Kindergarten Germs Lesson/Lab

For my science standards I need to teach that pathogens are living things. For each activity we need to conduct a lab. For germs I will be doing glitter and lotion to show how proper hand washing is necessary to keep from spreading germs.

To first show how germs go everywhere, I held a bag of pom poms in my hands and pretended to "sneeze" without covering my mouth and threw them everywhere. (They just about fell off their chairs laughing. My aide included! They ran after the pom poms with glee. UNTIL I explain that those are my germs. EW!)  This showed them how we need to use our "Chicken Wings" to cover our mouth and nose when we sneeze or cough. We discussed how we spread germs to others and that can cause us to get sick. We went through our living things chart to describe and identify how germs are living things.

 Now, of course the students used soap when they washed their hands. But why do we need soap?! For the last part of the lab I demonstrated the need for soap.

We placed water into a dish. I then sprinkled on the germs (pepper). I had one student dip their finger into the water. Nothing happened, well, if anything they now have germs on their finger. I then instructed another student to dip their finger into the soap and then put it into the water. Abracadabra! The soap repelled the germs!