major organs in the human body. 

If you’re quite the craftsman in sewing, you can make a human anatomy felt board for kids yourself, but the easiest way to utilize this tool in your lesson is to buy it. You can choose between Amazon and Etsy where you can find a great variety of models and prices. Whether you’re a teacher or a homeschooling parent, the prices are affordable and you can resell or use the model for future generations. 

Use Plastic Human Body Model for Kids

The old-school and classical alternative to the modern felt board is the plastic human body model for kids with removable organs. It’s a little bit more expensive but incomparably more realistic and detailed. 

The model shows all the systems in the human body and children can easily remove different parts of the model to inspect and describe them. 

In this model from Amazon, you’ll get 15 detachable pieces of the body including the brain, heart, esophagus and aorta, lungs, liver, intestines, and many others. The colors of the model realistically represent the organs, which means children will get a clear idea of what the body looks like on the inside. 

Children’s Books About the Human Body

There are some fascinating books about anatomy for children, including illustrations and color books. These resources go a long way in making anatomy a fun and fascinating subject for young children. 

Here is our choice for the best children’s books for teaching anatomy to kids: 

• The Fantastic Body: What Makes You Tick & How You Get Sick by Howard Bennett.
• My Amazing Body Machine: A Colorful Visual Guide to How Your Body Works by Robert Winston and Owen Gildersleeve.
• Human Body! (Knowledge Encyclopedias) by DK and the Smithsonian Institution.
• Ultimate Bodypedia: An Amazing Inside-Out Tour of the Human Body (National Geographic Kids) by Christina Wilsdon, Patricia Daniels, and Jen Agresta.
• My First Human Body Book by Patricia J. Wynne and Donald M. Silver.
• Human Body Activity Book for Kids: Hands-On Fun for Grades K-3 by Ph.D., Katie Stokes, M.Ed.

Interactive Worksheets About the Human Body

Yet another way to make anatomy fun and easy for kids of all ages is to use interactive worksheets that consolidate knowledge through many quizzes, crossword puzzles, fill-in words, or connecting different pictures or words with pictures elements. You can also use the worksheets to test knowledge without scaring kids with standardized tests. 

On our website, you’ll find 11 ready-to-use Human Body worksheets and interesting facts about anatomy in general. Follow the links to each individual organ system on which we have a separate worksheet bundle. On top of that, you can also browse our biology section in our worksheet library where we have many other worksheet bundles related to this topic. 

Animated Lessons on YouTube

Visual learners will appreciate the many animated YouTube lectures and other videos made on anatomy for kids. Including a video in your lesson will spice things up and break the monotony which can easily happen when children start hearing the unfamiliar terminology. 

Since there’s so much to cover, using short video lectures can really help you in making things clear and easy to understand. 

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Make a Life-Sized Anatomy Model

Going a step beyond is to use construction paper so you and your child together can create a life-sized 2D anatomy model. It’s a big project but it can be a lot of fun. 

The activity can be easily incorporated in the classroom or at the comfort of your home, depending on your circumstances. In the classroom, you can divide the students into groups and assign each group to make the organs from one organ system. 

You’ll need color pencils or watercolors, scizzors, and white construction papers. When the organs are done, let the children figure out where they need to pin them in the drawn human body as a foundation. 

This activity will help children learn the shape and structure of the organs, their color, function, as well as the position in the human body in relation to the other organs and body parts. 

Use Molding Clay for Creating the Human Body

Another way for children to learn the shape, form, and specific characteristics of the organs of the human body is to make them from molding clay. You can ask children to make certain organs, cells or tissues, such as stomach, lungs, red blood cells, and so on. Alternatively, you can buy a small plastic skeleton and ask the children to make muscles or certain organs so they can cover the skeleton. In the end, they can even try to make a skin from the molding clay, finishing the whole human body. 

Use Flashcards to Learn Difficult Names

Learning what the organs do, how they look, and where they’re positioned can be easily achieved through the sensory activities described above, making the whole process almost effortless. However, sooner or later children will have to memorize the terminology and all the big words. 

Good news is that flashcards do an awesome job in this task. The McCann and Tillotson’s Anatomy Flashcards are a big hit, which you can get for around $20. The package includes 300 detailed, full-color cards, which is quite a sweet deal considering the price. Plus, the quality of the flash is top notch as they’re used world-wide by university students and even health care professionals. 

Alternatively, if you have the time and patience, you can find detailed anatomy pictures on the internet, print them, label them, and make your own DIY flash cards. 

Before You Leave

Hopefully our lesson plan and interactive resources will prove to be useful tools in reinforcing the learning process on what’s otherwise a very difficult topic for kids to grasp. Using sensory activities and the familiarity principle (people develop a preference and like things that are familiar) can turn your lesson into a fruitful ground for future doctors or scientists. 

If you need more a specific lesson plan, don’t forget that with our Human Body Worksheet Bundle you’ll get incredibly detailed descriptions of each system and its functionalities, plus a special bundle for each system. With these resources, you’ll have everything you need to teach the unit from start to finish. Moreover, if you browse through our biology section in the worksheet library, you’ll find many useful worksheet bundles for supplementary reading. 

Finally, our blog is always here to support you with informative articles like this one here. Check us out to find other pieces of advice and practical guides for many aspects of children’s education.