Tag Archives: Hygiene

Harry the Dirty Dog, Gene Zion

            Harry is a white dog with black spots until he goes out to play.  When he comes back his family does not recognize him, how will he make them know who he is?

Materials

  • A variety of brushes (floor, nails, vegetable, hair etc)
  • Glitter, small amount
  • Harry the dog shape
  • Pictures of dogs
  • Oil pastels and watercolor paints

Vocabulary

  • Buried (too dig a hole and put something inside)
  • Furiously (with great energy)

Before Reading the Story

            Begin a discussion on the importance of keeping our bodies clean.  Why do you think you need to brush your teeth, take a bath, and wash your hair?  Have you ever gotten really, really dirty?  What did you have to do to get clean again?  Introduce the story by stating that today’s story is about a dog that got so dirty, his family did not even recognize him.  Show the children the cover, can they tell which the dirty dog is (left or right)? 

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth, and toileting. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Reading the Story

            Look at the picture of Harry playing in the street.   Ask the children if this is a safe place for a dog or a child to play?  On the page with the coal chute, make sure to point it out to the children.  As you read, stop on the various pages and ask questions.  Do you know what coal is used for?  When you are tired and hungry, where do you go?  Do you think Harry’s family will ever recognize him? 

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules such as fire safety and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities. AND Language Development/Speaking & communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, nedds, questions, and for other varied purposes.

After Reading the Story

            Survey the children by asking them to raise their hands if they like taking a bath.  Raise their hands if they like to take a shower.  Raise their hands if they like to take a sponge bath.  Make a graph that shows the results of this simple survey. 

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use language to compare numbers of objects with terms such as more, less, greater than, fewer, equal to.

  Bring out your collection of brushes.  Hold up one brush at a time and ask the children if they can tell what they are used for.  Have them pantomime the action. 

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Discovery

            Put a small amount of glitter onto each child’s hands.  Tell them that the glitter represents the germs that get on your hands when you play.  Have each child practice their hand washing techniques and check to see if they were able to get the glitter off. 

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, hand washing, brushing teeth, and toileting.

Music and Movement

            Teach your children the poem After the Bath make actions to match words.

After my bath, I try, try, try

To towel myself till I’m dry, dry, dry

Hands to wipe, and fingers and toes,

And two wet legs and my shiny nose.

Just think how much less time it would take,

If I was a dog and could just shake, shake, shake!

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

          Sing My Dog Rags https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjiH_pj1_Lw

   I have a dog. His name is Rags.

   He eats so much that his tummy sags.

   His ears flip flop and his tail wigwags

  And when he walks he goes zigzag.

He goes flip flop, wig wag, zigzag.

He goes flip flop, wig wag, zigzag.

   He goes flip-flop, wigwag zigzag,

   I love Rags and he loves me.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

            Sing, the Opposite Song (to Pop Goes the Weasel)

Everything I always say,

You always say the opposite.

When I say bla-ack,

You say white.

 (Opposites from story dirty/clean, hungry/full, boy/girl, flip-flopped/flop-flipped, mother/father, happy/sad) 

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; uses an increasingly complex and varied spoken vocabulary. AND Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities, including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances.

Blocks

           Challenge the children to build a bridge to go over the train tracks like the one in the story. 

Physical Health and Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beds, and using scissors.

Art

           Put out several pictures of dogs of different breeds.  Help the children to see what all the dogs have in common (4 legs, head, tail, etc.).  Help the children verbalize that dogs can be very different.  Encourage the children to draw their own breed of dog. 

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences. AND Creative Arts/Art; progresses in abilities to create drawings, paintings, models, and other art creations that are more detailed, creative, or realistic.

Sand and Water

           Bring in several nail brushes and fill the table with soapy water.  The children can use the brushes to wash toys in the room. 

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth, and toileting.

Library and Writing

            Give the children a copy of the dog shape and let them color them with oil pastels.  They then use a dark watercolor paint to paint over the entire dog shape.  The oil pastels will bleed through.  Ask the children to tell you about how their Harry got all his dirty spots, write down their responses and attach to their picture. 

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Dramatic Play

            Put the variety of brushes into the center for the children to use today.  Encourage the children to pretend to wash the babies, the dishes, and the house. 

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations. AND Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; approaches tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness.

Math and Manipulatives 

Play a spot counting game.  Let the children take turns rolling a dice.  Have them count the spots on the dice and then take that many manipulatives (poker chips or buttons work well).  Let each child have several turns rolling and counting out the number of manipulatives.  If you had three spots/dots and now you add two more, how many do you have in total?  When they are finished, have them count their pile. Who has more, less?  That’s a lot of spots!

Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increased abilities to combine, separate, and name “how many” concrete objects. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

Outdoor Play

            Take a scrub brush out onto the playground and take turns hiding it. 

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions,; to take turns in games and using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.

Transitions

            Ask the child to pretend to wash a body part that you name for them.  If the children are good at naming general body parts, add more such as knuckles, nostril, shin, heal, and gums. 

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Dear Parent,

            Today we talked about the importance of bathing and keeping our bodies clean.  During evening routines, ask your child to show you how to wash their bodies and brush their teeth all by themselves.  Praise them for a job well done.

oil pastels with watercolor paints
Akita
German Shepherd
Spitz
Dalmatian
Welsh Corgi
Retriever
Chihuahua
Bulldog
Border Collie
Beagle
American Eskimo
Australian Terrier
Airedale

Carlos and the Squash Plant, by Jan Romero Stevens

Carlos likes to help his parents farm their garden but he doesn’t like washing up afterwards.  His mother has warned him that he better wash up or he might grow a squash plant out of his ear.  Find out what becomes of Carlos and if he listens to his mother’s warning.

Materials

  •             Small bar soaps, cut a larger one into quarters
  •             A variety of nail brushes
  •             A squash that is in season or squash seeds
  •             Several hats, preferably straw

Vocabulary

  •             Ay caramba (Oh my goodness!)

Before Reading the Book

Sometimes our parents tell us to do things that we do not want to do. Ask the children for examples.  If none are given ask them if their parents tell them it is time to go to bed, time to brush their teeth,time to turn off the TV.  Explain that parents tell their children what to do to help keep them safe and healthy. 

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, hand washing, brushing teeth, and toileting.

Show the children the cover of the book and ask them if they think they can tell what the story is about.  Look at the boys face, how do you think he feels?  Now turn the book over and show the back page. Look at the boys face, how do you think he feels now?  Ask the children why he might be feeling this way.  Turn the book back over and begin.  

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Reading the Book

As you read, ask the children questions; Carlos did not listen to his mother? What do you think will happen?  Why do you think Carlos is wearing the hat?  Do you think his Mother knows there is a plant growing from his ear?  How do you think Carlos will get the squash plant to disappear? 

Approaches to Learning/Logic & Reasoning; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.  AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Control; develops growing understanding of how their actions affect others and begins to accept the consequences of their actions.

                       
After Reading the Book

Talk to the children about the importance of bathing (cause you will be all stinky, the germs will get on you).  Ask the children if they think a squash could really grow out of your ear?  What does a seed need to grow? 

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and respect for their bodies and the environment.  And Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge  of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Give all the children a paper towel.  Tell them that you are going to play a game like Simon Says but it is called Slippery Soap. Call out “Slippery Soap says to wash your elbow!”.  The children then take the paper towel and pretend to wash their elbow.  Continue,as you would play Simon Says.   Include such body parts as knuckles, ankle, thigh, abdomen, gums, eye brow, etc.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Discovery

If it is the right time of year, get some squash seeds or bean seeds to plant in cups. 

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Bring in a squash that is in season.  Let the children use all their senses to describe the squash. 

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, observe processes and relationships.

Make the Calabacitas recipe in the back of the book. 

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, observe processes and relationships.

Music and Movement

 Teach the children the poem/song  Dig a Little Hole

Dig a little hole                                                              Pretend to dig a hole

And you put the seed in.                                              Pretend to drop a seed into the hole

Cover it with dirt                                                          Pretend to cover the hole

And let the sun shine in                                               Arms overhead to make sun

Add a little water                                                         Wiggle fingers like rain

And keep it fed

Pretty soon a little plant will show its head          Make a hole with one hand touching finger                                                                                                to thumb.  As the other hand pushes                                                                                                            through the hole.

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances.  

Blocks

Carlos planted a garden where he grew his squash plants.  Challenge the children to build a fence to go around a pretend garden.  Can they make a pattern in their fence using the blocks?  

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; enhances abilities to recognize, duplicate, and extend simple patterns using a variety of materials.

Art

Make a ‘vine’ several feet long using green construction paper.  Draw simple leaf shapes on several shades of green paper that the children can cut out and tape to your vine.  Make several star shapes for the squash flowers and squash shape, these the children cut out and tape to the vine also. 

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills;grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Sand and Water

 Water play today.  Add small bars of  soap and nail brushes.  

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, hand washing, brushing teeth, and toileting.

Library and Writing

Carlos’s mother used a recipe to make calabacitas, a favorite food for Carlos. Ask the children if one of their parents cook a favorite food for them?  Ask the child to tell you how his parent cooks this food and write down what he/she says.  Put all the “recipes” together for a classroom cookbook.

Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes.  AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop  and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

Dramatic Play

 Put out several straw hats that the children can use to act out the story.  If you do not have straw hats, use baseball caps. Explain to the children that when working out in the hot sun, it is important to protect your head and skin from sunburn.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress and abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Math and Manipulatives

 The squash plant growing in Carlos’ ear kept getting longer and longer.  Work with the children today using a ruler.  Show them how the numbers tell how many inches long something is.  Help the children to measure toys in the room. Reinforce the concept of an inch by using the 1-inch cubes to double-check the measurements of the ruler. 

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; shows progress in using a standard and non-standard measures for length and the area of an object.

Outdoor Play

Let the children use shovels to make long straight rows in the dirt to pretend to be planting a garden.  Or if you are able, begin a real garden in the play yard.  

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; enhances abilities to recognize, duplicate, and extend simple patterns using a variety of materials.  AND Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; progresses in physical growth, strength, stamina, and flexibility.

Transitions

Have the children show you how they can wash their hands.  Have them pretend and go through the motions of proper hand washing.  

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, hand washing, brushing teeth, and toileting.

Dear Parent,  Good hand washing techniques are important to your child’s health.  Ask your child to show you the easy steps to better health.  1) Turn on the water and wet hands.  2) Apply soap to your hands.  3) Scrub hands in circular motions creating soap lather on the palms, the tops, around the wrists, and between the fingers.  4) Rinse the soap from your hands.  5) Dry your hands with a paper towel or towel.  6) Use a corner of the towel to turn off the water so as not to touch your clean hands on the water knob.

Bubbles, Bubbles by Kathi Appelt

            After a day getting dirty, a little girl enjoys her bath with a mound full of bubbles and rhyming verse.

Materials

  •             2-3 12 oz.clear soda/water bottles
  •             Food coloring
  •             Baby oil
  •             Bubbles and several wands (make wands out of pipe cleaners if               none are available)
  •             Bubblewrap, several pieces about a foot long
  •             Things that help keep our bodies clean
  •             Several dish towels or small bath towels

Vocabulary

  •             Sphere (a round solid circle shape like a ball or a globe)

Before Reading the Story

           Talk to the children about the importance of keeping our bodies clean.  Why do you think it is important to keep your hands and face clean ?(to look pretty, to keep the germs away), to keep your hair clean? (so you don’t get those itchy bugs), to keep your teeth clean? (so we don’t get cavities and our teeth won’t fall out).  Hold up the pictures of the things that help keep your body clean one at a time.  Ask the children to name the item and pantomime how to use it.

Physical Health & Development/Health Statu & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth, and toileting.  AND Science/Scientific Knowledge;shows increased awareness and beginning understanding of changes in materials and cause-effect relationships. 

Reading the Story

            Practice reading so that you get the rhythm of the verse to flow like a poem.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

After Reading the Story

            Put out all the pictures of items that help keep your body clean where the children can all see them.  Cover them with a towel and take on item away.  Ask the children if they can name which item is missing and then pantomime how it is used.

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; chooses to participate in an increasing variety of tasks and activities.  AND Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and respect for their bodies and the  environment.

Discovery

            Make bubble bottles to put into the center.  Fill a clear 12 oz. soda/water bottle ½ full of water. Add food coloring of choice.  Now fill the rest of the bottle with baby oil and seal the lid closed with tape.  Show the children how to shake the bottle and observe what happens when all the ingredients mix together.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to uses senses and a variety of tool sand simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

Music and Movement

            Have the children get into pairs and hold hands. Tell them that they are a little bubble and encourage them to float around the room without bumping into furniture. Give them a moment to float as a pair and then have groups of children softly bump into each other and make a bigger bubble.  Continue until everyone is part of a giant bubble and then say 1,2,3, POP!  And everyone fall down.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

            Play Slippery Soap which is like Simon Says but instead say Slippery Soap says wash your knee, Slippery Soap says wash your forehead, etc.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

           Cd’s with bath time songs such as Rubber Duckie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDy4PZPMDwU or I Took a Bath in a Washing Machine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65Moz_FSkRwto dance to.

Creative Arts/ movement; expresses through movement and dancing what is felt and heard in various tempos and styles.

Blocks

            Tell the children that a car wash is like taking a bath for a car.  See if the children can build a car wash.  Make a sign and suggest to them that the car needs to go in the front and out the back (building tunnels).  Can they line the cars up first, second, last?  

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, behind.

Art

            Let the children paint the sheets of bubble wrap using tempera paints in any color design they choose.  After they have finished painting, take a sheet of paper and carefully lay it down on top of the bubble wrap and gently pat the paper. Pull the paper up and you have a bubble design transfer.  Wipe down the bubble wrap and begin again.

Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Sand and Water

            Add bubbles to the water today and let the children bath the dolls.  Make sure to include towels so they can dry the dolls and then dress them into warm jammies.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth, and toileting.  

Library and Writing

           Cut out 2-inch circles from white paper.  Encourage the children to practice writing the letter B on each circle/bubble and then name a B word that you can write on the edge of their circle/bubble.  Let them glue all their bubbles onto a piece of colored paper to make a bunch of bubbles. Older children can out their own circles that they have traced onto the paper.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; shows growing awareness of beginning and ending sounds of words. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills;develops dexterity, strength, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Dramatic play

           Bring in a box large enough for the children to sit in. Add a towel or two, some water toys, and a back scrub brush.  The children can pretend to take a bath.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex. 

Math and Manipulatives

            Play a shape game with the children.  Make sure they can identify a circle shape and then teach them the word sphere.  Ask the children to look about the classroom or in magazines for circles and spheres. Note that the bottom of a cup is a circle but the plastic tomato looks kind of like a sphere.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; begins to recognize, describe, compare, and name common shapes, their parts and attributes.

Outdoor play

            Bring bubbles and bubble wands outside.  Let the children try to pop the bubbles as they float by.  Can you tell which way the wind is blowing by watching where the bubbles float? Have all the children stand behind you  Blow a bunch of bubbles and then the children can run out and try to pop them before they hit the ground.  Give the children wands and see if they can catch a bubble on their wand.  Let the children practice blowing bubbles.  Who can blow the biggest bubble, who can blow the most bubbles at one time?  Try to hold a bubble with dry hands then try to hold a bubble with wet hands, what happens?

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins  to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Transitions

Put up a graph that shows those who take showers/those who take baths.  Have the children come up and write their name on the graph as to which they take at home, a bath or a shower.

Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like symbols, to copying or writing familiar words such as their name.  Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasing complex and varied vocabulary.

Resources