Ages 6–8 · 8 little discoveries
Tosbi’s Body Notebook
Eight discoveries about the five senses and how they work together, respect for different ways of sensing, what the skeleton does, how muscles move bones, the heart and the blood, breathing, and telling a trusted grown-up about strong body signals.
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Which sense tells what?
Match a clue, such as a colour, a sound, a smell or something rough, to the body part that gets it: eyes, ears, nose, tongue or skin.
Tosbi has five senses. Each sense brings one kind of news. Eyes see colours and shapes. Ears hear sounds. The nose picks up smells. The tongue knows if food is sweet or sour. Skin feels rough, smooth, warm and cold.
Match the news to the sense. A rainbow has colours, so the eyes get that news. A drum goes boom, so the ears get that news.
Careful: a sense cannot get the news that belongs to another sense. Ears cannot see the colours of a rainbow. Eyes cannot hear a drum. Each sense gets its own kind of news.
Now you try. Tosbi smells warm bread. Is that a colour, a sound, a smell or something to touch? Say which sense gets that news.
The senses work together
Name which sense brings each piece of news in one scene, and say that two senses together tell more than one sense alone.
On a rainy day Tosbi uses many senses at once. The eyes see grey clouds. The ears hear the tap-tap of the drops. The skin feels cool air. Together they tell the whole story.
A bell rings. The ears hear it, and then the eyes look to find the bell. Hearing and seeing help each other.
Careful: one sense alone can give a wrong guess. A paper flower looks like a real flower, so the eyes say “flower”. But the nose finds no flower smell. Two senses check each other.
Now you try. The kitchen smells of warm bread, and then Tosbi sees the loaf on the table. Which sense told first, and which sense found the loaf?
Different ways of sensing
Match glasses, a hearing aid, Braille and sign language to the sense each one uses, and choose a kind, respectful way to meet a friend who senses the world differently.
People sense the world in different ways, and that is normal. Some friends wear glasses to help the eyes see clearly. Some use a hearing aid, which makes sounds louder for the ears.
Braille is writing with raised dots, and fingertips feel the dots to read. Sign language uses hands, face and body, and the eyes watch the signs. Both are ways to pass on words.
Careful: a different way is not a worse way. A friend who reads Braille reads stories too, with the fingertips instead of the eyes. Nobody is missing something. Do not ignore a friend, and do not grab a helper like glasses.
Now you try. A friend reads a Braille book. Which part of the body does the friend use to read? And what is kind to do before touching the book?
What the skeleton does
Say two jobs of the skeleton: it holds the body up, and it guards soft parts. The skull guards the brain, and the ribs guard the heart and the lungs.
Under the skin is a skeleton with more than two hundred bones. Bones are hard and strong. The skeleton holds the body up, a little like the poles of a tent.
The skeleton also guards soft parts. The skull is a hard cover around the brain. The ribs are curved bones, like a cage, around the heart and the lungs.
The backbone is a stack of many small bones, so it can bend. Careful: one long bone, like this one in the leg, cannot bend.
Now you try. Point to the skull and say what it guards. Then point to the ribs and say what they guard. Last, say what the backbone does.
Muscles pull bones
Show that a muscle moves a bone by pulling: a short, fat muscle means a bent arm, and a long, thin muscle means a straight arm.
A muscle is joined to bones by strong cords. When a muscle gets shorter, it pulls a bone, and the bone moves. Here the muscle is long and thin, and the arm is straight.
Now the muscle gets short and fat. It pulls the lower arm up, and the elbow bends. A short, fat muscle means a bent arm.
Careful: a muscle can only pull. It cannot push. A rope can pull a cart, but it cannot push it. Another muscle on the other side pulls to make the arm straight again.
Now you try. The muscle in the first arm is long and thin, and in the last arm it is short and fat. How bent is the arm in between?
The heart is a pump
Say that the heart is a pump that pushes blood round the body in a loop, and match slow or fast taps of the pulse to resting or running.
The heart is a strong muscle about as big as your fist. It works like a pump: it squeezes and pushes blood out. It never stops, day and night.
Blood travels in small tubes called blood vessels. It goes all around the body and comes back to the heart. The way is a loop.
Careful: this picture is wrong. Blood does not go in a line and stay at the end. It goes round and comes back to the heart.
Each push of the heart makes a tap, called the pulse. When we rest, the taps are slow. When we run, the heart pumps faster, so the taps come faster. Now you try: which strip has the faster taps?
Lungs fill with air
Show that breathing in fills the lungs and makes the chest wider, breathing out makes the chest narrower, and the air goes to the lungs, not to the stomach.
We breathe all day. Air goes in through the nose, down the windpipe and into the lungs. The lungs are two soft parts inside the chest.
When we breathe in, the lungs fill with air and the chest gets wider. When we breathe out, the air leaves and the chest gets narrower.
Careful: air does not go to the stomach. The stomach is for food and drink. Air goes to the lungs.
Now you try. Say it in a row: breathe in, the lungs fill, the chest gets wider. Breathe out, the air leaves, the chest gets narrower.
Telling a grown-up
Choose to tell a grown-up you trust straight away when the body gives a strong signal such as pain, dizziness or trouble breathing.
Your body can give strong signals. A pain that hurts a lot is a signal. Feeling dizzy, as if the room is spinning, is a signal. Trouble breathing is a signal. Signals are the body’s way of asking for help.
When the body gives a strong signal, tell a grown-up you trust. It can be a parent, a carer, a teacher or another grown-up near you. Say it straight away. Grown-ups know how to find the right help.
Careful: do not wait and hope it goes away, and do not keep it a secret. Telling early is never silly and never a bother.
Now you try. Say it out loud: “My body is giving me a signal. I need to tell a grown-up.”