Hand Washing- 2care2teach4kids

Hand Washing

Teaching proper hand washing is one of the first procedures that should be taught at school. There are many great ideas for how to teach this important procedure. We do several different things to help reinforce good hand washing habits at school.

Here are a few ways we use Hand Washing resources in our preschool classroom.

*You can download all of these PDF resources in one Hand Washing Zip file here for FREE!

1. We print, cut, and laminate the Hand Washing Steps into mini posters that we hang at each sink, so the kids have a visual reminder of the steps.

2. We hang the Hand Washing Reminder poster by the bathroom door to remind the kids to wash after using the bathroom.

3. We read the book Those Mean Nasty Dirty Downright Disgusting but...Invisible Germs , by Judith Anne Rice, Reed Merrill and Petronella J. Ytsma. This is HANDS DOWN (no pun intended) my preschoolers favorite book all year long! Just a warning, they will make personal connections to this book! You will hear everyone's "puke" story!

We teach the kids the Germ Poem. Use the Germ Puppets (cut and glue to popsicle sticks) with the poem and story. We have rubber “germ finger puppets” (monster finger puppets) we have purchased from Oriental Trader that we use too. The kids absolutely love this book, the poem, and the germs!

4. Then we do the Hand Washing Activity- The kids can trace their hands on the activity sheet and then draw germs on their hands. We send the sheet home to help reinforce the hand washing steps at home. * I have my students glue on a “germ” too. I make copies of the Germ Puppet sheet and cut them up so each child can glue one germ on their hand picture too.

Have you tried Glo Germ with your students? It is kind of like that stuff you use to get from the dentist that you would chew and it would show you all the places you had missed when you brushed... Glo germ works the same way. It sticks to germs and then they show up with a black light! Pretty impressive way to help kids understand how important it is to wash hands thoroughly to get rid of germs! Check it out below!