Resource Round Up of Body Parts Cards

Most early childhood and elementary school checklists and assessment guidelines state something to the effect of, “Child will be able to name, point to and use various body parts appropriately.” Unlike with many directives in official State standards documents, most parents and educators have no qualms about helping children to meet this one. Age appropriate activities and fun abound when doing so.

One avenue for exploring this standard is through playing games using Body Parts cards. Of course, there are loads of traditional and less-traditional card games that can be played, such as the ones we shared about here and here. Then, there are more unique ways to use the cards – attaching tape to them and having children race to attach them to appropriate places on dolls or actual bodies; attaching them to the sides of large dice and playing “Move your ~” after rolling the dice, grabbing a bean bag or small stuffed toy and challenging children to balance them on whatever Body Parts card they draw from your hands… Ideas for using Body Parts cards are almost as numerous as resources for the cards themselves.
And, it is with these resources in mind that I share the following round up of links to some of our favorite free Body Parts cards:

• For those who like photographs and prefer Montessori-style three-part cards for learning and activities, check out the 22 different ones that Basia at United Teaching made.
• For those who like realistic graphics and would like cards that could be used three-part card style, but are a small enough for children’s hands to handle easily for games such as Memory or Go Fish, check out the four sets at the bottom of the page on Kids-pages.com.  We used some of these for our travel activity bags, which we wrote about here.
• For those who would like a quick deck to keep in your pocket or purse for long card rides, waiting room time, etc., feel free to use the ones I made for one of our car trips. Just click on the graphic on this post. When you do, a large picture of the graphic, ready for printing and cutting, should pop up. (or, if you’d prefer a Publisher version of the file, simply leave a comment with email address and I will send you one!
• For those who want to choose the size of their picture cards – large, medium or small – or would like power point flashcards. As well as for those who would like some ideas and plans for use, try the ones at MSL English Free Printables for Teachers.
• For fun smaller ones that can be printed in black-white or color, Bingo style, follow the steps a DLTK’s Custom Bingo Cards.  The third click of the process (which is actually labeled “second step”) will allow you to choose body parts.
• For a variety of small or larger body parts cards, with words or without, see the downloadable ones at ESL-Kids. These are great for early readers as they use the written style "a" not the type print style one  that is used throughout thisw post.
• And for those who like giggle-inducing cartoon-like drawings, there are three sets of picture cards available at ESL Flashcards.

Of course, with a topic as ubiquitous as “Body Parts”, wonderful resources – both free and otherwise – abound. We’d love links to those you enjoy as well as comments about how you explore body parts with your own children.  and, be on the look out at Sensational Homeschooling in the next few days for the Don’t Lose Your Head! Keep Body Parts Cards Handy this Summer post, which will offer simple, silly and sensory-smart ideas for using Body Parts cards to hone in on each of the senses.