Germs

Germs

We learned that germs are tiny living things that can make us sick. 

Germs are so tiny we can't even see them but scientists can see them using a tool called a microscope that makes the germs much bigger. 

We talked about some of the many ways that we share germs:  sharing drinks and food with someone, dropping food on the floor and eating it, not covering our mouths when we sneeze or cough, dropping dirty tissues on the floor, and preparing food without washing our hands.

 We also discussed some of the best ways to protect ourselves from germs:

1. Wash our hands often and well

2. Cover our nose and mouth with our arm when we sneeze or cough

3. Throw dirty tissues in the trashcan

4. Go to the doctor when we are sick (and for wellness checks)

5. Don't touch our mouth/eyes/nose with our dirty hands

6. Don't share food and drinks with others

We did two demonstrations together.  

The first demonstration showed us the best way to wash our hands.  We had germs (glitter) on our hands and the germs did not come off with wipes or hand sanitizer.  The germs (glitter) did come off when we used warm water, soap, scrubbed our hands, rinsed, and dried with a clean towel.

The second demonstration showed how germs react to soap.  I placed a small amount of water on a plate and that was to represent our skin. Next, I sprinkled pepper on the water and that represented the germs that get on our skin.  Lastly, I put a drop of Dawn soap in the middle of the pepper and the germs (pepper) immediately raced to the outer edges of the plate. The kids were impressed!

We had several "germ" centers and also explored all around the Discovery Room.

Several books we read and discussed:







Other books on germs:

During my Germs lesson, we had a few snow days that mixed up our schedule, so some of the students got a bonus Discovery lesson until all the classes could have the Germ lesson.  We created several fun solutions with water.  The kids got to help with every solution.  And not all our combinations mixed together to create a solution.  We talked about water solubility and insolubility. Sugar and salt are water soluble but plastic beads and popping corn are not!

We also played with Insta-Snow.
The kids got so excited watching the polymers grow with the water added!

The little ones were eager to get up-close-and-personal when we stirred our solutions together.