Germs

I will confess, I am a bit of a germaphobe. I use a lot of hand sanitizer and wipes, we wash our hands a lot in our house, shoes do not go past the front hallway. My husband is worse than I am, but won’t admit it. And, as parents of children in group care, we all know that we are starting the season of lots of runny noses, coughs, and colds…not to mention the flu, so I’m on heightened germ alert. Great news, last week at school they focused on germs.

At circle time, they read Bear Feels Sick, Who’s Sick Today, and Germs Make Me Sick.

For Science Lab, they did 2 experiments. The first activity was to put Vaseline on their hands and then try to remove it. First, they tried rinsing it off in cold water. Then they tried warm water. When they realized that didn’t work, they tried soap, warm water, and rubbing their hands together. They all discovered that with a little soap and singing the ABCs while they rubbed their hands together, they were able to remove the Vaseline. Then, they did a “Pepper Run” experiment. They put water into bowls and sprinkled in some pepper; the pepper flakes were the germs. When they touched the water with a piece of soap they saw the germs run away. Conclusion: germs don’t like soap.

Of course, they did an art project about germs, too (that’s why I’m not a teacher – I would never be able to come up with an art project about germs!). Each child traced their hand and cut it out then drew a face on a paper plate. Then put them together with a tissue to demonstrate how you sneeze into a tissue.

And, everyone got stickers – the teacher used the Bright Horizons Staying Healthy stickers – it was hysterical when my daughter came up to me and said, “A-choos to use a tissue.”

--Commuter Mom