Basic Body Needs

For 5–7s, teach the durable frame 'my body needs these things, and it often tells me when it doesn't have them'. The four basic needs — food (energy to move/think/grow), water (hydration), sleep (rest and growth), exercise (strong muscles and heart) — are anchored to bodily feelings the child already knows: hungry, thirsty and sleepy signal that food, water or sleep is needed, while a heart beating faster during and after moving shows the body working when we exercise (it is not a signal that exercise is missing). The key idea is need→consequence as simple cause-and-effect, drawn from the child's own experience rather than abstract categories or nutritional detail. Keep it concrete and personal, and distinguish a need (the body must have it) from a want (sweets, toys we merely enjoy).

• 'Food and water are the only needs' — forgetting that sleep and exercise are equally basic needs, not optional extras.
• 'Only some people/athletes need exercise' — missing that movement is a need for every body.
• 'Needs are just things I like/want' — not distinguishing a want (sweets, toys) from a need the body requires to work.
• 'You only need to sleep when you're tired' — missing that sleep is a regular requirement for growth and rest.
• 'Snacks/juice are the same as meals and water' — an early confusion that anticipates the balanced-diet topic.
• 'These are human-only needs' — not yet seeing that animals share the same basic needs.

• Four-need picture set (food, water, sleep, exercise) matched to felt signals (hungry, thirsty, sleepy, heart beating)
• A 'daily routine' strip showing when each need is met across a child's day
• Simple need→consequence pairs ('no water → thirsty', 'no sleep → tired')
• The child's own body as evidence — feel your heartbeat speed up after moving
• A care-for-a-character scenario where the child provides each need in turn

• Anchor each need to a felt bodily signal the child already knows: hungry→food, thirsty→water, sleepy→sleep, and 'do star jumps, feel your heart' for exercise — so the need is recognised from experience, not memorised.
• Teach need→consequence as simple cause and effect ('what happens if you don't sleep?'), because the reason a need exists is the whole point for this age.
• Use sorting/matching of everyday pictures (a bed, a meal, a water bottle, running) to the four needs to make the categories concrete and active.
• Keep it a shared HUMAN (indeed animal) frame — 'every body needs these' — which links gently to animal needs and to the child's care for pets, without adding nutrition detail.
• Avoid over-reaching into food groups, hydration science, or sleep cycles; the objective is naming the four needs and why each matters, kept vivid and personal.