Utopia Primary School, a Preschool in Dehradun hosted a personal hygiene week.
The science of germs is fascinating and learning about them is a gateway to showing kids how important it is to follow basic hygiene practices. They need to know what germs are as well as how easily germs spread. Following a basic hygiene regimen has a significant impact on many aspects of our lives. Adopting good hygiene habits is not just washing hands and brushing teeth. Therefore, teaching kids the importance of having a healthy hygiene routine at an early age enables them to stick to a routine throughout their lives.
As February is celebrated as Children’s Dental Health Month, here at UTOPIA, we designated the entire week as Personal Hygiene Week to educate young minds about good personal hygiene habits that will benefit them throughout their lives. We kickstarted the week with a teeth brushing activity that involved drawing a giant mouth on a sheet of paper, covering it with a plastic sheet, and with a marker, we drew germs and plague around the edges of the teeth. Then, we asked the children to brush away the germs to make their teeth clean. This activity helped them to understand the importance of taking care of their teeth and how to do it correctly, and in a fun way. Also, by doing this activity children developed essential skills like fine motor skills, motor planning, visual motor skills, sequencing, and attention.
Day 1 Brush your teeth
Other activities included germ forming, 3D germ models, and hand washing. In the germ-forming activity, we asked Junior Montessori kids to form germs with clay and stick them on a giant mouth drawn on a piece of paper. In the 3D germ model activity, we asked Senior Montessori kids to make a model of a germ with the help of clay and earbuds. With this activity, they were not only able to understand the concept of different types of germs but also got the basic idea of the structure of germs. In the hand-washing activity, we asked kids to wash their hand’s step by step for at least twenty seconds. Through this activity, we educated them that a virus is a type of germ and we need to wash away those germs.
Day 2 Make Germs and Bacterias and Clean them
At last, we ended the Personal Hygiene Week on a musical note with activities like hygiene rhymes and personal hygiene worksheets. The rhymes and worksheets assisted children to become more familiar with good hygiene habits that they should think about and create on their own.
Day 3 Hygiene rhyme, search and matching worksheet
Throughout the week we motivated kids to get accustomed to personal hygiene and follow it effectively with exciting and fun activities. We taught children that practicing good hygiene can be fun and turned the hygiene routine into something child anticipates. We believe that germs education doesn’t have to be a boring lecture or health textbook but fun and exciting activities like we had at our school, to teach kids about germs.