563 students learned information on handwashing and germs. Germs spread extremely fast and easily in general, but more in schools. A lot of Kindergarteners have never been in a school setting and have their immune system built up enough to fight off the germs that are easily spread in their classrooms between other students and teachers.

The lesson focused on handwashing and healthy practices as a school attendance initiative. The methods used to teach the program were a storybook, germs visuals, and hands-on activities.

The first activity was reading a story about handwashing. I introduced them to the common germs, flu, strep throat, covid-19, and the common cold.

The second activity was with Glo Germ. Glo Germ was added to the Extension Agent’s hand without the children knowing. The presenter told the class that she had was go glad she was able to meet them and went around shaking each one of their hands. The presenter showed the class her invisible “germs” with the black light and explained how important it was to wash your hands after or before many situations. The presenter went around and shined the black light on their hands. The “germs” from the presenters’ hands were now evident on the children’s hands. This activity demonstrated how easily germs are spread and the importance of keeping hands away from their face and mouth, especially at school.

A third activity was done called The Bread Experiment. The activity demonstrated germs growing faster on bread touched by all students, on bread touched by one student, and one bread that had not been touched at all. All three pieces of bread were stapled to a poster board and kept in each classroom to remind the students what they learned during the lesson.

I went into 25 Kindergarten classrooms that had between 21-25 students in each class, on average 563 students total. I spent 30 minutes in each room for 3 full days.

During the first activity, there was reading of a story about handwashing. Before reading the story, I asked "Can you was your hands with only water to clean them?" 13% of the the students answered yes. By the end of the book, the same question was asked and 100% answered the question correctly indicating soap must be used to clean your hands.