Don't get sick.....wash up quick!!  That was the slogan for the day!!  We began with this great....very kid friendly....video about germs.  Lots of places in this video where the kiddos were laughing and the grown-ups were saying YUCK and shaking their heads no!  We learned what germs are, what they can do to us, where they live, and how to get rid of them! 

Big Smelly Bear by Britta Techenrup is a story about a bear who doesn't want to take a bath. He is so smelly that none of the other animals want to be around him. There are germs and flies all around him.  One day he gets an itch on his back that he can't reach.  No one will help him because of how bad he smells.  Finally, he meets Big Fluffy Bear who tells him that if he takes a bath, he will scratch his back.  Big Smelly Bear agrees and washes all the dirt, germs, and smelliness off in the pond.

For science we did an experiment about how germs are spread.  We used sparkly silver glitter as our germs.  I pretend coughed in my hand.  There were about a million germs in my hand and on the table.  I gave the kid beside me at the table a high five.  He had germs on his hand.  That kid passed them along to the next friend.....all the way around the table!!  Then Ms. Ellen went to the door and touched the door knob.....you guessed it.....glitter germs on the door knob!  They were EVERYWHERE!!  We talked about how quickly that happened and since we had already learned that germs will make us sick.....we headed off the bathroom to wash the germs away with soapy water. 

The kids all practiced good hand washing today.....front, back, and in between our fingers.  Making lots of bubbles and rinsing the germs away!  Some kids got all the germs on the first time......and some had to take a second try to get them all!   

I didn't know that germs could be such a fun and interesting topic.....but after today......I have a whole new perspective!!  I'm hoping that we didn't create germ-o-phobics.....or maybe I'm actually hoping that we did!!