“Mommy why is it so important to wash your hands?” asks Amanda. “Yea mom I don’t understand, there isn’t even anything on them!” Shouts Allie.

Their mother thinks about this for a moment and then says,

“Well believe it or not even though you can’t see them there are germs on your hands. If you don’t get rid of the germs they can make you very sick.”

Amanda has a puzzled look on her face and she asks, “What are germs?”

Excitedly Allie jumps in the air, “OOOO! I know! Germs are tiny bugs that you can’t see but they can live on your hands and if they don’t go away they can make you very sick.” Impressed mom says, “Good Job Allie! That’s exactly what they are!”

Amanda still a little confused adds in, “So you get rid of these germs by washing your hands?” “Yes exactly” says mom “But only if you wash them properly.”

“What do you mean?” Asks Allie, “Don’t you just run them under the water?”

“No! Not at all” says mom “You must scrub very well using warm water and soap.” “For how long?? Like 3 days?” Amanda asks sarcastically.

“No silly” says mom “Just about 30 seconds or maybe even a little longer.”

“Okay mommy, thanks! We will be sure to wash our hands very well at school today!” Amanda shouts as her and Allie run to the bus.

As the kids pile in after recess Miss. Olivia says patiently, “Okay class settle down, settle down! Every one get to your seats please!”

“Can I go wash my hands first?” asks Amanda, “I want to get all of the germs from the playground off.” “Me too!” shouts Allie.

“Why of course!” says Miss. Olivia, “Everyone should wash their hands!”

Allie raises her hand, “Ms. Olivia, I have a question! I know you’re supposed to wash your hands after playing on the playground but when else?”

Ms. Olivia thinks for a second and says,

“Well Allie you’re supposed to wash your hands all the time. Like when you’re sick so you don’t pass germs or even if you just cough, sneeze, or blow your nose. Also, after you are around someone who is sick so you don’t get their germs. Anytime before you eat food or before you prepare food. After going to the bathroom and of course after playing outside.”

“That’s a lot to remember….” says Amanda.

“It’s not that difficult” Ms. Olivia interrupts, “Just think every time you do something where you think your hands picked up on a lot of germs or before you do something where you don’t want to spread germs to other people you must wash your hands!”

“Okay class let’s play a little game for the rest of the day! Everyone come up to me and I am going to sprinkle a different color glitter on your hands then I want you to walk around an introduce yourself to everyone in the class room by either shaking their hand or giving them a high 5!”

OOOOO! Yayyy pinkk! Shouts Amanda. Allie all super excited starts making her rounds, “I got blue! Hi how are you I’m Allie, Hi I’m Allie, Hey I’m Allie, What’s your name? I’m Allie….”

“Has everyone introduced themselves?” asks Ms. Olivia. “YESSSS!” Amanda and Allie shout at the same time.

“Okay now do me a favor and look at your hands” says Ms. Olivia. “Whoah! I have every color in the rainbow on my hands!” notices Allie. “Me too!” Amanda says surprised.

“Does anyone know why we did this?” Asks Ms. Olivia.“To make a mess?” Amanda says confused.

“No goof! Pretend the glitter on your hands are germs that you can see.” Ms. Olivia says as the class looks down at there hands.

“See how many germs you just passed around to each other?” The girls look grossed out. “Now you guys know how easily it is to pass germs and why we need to wash our hands.”

“Time for us to wash our hands” Ms. Olivia says, “But first I have a couple of tips for you: don’t make the water too hot because your hands will get chapped and it will be easier for germs to stay on them,

also it’s a good idea to keep your finger nails short and clean because they are a great place for germs to hide.”

“I never wash my hands long enough, I hate counting all the way to 20 and sometimes they still have soap on them.” Allie says depressingly.

Ms. Olivia has an idea, “Okay here is a fun song we can sing while we wash our hands and it will make sure we wash them very good! It goes like this…”

“It's fun to wash your hands and I know you understand so we washy washy clean, scrub scrub. We start with washing palm to palm between each finger let us rub now the back of the hands, its such a simple plan we washy washy clean, scrub scrub

Clean the base of the thumbs one by one, then the back of the fingers this is fun! Don't forget your fingernails, its about details. We washy washy clean, scrub scrub. Now move on to the wrists, let us scrub em think were nearly done, so now what?

Just rinse the soap away, dry our hands and were ok, we washy washy clean, scrub scrub. So we washy washy clean, scrub scrub. We washy washy clean, scrub scrub. It's fun to wash your hands and I know you'll understand, we washy washy clean, scrub scrub.” By the time Ms. Olivia has finished the whole class has joined in excitedly.”

“Whoah that’s catchy! Now I’ll never forget how to wash my hands!” says Amanda very proudly. Allie looks sad, “I can’t remember all of those words.”

Ms. Olivia has a quick solution, “That’s okay Allie, we will keep practicing but for now you can just sing your ABC’s while you wash your hands!”

As the busses arrive Ms. Olivia tries to organize everyone “Okay class, see everyone tomorrow!”

Once they’re seated on the bus Allie says, “Amanda, I’m really glad we learned so much about keeping our hands clean today, now I’ll never have dirty germy hands again!”

Amanda agrees, “Yea me neither! I can’t wait to tell mom about the song we learned, she’s going to be so happy!”

Happily ever after…the end!