Your brain is the control center of your whole body. It lets you think, remember, feel emotions, move, and experience your senses. It is protected inside your skull and connected to your body through nerves.
Show a picture or model of the brain and discuss its size (about the size of two fists together). Talk about all the things the brain does: thinking, remembering, feeling, moving, sensing. Play memory games to demonstrate the brain at work. Discuss why helmets protect the brain.
Children often think the brain only handles thinking and schoolwork. They do not realize it also controls movement, senses, emotions, breathing, heartbeat, and virtually everything the body does. Some children think bigger brains are smarter, which is not true.
Your brain sits inside your skull, protected by hard bone, and it is in charge of absolutely everything your body does. It is wrinkly, grayish-pink, and about the size of two fists held together. It might not look like much, but it is the most complex and powerful thing in your body — arguably the most complex thing in the known universe.
When you read these words, your brain is processing the shapes of letters, turning them into words, and understanding what they mean. When you ride a bike, your brain is coordinating dozens of muscles, keeping your balance, watching where you are going, and reacting to obstacles — all at the same time. When you feel happy or scared, that is your brain too. When your heart beats and your lungs breathe without you thinking about it, your brain is running those programs in the background. It never takes a break.
Your brain is connected to the rest of your body through nerves — thin threads that carry electrical signals at incredible speed. When you touch a hot stove, nerves in your hand send a signal racing up to your brain, your brain processes it in a fraction of a second, and sends a signal back down to your hand muscles to pull away — all before you even consciously think about it. Your brain is always learning, too. Every experience, every practice session, every conversation changes the connections inside your brain, making it better at the things you do often. That is why practice works: you are literally building your brain every time you learn something new.
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