Friend June 2017 “Healthy from Head to Toe” Match the numbered body part with the statement about body health.
Eating Healthy Foods
Friend June 2021 “For Little Friends” Heavenly Father wants us to take care of our bodies with healthy foods. Where are the red vegetables? What other colors do you see?
Friend May 2018 “Find It!: Funstuff” These kids are having lots of fun playing outside together. We’re promised that when we live the Word of Wisdom, we can “run and not be weary” (D&C 89:20). Find the hidden objects. Can you also find 10 basketballs? Then go to page 32to read about a basketball team who kept the Word of Wisdom!
Ensign August 2017 Play a game together that involves some sort of physical activity, and talk about the different, wonderful things our bodies can do. For example, you could play freeze tag. In order to be “unfrozen,” a player has to say something they like about what their body can do.
Friend May 2017 “At the Playground” Take turns pointing to a picture and then doing something to move that part of your body.
Friend August 2021 “Animal Games” Heavenly Father gave us amazing bodies. Getting good exercise is one way to care for them. Play an animal game with friends or family. Try hopping like a bunny or waddling like a duck. Take turns coming up with ideas! Or see who can make the best animal noises.
Friend August 2019 “Done with Swim Team” Some girls on Ava’s swim team make fun of her body. Ava wants to quit swim tea, but her mom helps her understand that not all bodies look the same just like temples don’t all look the same, but they are all beautiful, and the important thing is what goes on inside. Her mom also teaches her other important truths, and Ava feels the Holy Ghost telling her that they are true.
A Body is a Gift from Heavenly Father
Friend June 2022 “Amazing Grace” Grace could run fast and dance and her mom said her body was a wonderful gift. Sometimes it didn’t feel like a gift, especially when she compared herself to other kids at school. Thinking of her body as a gift helped her deal with a kid that said mean things about her body.
Taking Care of Your Body
Friend July 2020 “Lila’s Choice” Lila wanted to always choose the right, so when coffee was put in the milk at school, she decided not to have any milk that day. She was happy to choose the right and take care of the body Heavenly Father gave her.
Friend August 2019 “Amelia’s Growing Body” Amelia is learning to take care of her body by eating healthy, exercising, etc.
Friend May 2018 “Helping on the Farm” Liam uses different parts of his body to help on the farm.
Friend May 2017 “At the Playground” Emilie uses different parts of her body while at the playground.
Friend August 2019 ” My Body” An action rhyme about the things “my body” can do.
Safety from Abuse
Friend June 2017 “Tickling Trouble” Lizzie and Max learn that we should respect each other when we don’t want to be touched (including being tickled). We should also say stop if we don’t want to be touched, and tell a parent if someone doesn’t stop when told.
You could use this story to start a conversation about what is appropriate touch, and how it’s OK to stand up for yourself if you are being touched in a way you don’t like or a way you have been taught is wrong. Ensign June 2017
Body Needs Lots of Things to Be Healthy
Friend March 2021 “The Adventures Just Outside” After playing a math game on her tablet for a long time, Rylee’s mom explained that doing math is good for her brain, but too much screen time isn’t good for her brain, or for the rest of her body. They decide to go for a walk to the park, and Rylee finds lots of things to do that helps her brain grow stronger.
Help the children repeat “I, God, created man in mine own image” several times (Moses 2:27). Explain that Heavenly Father created our bodies to look like His. Invite the children to point to parts of their bodies as you name them, or sing a song about our bodies, such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” (Children’s Songbook, 275).
Invite the children to act out things they can do with their bodies, while the other children guess what they are doing. Invite the children to share why they are grateful for their bodies.
Draw an outline of a body on paper, and make a puzzle by cutting it into parts. Pass the parts out, and let the children work together to put them together to form a body. Ask the children to share the things they can do with each of the parts. Share your testimony that our bodies are created in God’s image.
[Using the picture below invite the children] to point to His eyes, mouth, and other parts of His body. Then invite them to stand and point to those same parts of their own bodies. Read from Doctrine and Covenants 130:22: “The Father has a body of flesh and bones … ; the Son also.” Testify that our bodies are like Heavenly Father’s and Jesus’s bodies.
Read together Moses 2:26–27. What do these verses teach us about our bodies? Show the video “God’s Greatest Creation” (ChurchofJesusChrist.org), or play the game “Your Body Is a Temple” (Friend, Aug. 2019, 24–25). You could also read together related quotations from President Russell M. Nelson’s message “Your Body: A Magnificent Gift to Cherish” (New Era, Aug. 2019, 2–7) that will help the children feel gratitude to Heavenly Father for their bodies.
Draw a figure of a body on the board, and invite the children to choose a part of the body and write next to it why they are thankful for it. Express your gratitude for your body, and testify that we were created in God’s image.
Show the children pictures of temples (see this week’s outline in Come, Follow Me—For Individuals and Families), and read these words from 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.” Help the children understand that Heavenly Father wants us to keep our bodies clean and holy, like a temple.(Come, Follow Me—For Primary: New Testament 2023 “1 Corinthians 1–7”)
Ensign August 2019 “Our Sacred Bodies” Ideas on how to teach children about the importance of their bodies, and that that their body is a temple where the Holy Ghost can dwell. Included in the article are ideas about how bodies are a gift, caring for our bodies, preventing abuse, saying kind things about other’s bodies.
Friend August 2019 “Your Body is a Temple” Activity comparing how the body is like a temple.
Display a picture of a child, and put pictures around it of things that are good for our bodies and things that are bad. Invite the children to take turns identifying the good things and removing the bad ones.(Come, Follow Me—For Primary: New Testament 2023 “1 Corinthians 1–7”)
Gospel Living “Activity: Caring for Our Bodies“ (See link for additional teaching ideas.) Help children understand how our food and sleep choices affect our bodies. Bring in examples or show pictures of a lush, green plant and a wilted plant. Talk about how plants need food from the soil, water, and sunlight to grow. If they don’t get those things, they wilt. We need good food, water, and rest to be healthy too.
Explain that eating healthy food, drinking enough water, and getting enough sleep all help us to have the energy we need to work and play during the day.
Play a game where the children line up on one side of the room. When you say something that helps us take care of our bodies, have the children start running to the other side of the room. When the children hear something that’s not helpful for taking care of our bodies, have them stop. Try to get all the children to the other side of the room. For example:
It’s fun to use the below images for the song, and then have the children take turns mixing them up and singing it again. Also, you could have each child tell why they are grateful for their bodies before their turn mixing up the cards.
I should treat my body with respect and keep it holy. (Sr)
Talk with the children about how we should treat a temple. If our bodies are like temples, how should we treat our bodies? Singing or reading the words to a song about temples, such as “The Lord Gave Me a Temple” (Children’s Songbook, 153), can help answer this question. When we make mistakes, how can we make our “temples” clean again?(Come, Follow Me—For Primary: New Testament 2023 “1 Corinthians 1–7”)
For the Strength of Youth April 2024 “24 Hours” A lot can be accomplished in 24 hours. Your body does a lot for you in 24 hours. What can you do for it? Make a goal to do something healthy for your body.
Our Amazing Bodies
Friend June 2022 “Find It” Heavenly Father gave us wonderful bodies. We can use them to play and have fun and to help others. Can you find the items hidden below?
Friend August 2019 “Cover” Compilation of clipart of some things our wonderful bodies can do.
LessonPix “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” Song idea. Print the pictures, cut them apart into cards, and then use them to sing the song. To make the song more interesting, have the children mix up the pictures on the top two rows and/or the bottom two rows and then have them do the actions and sing the words in their mixed up order.
Friend October 2018 “What’s on Your Mind?” Question: “Sometimes I don’t like the way I look. How can I learn to love my body?” Response from Friend magazine: Focus on what your body can do.. When you look in the mirror, pick one thing about your body that you’re grateful for. Also, your body is a temple. Think of it as a house for your spirit.
Friend May 2018 “Every Body is Beautiful” Bodies come in all colors, shapes, and sizes. All bodies are beautiful gifts from God. Look at the children in the picture. What do all of these children have in common? (For example, they all have eyes.) What is different?
Media Messages About the Body
Friend August 2019 “What’s on Your Mind?” A child writes to the Friend this question: I don’t look like the people I see on TV and social media, and sometimes it makes me feel bad about myself. What should I do?” The Friend responds: “There are messages all around that tell you that how you look is the most important thing about you. But that isn’t true! There is so much more to who you are.” (Also included is a quiz that helps sort out the truth from the lies about the body.)
Friend June 2017 “Tickling Trouble” Lizzie and Max learn that we should respect each other when we don’t want to be touched (including being tickled). We should also say stop if we don’t want to be touched, and tell a parent if someone doesn’t stop when told.
Friend August 2022 “No Poking!” Lily likes to poke Cait when they are playing. Cait doesn’t like it. Her mom tells her ““If someone touches you and you don’t like it, you can tell them no.”
Taking Care of Emotional Health
For the Strength of Youth July 2024 “Emotional Wellness Kit” Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you and want you to care for your body. And “caring for your body includes caring for your mental and emotional health” Here are things you can do to help yourself be emotionally healthy too!
