My Decoupaged Life: Mommy School {G is for Germs}

The spread of germs is still a pretty foreign concept for my daughter so I wanted to take some time to teach her about germs, the prevention of them, and the letter G. I found some great activities as well as came up with a few of my own that I really think your child would enjoy!

Materials Needed:

Small bottle of cornstarch based baby powder
Spray bottle of water
Hand sanitizer
Super fine glitter (the type you get at beauty supply stores)
G tracing page
1 bar Ivory Soap
Hand washing coloring page
G letter search
Small magnifying glass

Hook: Using the magnifying glass, have your child search for all the letter G’s in the letter search. You can have them circle them. Ask them if it was difficult to find them. Why? (because they were small). Explain that there is something so small we can’t even see it that begins with the letter G. They are germs. Explain what a germ is.

Step 1: Ask your child if they know how germs spread from one person to another and make them sick. Place a little bit of the glitter in your hand and a dash of sanitizer (you can mix the two together in the bottle completely if you’re using this for a larger group). Rub them on your hands and pretend to cough into your hands. Then give your child a high five. See if they notice the glitter that has been transferred to their hands. Touch a few surfaces (ones you don’t mind cleaning glitter off of). Explain to your child that the glitter (G word!) is like the germs. Even though we can’t see germs they spread to everything we touch just like the glitter is. That’s why it’s important to cover our coughs and wash our hands. You could even inspect all your “germs” using your magnifying glass. Note: This idea isn’t mine! It came from the fabulous Little Miss Kindergarten.

Step 2: Conceal the baby powder in your hand. Pretend to cough without covering your mouth. As you do squeeze the bottle so it shoots out. Explain that the powder is also like germs. Repeat with a spray bottle and sneezing. Make sure your child understands the concept of germs spreading and why it’s important to wash our hands and cover our mouths with our elbows. Note: These fabulous ideas came from Heidi Songs.

Step 3: Pull out the hand washing coloring page. Let your child color it as you explain the proper steps.

Step 4: Time for a little science experiment! Pull out your bar of Ivory soap. Explain to your child that soap is very important for washing our hands because it helps to kill and wash away all the germs. Then tell your child that you think that bar of soap is just too small and you think that you’ll need more. Follow the directions here for putting the soap in the microwave. When it’s done it will have erupted. Explain that the soap is now full of air. Ask your child is they still think it will work to wash their hands. Break off a piece (let them mold it if they want to) and test whether or not it still works (it will) using the steps from their coloring page.