Toddler Arabic Week 5: Body Parts — أعضاء الجسم (a'da' il-jism)

Part of the Toddler Arabic series — one toddler-sized topic each week, taught realistically in the cracks of a busy schedule.

The focus this week is body parts. My plan is to borrow every routine that already touches them — bath, dressing, tickles — and add the Arabic word at the moment it's most obvious. Pointing games are toddler gold, so we'll be doing a lot of "wen il-...?"

This week's words

• راس (ras) — head
• عين ('ayn) — eye
• إذن (idn) — ear
• أنف (anf) — nose
• تم (tumm) — mouth
• إيد (id) — hand
• إجر (ijir) — foot
• بطن (batn) — tummy

How we practiced

• Bath time naming: washing each part and naming it — the routine does the repetition for us.
• “Wen il-...?” game: “Where’s your ras?” (head) — pointing games are toddler gold.
• Tickle attack: announcing the target in Arabic before tickling it. High engagement, obviously.
• Getting dressed narration: id through the sleeve, ijir into the pant leg, every morning.
• Sticker game: he puts a sticker on each body part as he names it — peeling and placing is half the fun.

Free printables & activities

Get the free Toddler Arabic printable pack

Pop your email in below and I’ll send the whole set — every week’s colour-and-trace printable, in Arabic — straight to your inbox.

No spam, ever — just the printables and the occasional new post. Unsubscribe in one click. Privacy policy.

A book we love: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (Bilingual Arabic & English) by Skye Silver. We read this one over and over and over — he adores it. Every line is in both Arabic and English, so it’s perfect even on days I’m not up for Arabic, or for an English-only speaker in the house.

One more resource worth bookmarking: Bilingual Kidspot’s Arabic body parts for kids guide. The Arabish Way is wonderful — such a warm, clear way into teaching little ones Arabic.

From our playlist

From our playlist: Jesm Al Insan (The Human Body) by Lila TV is the on-topic pick, and the Arabic Hockey Pokey gets the same words into his whole body — id in, id out, shake it all about.

This one is on repeat in our house — hands down his favorite song right now: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in Arabic.

Here’s another Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes version we come back to: this one.

How it actually went

Honest version, split into what worked and what didn’t. What worked: singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in Arabic was the real standout — because he already knows the English version cold, the familiar melody carried the new words and they just slotted right in. He’d light up the moment it started and do every motion, touching his head, shoulders, knees, and toes on cue. The sticker game was a big hit for engagement too — he loved peeling them off and sticking them on. What didn’t: that same sticker game showed how far we still have to go. He only ever wanted “sticker tummy” — fixated on his batn and ignored every other part — and he kept defaulting to English the whole time. He’s clearly hearing the words, but he isn’t producing them yet. More work to do here: I think he’s still a touch young, and I need to slow down and name each part more deliberately instead of letting it whip by.