What Are Germs?

What are germs? How do I get sick? What can I do to not get sick? How do you wash hands correctly? These were some of the questions we learned about today in Preschool.
Our Entry Activity included play dough, linking blocks, cars and traffic rug, and kitchen and play food.




We enjoyed listening to and singing The Green Grass Grew All Around. (The children laughed att the end of this cumulative song because they speak of a tiny germ that jumps on a flea.)

Nathan proudly shows me his "Dragon."

It's a picnic!

Before snack time we read about what a germ is. We learned that germs are all around us. Germs are so tiny that we cannot see them without a special machine called a microscope. There are different types of germs. Some are called viruses and some bacteria and they could make us sick. They come in many different shapes.

We learned about proper hand washing and then went to the bathroom to practice scrubbing our hands and singing the alphabet or a Happy Birthday song while we clean under our nails, "inside, outside, and in between" our fingers, rinse and then dry our hands on a clean towel.

Our snack included things that looked like germs or a "bug" (sickness):


After playing outside, we came in and practiced washing our hands. Then we applied lotion to our chapped hands. In circle time we played a ball game and I made a dramatic show of sneezing (tiny purple glitter) all over our ball and then passing it on to the children. Then we shook hands and repeated a get-to-know-you game from the first days of school. When we looked down at our hands, we were able to "see germs" (glitter) and how they had spread from my hands to their hands. Some children choose to wash their hands and others wanted to keep their sparkling hands for our art activity.


For our follow-up art activity, we used glue sticks to trace our hands and then turned our hands over and "caught some germs" (micro-glitter). In our mini discussion group, we talked about how frequent hand washing before meals/snacks and after playing outside or being at school will keep us from catching germs and getting sick. We also spoke briefly about coughing and sneezing into our elbow, hands, or a tissue and then washing our hands to keep others from catching the same "bug." Also, we need enough sleep and to eat nutritious foods to keep us healthy.


Some of the books we read and talked about today:


**Special thanks to Olivia for providing recent snacks and Nathan for the Clorox wipes that will help us keep clan and kill germs.
Another book about when a child needs to take medication to kill a "bug" is Buz by Richard Egielski.