Hand Washing Steps

Five pictures of two hands at a sink fill this kindergarten page, each with a dashed box beside it for a number. They are out of order. On the sheet shown one pair of hands is under running water with soap suds still on the palms and bubbles in the basin, one is under running water with clean hands, one holds the bar of soap with the tap off and drops falling, one holds up a striped towel, and one rubs in a cloud of foam. The child writes 1 to 5 in the boxes to show how we wash our hands: wet, soap, scrub, rinse, dry.

Hand washing is the habit teachers ask for most often in a school day, and children do it quicker than they can describe it. Putting the steps in order slows it down: why does the soap come after the water, why rinse before drying. The two water pictures are the ones to talk about. Hands under the tap before the soap are clean, and that is wetting; hands under the tap after the scrub still carry suds, and that is rinsing. Ask children to find the suds on the hands before they number.

One sheet, five boxes, five numbers. Hang a finished page above the classroom sink and it becomes the reminder. Kindergarten children can do the numbering alone once the steps have been acted out with real soap. The next face of the healthy habits family moves to teeth and asks whether each step comes before, during or after brushing.