Monday, October 5, 2009

A fun hand washing experiment

Flu season is right around the corner and from what I hear it's not going to be a good one!
We did a little review of hand washing today with a simple but fun experiment.
First, we talked about how bad it feels to be sick and everyone said their least favorite thing. For Emma and Adrienne it was stomach pain and for Colin ear and headaches (he just came off of a ruptured ear drum so it's still fresh in his head).
We went on to discuss ways we could try and prevent becoming sick: eating fruits and vegetables, taking vitamins, exercising, getting enough sleep, and most important WASHING OUR HANDS. The right way.
The kids each put their hands in different color glitter (which represented the germs), and shook hands with one another. They could see how all the different colors of glitter ended up on all of their hands, and how fast and easy germs are spread.
I defined the word variable (which was new for Emma and Colin), and assigned each of them a different way to wash their hands. Colin with just water, Adrienne with soap and water but only for five seconds, and Emma with soap and water for 30 seconds.
You can guess what happened.
We also reviewed the proper way to wash hands, scrubbing the top of your hands as well as between fingers.
I think this may be something that we do every fall in preparation for the sickness that winter will surely bring. The kids really enjoyed this, and even if it only prevents one illness from coming into our house it was well worth it!!!







2 comments:

Laura said...

What a fun way to teach hand washing! I think we'll give that a try too!

Chas said...

We so need to do this also! It really does make an impression, doesn't it??

Having fun!
Maybe heading into "town" tomorrow.