A Visit From The Nurse

We had a visit from another community helper today... it was a nurse!  She stopped by to teach us about germs and proper hand washing!  It was perfect timing because we are just entering our cold and flu season. (Even though our preschool staff does a great job wiping down rails and door knobs...We can't keep sickness and germs out of our classrooms.)  Our nurse did an awesome job teaching us about how germs hide all over our hands and did a science experiment with us.  She gave us some "fake" germ lotion to rub on our hands.  Then she used a tiny light to show us that there were tiny specks all over our hands... we just couldn't see them.

 

Then she taught us to sing "Happy Birthday" while we washed our hands in the bathroom.  So we all took a trip to the sinks and did our best hand washing.   As we came out of the bathroom she used that same light to show us that the germs were all gone!!!  It was amazing to our children.  She emphasized washing really good in between your fingers and all around your fingernails.

 We also did another science experiment, but will watch this one at the preschool for the next few days.  We used white bread and lots of hands to see how quickly germs grow... Right now all four of the bread slices look totally great.... but we'll have to do a daily report to see what happens.

 It will be lots of fun to observe the children throughout this process.  We do lots of talking about staying healthy and this little lesson really helped them understand why it is so important to use soap and water to send those germs down the drain.  Many thanks to this community helper for taking the time to stop by and for these totally cute treat bags!!!!  There were lots of goodies in there to keep our hands clean and to make washing our hands really fun!