Munchkin Monday: Glow in the Dark Bone Recognition Game

My little family and I spent an evening at the dollar store (fun times- those dollar stores!) I bought a glow in the dark skeleton thinking it would be so cool to hang in my daughter's room- like a Halloween night light!
Well, you get what you pay for. The dollar store skeleton didn't GLOW very well. But that's OK. Because we were able to come up with this fun and very educational activity!

Glow in the Dark Bone Recognition Game

Boo highlighting the femur during our Bone Recognition Game

Supplies:
dollar store glow in the dark skeleton
flashlight
knowledge of bone names

Pregame stuff:
Hang up the skeleton (so your kids can reach the skull- for a non-example look at the pic above!) Tell your kiddo that you are going to play a glow in the dark game with the skeleton! How fun, right! Show 'em how you highlight an area of the skeleton by shining the flashlight directly on top it.  It's like you are painting the bones with light.

If your skeleton is a cheap one like mine, only the bone that was highlighted with direct light will glow... and not for a very long time, either.

Game:
Have one child step out of the room. Give another child a flashlight, and tell her to highlight the femur (or any other bone) on the skeleton with the flashlight (remember direct light for a few minutes). Bring the first child back into the room and tell her to quickly point to the femur (She shouldn't be able to tell which one was highlighted). After she guesses, turn the lights out to see if she guessed correctly! Remember to play fast!

There are also game adaptions- 

• For those just learning the bone names, you can have them highlight a bone and then talk about it. 
• You can use the everyday names (shoulder, foot, backbone) instead of the scientific names for those young learners.
• YOU can highlight a bone, turn the lights off, and have a young child state the everyday name(shoulder, foot, backbone) and an older child state the scientific name.

Happy Teaching!

You can find this awesome post linked up to the following Fantastic Parties: