bathtime

One great activity we do in our classes is a bathtime activity.  Its a refreshing break from the usual Head Shoulders Knees and Toes approach to teaching a parts-of-the-body theme. 
In Japan, people sit on a small stool outside the bath and wash there before they soak in the bath.  Traditionally the water is kept in the tub and shared by the family and reheated the next evening– though, not many Japanese do this nowadays. 

For this activity we give each of the students a small bath stool and sponge (a sponge only will work fine if you are not in Japan) and pretend to wash various parts of the body.  Shameless plug, but "The Bath Song" on Super Simple Songs is hands down, the best song to do this with.  You can have a lot of fun just pretending to take a bath, but adding some music to it makes it that much more fun.  If you really want to get into things, give your students some plastic bath caps, buckets for rinsing, rubber duckies, whatever you want.  A copy of "This Is The Way We Wash…." might work well too.  Have fun with it!

If you bring back the activity in a later class, try bathtime with stuffed animals!