How can we embed the idea of the safety etiquettes into our daily rhythm of the day? How can infant to school-aged children understand the importance of washing hands and covering their coughs or sneezes? What are some fun things we can do to explore these notions?
We are sure many of us start to hear this from children, “I just washed my hands!” The educators in Parkland Players brainstormed ideas and ways to go about to bring these topics to the children according to their eye level. Because we needed children to understand that they need their hands washed or sanitized after each activity and touching their faces or other un-sanitized surfaces in a way that lowers the frustrations, we incorporated a variety of different methods.
And here are our children hygiene favourites:
- Animated or Photos of them washing hands step by step posters in the washroom and during circle time.
- Song lyrics that can be sang for 20 seconds.
- In our school-aged groups, we sang songs that we can ‘Dab’ as a cool way to cover our coughs and sneezes! It is super fun with all age groups, we promise, they will love it.
- Hygiene songs and books for young children to attract washing hands as fun and enjoyable time.
- Demonstrate and wash your hands beside children when time allows. Have a small chat or sing songs together!
- Try various art and science exploration that connects to the importance of the self-hygiene. Check out our Bitaa Website for various activity ideas. For washing hands, our favorite activity is Remember to wash your hands