Germbusters

My very best wishes to you for a good green healthy positive and inspiring new school year! What better way to start the year than a good hand washing lesson and check!

GERMBUSTERS

Tiny living things called bacteria and viruses are found everywhere. . . in the soil, water, and air, and on almost everything.. They are so small that we cannot see them except through a microscope. Some are good and some are bad for us. They have different shapes like balls, rods, and spirals. Draw circles, spirals, and rods on a board for young students. Viruses are even smaller than bacteria. There are many ways to get germs that can make us very sick.

Ways that germs spread:

Drinking after someone
Breathing the air of someone sick.
From someone coughing germs into the air
Handling things that are dirty (discuss the many things we do with our hands)
Not washing our hands and putting them in our mouths.
Food that is contaminated or spoiled
Not washing hands after we use the bathroom
Not cleaning our skin if it is cut or bitten or scratched
Bacteria multiply fast and give off poisonous wastes. Viruses force their way into body cells and multiply until the cells burst open. WBC’s and antibodies are proteins in our blood that attack germs. Ask students if they remember ever being sick. Some germs are very dangerous such as measles and chicken pox and we go to a doctor and get a vaccination so we won’t get them. I use a little thermometer and a toy syringe for a shot. Act out the signs of having a germ: fever, chills, ache, vomit, rash on skin, cough.

Examples of germs in the body include the germs of a cold, flu, measles, mumps, and chicken pox, food poisoning, West Nile virus, and swine flu. One should rest, drink plenty of water and go to the doctor if you don’t start to get better. If they have a cut or scrape in their skin they should wash it, apply an antibacterial medicine and cover it with a bandaid depending on how bad or deep it is.

What was the first thing you did when you came into this world? BREATHE. You must have air to be alive. Can you see air? You feel air when you blow on your hand but you can’t see air. Air is INVISIBLE.
Has anybody seen a germ? Like the air, germs are INVISIBLE. Say that word. Invisible means we cannot see them. I usually start out with the little air fist and they can’t see air but can feel it and see it in action. Germs are invisible like the air and they are everywhere! Let them name some of the many things they do with their hands. They have many opportunities to gather germs! The best thing they can do to keep from getting germs that make them sick is to wash their hands.
Act out being sick: “Oh, I’ve got a headache, my throat hurts, my stomach hurts, I’ve got diarrhea, I feel like I might vomit.” I check my body temperature to make sure my body isn’t getting warmer. (Your body gets warmer and you get chills when you have a fever.) If I get worse I might need to go to the doctor. He may check my blood to see if the white blood cell count is high. White blood cells multiply to fight the germs. The doctor may prescribe medicine or give you a shot if you are sick. Sometimes I let them hold a thermometer to see how the body heat will make the thermometer rise.

Have a bowl of water, soap and towel ready and give them a lesson on how to wash their hands, making sure to get the front and back of the hands and in between their fingers. Make sure they rub their hands to make bubbles. It’s the bubbles that carry away the germs when you rinse them. I show them a hand brush and talk about how germs get under your fingernails sometimes and you need a brush to clean them.

I have noticed that many young children simply dab a drop of soap on their hands wash it off right away, grab a towel, wad it up in a ball, and throw it in the trash and their hands are still wet! Dampness attracts germs so I check to see how they dried their hands.

Glitterbug Potion is a hand lotion that is fluorescent. 8 ounces is a lot of lotion. I rub it over my hands pretending that it is germs and then I go around the circle and shake hands with each of them. They look at their hands under a blue light to see the germs and then go and wash them and then look again to see if they got the germs off. The fluorescence will remain where they did not wash. They carry a small inexpensive glow bar UVA light to check their hands and if they did a poor job, I go over how to wash them and we wash them together. They have a great inexpensive hand brush and it would make a great bonus gift for good washing.

Spend at least a week with young children giving attention to hand washing. Let them draw pictures of germs and tell stories about when they were injured or sick (Give them a chance to practice talking.) Teach children to listen and share through their stories. They love to talk and tell them.