Preschoolers will listen to a story entitled “Meet Bacteria”, which is an excellent introduction to conversations about taking care of personal hygiene. They will take part in the “Ah-choo!” experiment that will allow them to see how easily bacteria and viruses spread. They will listen to the short song entitled “The Sneeze Song” and will also do the “Germs” art work.

Materials:

a story entitled “Meet Bacteria”, germs emblems, a song entitled “Bacteria’s Love”, picture cards with germs and a microscope, tambourine, hand puppet, flower sprinkler with water and glitter, small toys, e.g. a block, crayon, doll, car, puzzle, “The Sneeze Song” lyrics, a song entitled “Row row row your boat”, colored paper, black marker, scissors, glue, “How do I take care of personal hygiene?” picture cards, drum.

Activity description:

* Teacher places emblems of germs in various places in the room – more and less visible – in the amount corresponding to the number of children – so that each germ has its own pair. If the number of children is odd on a day, one germ will be for a teacher.
If we have such a possibility, the germs can be discreetly disassembled by the teacher’s assistant, e.g. during the conversation with children after the story – then you are sure that children would not find the germs before the movement activity.

1. ‘It’s morning’ – greeting children – children and their teacher sit in the circle. Teacher says the nursery rhyme and shows the correct movement. Children try to imitate them. Next, they try to say the nursery rhyme with their teacher.

It’s morning.
The sun is coming up. (raise hands up and wave fingers)
It’s morning.
It’s time to wake up! (stand up slowly)

It’s morning.
Let’s start a new day. (march in place)
Let’s work,
Let’s laugh and play! (laugh)

It’s morning.
There’s so much to do. (march in place)
Good morning friends! (wave to others)
Good morning to you!

2. “Meet Bacteria” – listening to a story by Rebecca Bielawski – children sit comfortably in a circle and listen to the story.

Next, teacher asks children:

• Where we can find bacteria?
• What do they like?
• What naughty bacteria can do?
• What we should do after the toilet and before food?
• Are all bacteria bad?

3. “Where are the germs?” – movement activity – children run freely around the room to the rhythm of the song “Bacteria’s Love”. For a break in the music, they look for pictures of germs hidden in the room. We keep playing until all the pictures are found.

4. “What are germs?” – didactic activity – teacher puts picture cards with germs and a microscope on the carpet, and then talks to children about them (explaining the concept of germs – microorganisms, invisible to the “naked eye”, visible under the microscope). Teacher informs children that germs are present everywhere around us, on us and within us, but not all, or even most, are not dangerous.

• If you have the opportunity, watch germs with children under a microscope.

5. “Find your match” – movement activity – teacher spreads the pictures with germs on the carpet. While playing the tambourine, children run freely around the room between the pictures, during the break, children pick up one picture from the floor. Then, children move freely around the room, during a break in the game teacher gives the following commands: “Pairs” – children with the same germs pair up; “Colors” – children with similar germs colors stand in the groups. Teacher checks the correctness of the task and children exchange the pictures. Repeat this game several times.

6. “Ah-choo!” – performing the experiment – children sit in a circle on the carpet. Teacher informs children that Teddy Bear, who has never been to the preschool room, has visited them and would like to say “Hi”. Teacher uses a puppet and a sprinkler hidden behind them to greet individual children by spraying water with glitter on their hands – pretending that Teaddy Bear sneezed on their hand. Then, he/she asks children to do something, e.g. say hello to a friend by shaking hands, give John the block, take the doll to Ali, etc. – the water with glitter from the hand of the sprayed child is transferred to the object that the child takes, and then to the hand of the next child, who will take this item later. Teacher asks:

• What happened when shook your friends’ hands/touched toys?
• How does this relate to germs?
• What can we do to clean the glitter – germs off?

Children can use tissue, paper towel or water. Finally, teacher asks children to wash the glitter – germs off with soap and water. During hand washing, teacher sings the song entitled “Washing Hands Song” to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”.

Wash, wash, wash your hands,
Soap will make them clean!
Scrub the germs ‘til they fall off,
They go down the drain.

7. “We run away from germs” – movement activity – teacher walks around the room, spraying water with glitter. Children hide, run, run away so as not to get “germs”. Keep playing this game for 2-3 minutes.

8. “The Sneeze Song” – didactic activity – teacher sing the song entitled “The Sneeze Song” to the tune of “Pop Goes the Wease” and shows the correct gestures.

The Sneeze Song

When I have to cough or sneeze
This is what I do. (point finger)
I hold my elbow up. (hold up elbow in front of face)
And in to it kerchoo! (pretend to sneeze in elbow)
KKEERRCCHHOO! (say this line as you dramatically pretend to sneeze in your elbow)

After the song, teacher talks with children about the lyrics of this song. Then, children listen to it again and repeat the teacher’s words and try to sing it.

9. “The Right Way to Sneeze!” – didactic and movement activity – children march, sing and show the gestures according to the song entitled “The Sneeze Song”.

10. “Germs” – artwork – teacher presents and talks about how children should do the artwork. Next, he/she asks selected children to place materials and asks children to the tables. After the artwork is done, they clean up, sit on the carpet and present their works – they can come up with names for their germs and tell about their place of occurrence, what favors them and what bothers them, and whether they are harmful or helpful to humans.

1. Cut random shapes from colored paper.
2. Glue the shapes onto white paper.
3. Draw black lines coming from cut-out shapes.
4. Glue the eyes onto the germs and draw a smile.

11. “Only touches the floor” – movement activity – teacher asks children to stand in such a way that they only touch the floor, for example, with one leg, knees and hands, with one elbow and one knee, one foot and one elbow, with only one hand (children themselves have to come up with an idea of how to do it, e.g. use a chair and put a hand on the floor).

* 12. “How do I take care of personal hygiene?” – didactic activity – teacher spreads the picture cards on the carpet so that the children cannot see what is on them. Then, he/she asks children one by one to select and reveal more pictures. After revealing each picture, teacher talks to children about the subject shown in the picture.

* 13. “I know how to take care of personal hygiene” – movement activity – children run freely on the carpet while teacher plays the drum, during a break in the game they demonstrate how to take care of personal hygiene in accordance with the picture shown by a teacher, e.g. they imitate brushing teeth, combing, bathing, sleeping, etc.

Attachments:

The emblems of germs for the “Where’s the germs?” and “Find your pair” activities

Photos for the “What are germs?” activity

Picture cards for the “How do I take care of personal hygiene?” activity

Pages used:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8nVx6IU5p0&ab – a story entitled “Meet Bacteria” for the “Meet Bacteria” activity
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ykHJnWxli4&ab – the song “Bacteria’s Love” for the “Where are the germs?” activity
3. https://supersimple.com/song/row-row-row-your-boat/ – a song entitled “Row row row your boat” for the “Ah-choo!” activity
4. https://drjeanandfriends.blogspot.com/2012/04/sneeze-song.html – “The Sneeze Song” lyrics for the “Ah-choo!” activity
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrUdD2dX8e4&ab_channel=Rock%27NLearn – a song entitled “Pop Goes the Weasel” for “The Sneeze Song” activity
6. https://www.messylittlemonster.com/2020/03/germ-craft-teach-kids-about-germs.html – the idea for the “Germs” artwork