During this crazy pandemic, it is important to teach the children the importance of keeping ourselves clean. One way to do this is to wash our hands with soap and water. Washing our hands helps prevent both the spread of germs and getting ourselves or others sick.
Before school closed, washing our hands was always a favorite activity! The students washed their hands as soon as they got to the classroom, before meals, in the bathroom, and whenever they got germs on their hands. We also talked about why it is important to wash our hands with soap and water.
To help your child understand the importance of washing hands at home, try this fun science experiment! Here are the materials you need:
- (2) Bowls
- Water
- Pepper
- Soap (Antibacterial dish soap may work best and you only need a tiny bit)
- Towel or paper towel (in case if there are any spills)
Here is the procedure for the experiment:
- Fill up one bowl with water and pepper.
- Put a little bit of soap in the other bowl.
- Have your child put their finger in the bowl with water and pepper (you will see that nothing happens at first – that is okay!)
- Have your child take their finger out of the bowl with water and pepper. They will see the pepper on their finger.
- Have your child put their finger in the bowl with soap.
- Have your child put their finger in the bowl with water and pepper. You should see the results of the experiment.
After doing the experiment, check out this read aloud of the book, Germs Are Not For Sharing, by Elizabeth Verdick.
Why is this experiment important? The pepper in this experiment represents germs. Before your child put their finger in soap, they got pepper on their finger. This represents the germs getting on their hands. After your child put their finger in the bowl with soap and placed it in the bowl with water and pepper, they should have seen that the pepper floated away from their finger. This experiment is important because it is representing the removal of germs from their bodies, therefore, keeping us safe and healthy!
In the event you are unable to do this experiment at home, or if you would like to see this experiment in action before doing it, please check out this YouTube video of the experiment: