Janice VanCleave's Play and Find Out About the Human Body: Easy Experiments for Young Children (Play and Find Out Series)
PreSchool-Grade 2?This well-organized collection of experiments is based on questions children ask about their bodies. Chapters cover skin, hair, the skeleton, circulation, respiration, digestion, and senses. Each activity starts with an inquiry posed by a perky cartoon drawing of a child: "I wonder...Why do I get scabs?" or "I wonder...Why do I have hair on my body?" The simply written directions are easy to follow while uncomplicated black-and-white line illustrations show exactly how to do them. The expected results are clearly explained. Many of the questions have more than one activity. The materials, for the most part, are everyday things such as straws or jars. A few of the projects take place over time, and it might be hard to keep younger children interested. A "Before You Begin" section treats safety considerations and gives adults general ideas on how to carry out the experiments and make them meaningful to youngsters, while an appendix offers a more complete discussion of the concepts. Some of these experiments are included in other books about the body, but this is still a good resource for early-education teachers and for parents of homeschoolers or curious children.?Martha Gordon, formerly at South Salem Library, NYCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.