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Overview

​​​​​​​​​​​​Kindergarten to Grade 3 students are very curious about how living things grow and mature. Most are ready to describe their own physical characteristics including their own body parts and functions as well as the five senses. Becoming more aware of their surroundings, students describe ways people are different or the same and identify trusted adults who promote healthy growth and development.​

The Orange County Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of this outside information. Further, the inclusion of links to particular items in hypertext are not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed or products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites.​​​​

Curriculum and Lessons

PBS Learning Media: Birth Growth, and Development Lesson

In this lesson, students come to understand that all living things have a life cycle that includes being born, developing into an adult, reproducing, and eventually dying. Lesson for grades K-2.​

Learn More

Book List

Kindergarten

Let’s Meet a Doctor

by Bridget Heos (2013)

Let’s Meet a Dentist

by Bridget Heos (2013)

Going to the Doctor

by Anne Civardi (2006)

The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist

by Stan Berenstain (1983)

What to Expect When You Go to the Dentist

by Heidi Murkoff (2009)

I Need Glasses: My Visit to the Optometrist

by Virginia Dooley (2002)

Arlo Needs Glasses

by Lauren Child (2009)

I Really Absolutely Must Have Glasses

by Lauren Child (2009)

Inside Your Outside: All About the Human Body

by Tish Rabe (2003)

My BodyWorks: Songs About Your Bones, Muscles, Heart and More!

Bby Jane and Steven Schoenberg (2104)

My Five Senses

by Aliki Brandenberg (1989, 2015)

Look, Listen, Taste, Touch, Smell

by Pamela Nettleton (2004)

All Families Are Special

by Norma Simon and Teresa Flavin (2003)

1st Grade

First Human Body Encyclopedia

by DK (2005)

Human Body: A Visual Encyclopedia

by DK (2012)

The Magic School Bus: A Journey into the Human Body Kit

by The Young Scientists Club

I See the Animals Sleeping: A Bedtime Story

by Thomas Heffron (2011)

It’s Not the Stork! A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families and Friends

by Robie H. Harris (2008)

3rd Grade

Tom, Johnny, and the Growing Arm Bone

by Anat Shabi and Arjun Mohan (2016)

Classroom Activities

  • Sing the “Skeleton Dance” or the “Hokey Pokey” song while pointing to corresponding body parts.
  • Create an “I Am Me” life-size cutout for each student to decorate and personalize.
  • Have students create anatomy flipbooks that display various internal and external organs.​

Partnerships

​Partnering with the Family​​

  • Families are encouraged to help reinforce that every child has similarities but is also unique and special​.
  • Families are encouraged to share their own experiences with growth and development​. 
  •  Families are encouraged to set a foundation for dialogue at this early age to establish a comfortable rapport between students and their parents, caretakers, or guardians as ​they encounter more complex subjects related to growth and development.​​​

​​Partnering with your School​​​​​​​​

  • Host a classroom open house for other grades to come visit the class pets or plants and hear students talk about the life cycle.
    *Be sure to check for pet allergies before having a class pet or inviting other students to a room with a pet. Also, follow school and district allergy and animal policy.
  • In classrooms that can not have pets, student drawings and photo collages of pets can be displayed.
  • Host a Healthy Apple Campaign where students create and decorate apple cut-outs identifying healthy behaviors and place them around the school.

​​Partnering with your Community​​

  • ​In​vite guest speakers who defy traditional gender roles that include individuals of all genders, including people who are transgender​.
  • Students can write and illustrate a collective letter inviting health care works to speak in the classroom. 
  • Partner with local dentists who provide free, preventive services. 
  • School nurses can provide mandated vision and hearing assessments for all kindergarteners. 
  • In person or virtual field trip to local farm, zoo, or aquarium to see how living things grow and mature​.
Orange County Department of Education
  • 200 Kalmus Drive
    Costa Mesa, CA 92626
  • PO Box 9050
    Costa Mesa, CA 92628-9050
  • (714) 966-4000

Developed by Orange County Department of Education in
partnership with California Department of Education

  • Orange County Department of Education
  • California Department of Education

This Internet site contains hypertext links to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for your convenience. The Orange County Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of this outside information. Further, the inclusion of links to particular items in hypertext are not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed or products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites.
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