Dirt & Germs

Learning Goal: Personal hygiene is important to maintain health and prevent illness. Many diseases are caused by germs (viruses and bacteria).

• Reading= Mud Puddle by Robert Munsch, Good Thing You’re Not an Octopus by Julie Markes and Farm Flu by Teresa Bateman (or On Top of Spaghetti by Paul Brett Johnson). Letter of the day= G is for germ.
• Art= Paint with "mud". Finger paint with chocolate pudding to make your own mud puddle. Don’t forget his eyes, hands and mouth! Children can help prepare the paint by shaking the milk and pudding mix in a sealed container.
  
• Fine art= Show Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa. Point out that she is not smiling. Perhaps she did not take good care of her teeth! Encourage children to brush regularly.
• Science= Try this soap & pepper experiment to demonstrate how soap washes away dirt and germs. Generously sprinkle pepper (representing dirt) on top of some water in a bowl. Put a dab of dish soap on the tip of your child’s finger. Touch the water and watch the pepper dash to the side of the bowl. Explain that soap even washes away germs that are too small to see. Show photos of germs at high magnification. (I recommend using Sneeze! by Alexandra Siy and Dennis Kunkel.) Next, put glitter or flour (representing germs) on your hands after pretending to sneeze or cough. Shake hands, use the bathroom, play with plastic blocks, etc. See how easy it is to spread and catch germs! Say good-bye to glitter germs as you demonstrate the proper way to wash your hands.
• Play= Blow some homemade bubbles, take a bubble bath in your swimming suit, or wash the family car together!

Fun facts: Bacteria are single-celled organisms that do not have a nucleus or other organelles. Viruses are not alive because they cannot reproduce without help from other cells. Infectious bacteria can be treated with antibiotics but viruses cannot.