Muscles Activities for Kids

These K-3 activities provide parents and educators with ideas for reinforcing learning at home about muscles. These activities are designed to complement the BrainPOP Jr. Muscles topic page, which includes a movie, quizzes, online games, printable activities, and more.

Classroom Activities for Teaching About Muscles

Simon Says
Play a game of “Simon Says” and have students point to different muscles in their bodies. For example, you might say “Simon says to point to the hamstrings” or “Simon says flex your biceps.” You might challenge them with an instruction like “Simon says use your quadriceps and hamstrings” and see what activities or exercises they come up with. Then have student volunteers act as Simon and call out instructions.

Muscles Everywhere

There are over 600 muscles in the human body! Some are voluntary muscles and others are involuntary muscles. Assign student pairs a region of the body, such as the face, head, chest, abdomen, hands, feet, or even the ears. Then have pairs research to find about different muscles in their region and present information to the whole class. What muscles help you wiggle your toes? What muscles help you hear?

Family and Homeschool Activities for Teaching About Muscles

Exercise Plan

Promote a healthy, active lifestyle. Come up with an exercise plan that you can do together with your child. Even exercising just a little everyday can promote health. Focus on different muscle groups in your plan. For example, you may choose a day to workout the leg muscles. You may want to do squats or leg lifts. Discuss the different muscles that you are focusing on and challenge your child to come up with exercises on his or her own that focus on the muscles.

Animal Muscles

Animals’ bodies differ vastly from that of humans. Research different animals together, such as kangaroos, crocodiles, and gorillas. Kangaroos have well developed back leg muscles to help them jump, while crocodiles have extremely strong tail and jaw muscles. Gorillas have well developed arm muscles. How do these muscles support the way these animals move?