Sherm the Germ and Washing Hands

We are learning about health this month. We will be doing activities with keeping our hands washed so that we don’t give each other germs that will cause colds and flu. Here are some of the fun activities we will do. If we keep our hands clean and use tissues when we cough, we won’t spread our germs around to others in the classroom

Germ Buster Girl Puppets for teaching about Cold and flu prevention….

Boy Germ Buster Puppet for teaching about germs, and Cold and Flu prevention….
We make a cute paper bag puppet with a hand and a tissue attached and the cute poem about sneezing and coughing attached. And we read a few books about Germs and Colds. 

Here is a fun video I show the kids to teach them about sneezing, hand washing and how germs get spread around.

I read the kids 2 books; Germs Make Me Sick by Melvin Berger, and SHERM the Germ by Bobbi Katz.

Germs, Germs Germs, and Germs Make Me Sick are 2 really cute books. They are favorites of the kids too!

 2care2teach has a cute poem. We usually use a poem with our art and find a familiar tune to sing it to (ABC song, Itsy Bitsy, Bingo, Jimmy Crack Corn etc.). Kidscoop had a really cute song to the tune of twinkle twinkle.

The Sneeze Song 
(Tune:  “Pop Goes the Weasel”) (Check it out HERE)
When I have to cough or sneeze
This is what I do.  (Point finger.)
I hold my elbow up  (Hold up elbow in front of face.)
And in to it kerchoo!  (Pretend to sneeze in elbow.)
KKEERRCCHHOO!   (Say this line as you dramatically pretend
                               to sneeze in your elbow.)

HERE at Livespeaklove  I found a really cute ACHOO! BINGO game that has words that have to do with staying healthy (cover mouth, wash hands, sleep, exercise, healthy food etc.). I use this for a center game the week we study health.We made some paper bag puppets to go with out GERMS unit.

At First Grade Fever  she had these cute tooth fairy puppets the kids made that gave me an idea for our puppets. I may do a cuter one next year. I have 30 students this year though so I’ll keep it simple for now. 

A freebie I found on Teachers Pay Teachers that had a cute apple experiment and some printable true/false quizzes is HERE at TPT. It’s made by Cindy First Grade A-Z. I printed up page 2 and 3 of this 4 page minibooklet on Germs HERE at TPT. It has a fun lotion and glitter experiment for kids to see how germs spread. Then they wrote about 5 ways they can keep germ free!
Hooray for Handwashing storybook
Have you tried Glo Germ with your students? It is kind of like that stuff you use to get from the dentist that you would chew and it would show you all the places you had missed when you brushed… Glo germ works the same way. I think mine cost about $8.00 for the size below on Amazon. 

I bought some of this glo germ in yellow for the black light experiment. It is fun and gets the message out how important it is to handwash  and sneeze in our sleeve, not our hands, so we don’t spread sneeze or cold germs. But you could do the lotion and glitter experiment just as easily….


It sticks to germs and then they show up with a black light! It’s a great way to help kids understand how important it is to wash hands thoroughly to get rid of germs!


 Shake hands with the first student and then the best demo is to have that student shake hands with a second and so on….the Glo Germ trace will usually go to 5 to 6 students.

You can get a small black light for less than $10.00 check it out HERE.

I got a lot of free curriculum from PUFFS Tissues from Proctor and Gamble way back in the early days of my teaching career. But I couldn’t find a link anymore to the teachers free stuff. But I did find an old lesson plan that I got a few good ideas and websites from. The link is HERE. A fun “Germinator” online interactive game is Here.

 We also talked about how exercise can keep you healthy during winter months and NOT to become an inside couch potato. We did dodge ball for P.E. then listened to our heart beats with real stethoscopes to see how much faster they were beating after we worked out. We talked about healthy eating and getting enough sleep last month too when we studied nutrition and wrote our Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly innovations. Link is HERE at Patties Classroom.

The kids wanted to listen to each other’s heartbeats too. I have 4 class stethoscopes so we got around to everybody by the end of P.E. Here were the cute puppets we made and added the Ahhh-Choo Poem to the fronts.

 “SNEEZE IN YOUR SLEEVE or ON A TISSUE” PUPPETS….. and Reading Sherm the Germ is a fun activity set.

Sherm the Germ and Hand Washing to Prevent Colds and Flu. 

SOAP AND WATER AND HAND WASHING SONG. 

We sang the Soap and Water Song to my percussion instruments. Look in my STORE above and check out the xylophone packs. They are only $20.00 and the kids ADORE playing them to music. They are also really sturdy. I’ve purchased 3 for my class.

WASHING YOUR HANDS AND SINGING SONGS ABOUT KEEPING HANDS CLEAN IS FUN. 
WE READ 2 WEEKLY READERS ON COLD PREVENTION AND HAND WASHING AND HOW IMPORTANT IT IS. 

 And we also read some fun books about keeping healthy. We are about done with our health unit!

This is a great book to read when you are done with your mini unit; HOW DO DINOSAURS GET WELL SOON!  It is a really cute story the kids love it!

The Jane Yolen Dinosaur books  are really funny and a quick read that kids LOVE! This one is about taking care of a cold. 

It is always a short but fun 2 day mini-unit LEADING INTO  the winter months. Hope you all are staying healthy this sneeze and cough season!  Don’t forget to drink lots of water and exercise too! Keep Well!

Back to School Minions

It is almost Back to School time! Here is a cute project I do for Back to School Minions of Reasons to Love your Grade. I’m in first grade this year. So I’ll change the little caption to read “There are MINIONS of reasons to love first grade!”

There are MINIONS of reasons to try this cute art project! It is easy if you cut out all the pieces for young children. First and Second graders could trace templates for the blue and black pieces. Kids rarely can cut a good circle so I’d use stickers or punch outs for those. I happen to have a roll of white 1 inch stickers we used for the eyes. And wiggly eyeballs inside.
Cute little Minions art project turned out fun and funny! 

I cut out the black circle eyes, the black circle buttons too. Both were about 1/2 inch circles. I cut out a bunch of white teeth about 1/2 inch squares and the kids chose how many and added them to the tongue. It consists of a black background half of an oval shape, and then the tongue is an oblong oval with a cut on one end.


I had an idea for a cute banner too…..”Mrs. Moss’ class has a Minion reasons to love Kindergarten!”

I had a mom helper cut out the black eyegear strip, the tongues and the blue overalls. I cut out the yellow bodies. You could do them in different shapes like tall and skinny, short and fat. That would give you even more variety.

Here is our cute Back to School Minions bulletin board. 

I LOVED these minions made into a bulletin board. But look at these CUPCAKES I found HERE on Pinterest! ! I have GOT. TO. MAKE.THEM!

Back to School Minion Art Project 


It will be a great first day of school art project. I better get busy cutting out the pieces! 

Dr. Seuss Art for First Graders

Cat in the Hat Art and Writing Project we did in my classroom. 

We had Dr. Seuss Day and made some cute Dr. Seuss Art for First Graders. It was a lot of fun to do Cat in the Hats with whiskers and a striped hat.

We made Little Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hats after reading the story The Cat in the Hat.

These cute cookies were made by the school librarian to celebrate Reading Across America Day and Dr. Seuss’ birthday too. 

We did an Author’s Study about Dr. Seuss whose real name is Theodor Seuss Geisel.
Here’s a close up of one of the cats we made. It is made with a black circle, a white circle a bit smaller, a triangle red nose, wiggly eyes, 6 little black whisker strips and a bow tie in addition to a white hat with red stripes and brim a bit larger rectangle.  
Then I found this cute paper on TPT I really liked this Read the Room freebie HERE and this writing paper HERE at  Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations HERE.  We used it to write some really funny stories of what we would do if we had Thing 1 and Thing 2 show up at our house. 

Our school has a yearly theme and this year our principal chose Oh The Places You’ll Go, another one of Dr. Seuss’ books.  She made this cute little road sign in the pot to the left with a Cat in the Hat hat on top of it. It is in our foyer along with this bulletin board. 

Great first grade writing. 

More great first grade writing about Thing 1 and Thing 2. 

Cat in the Hat day writing. 

I loved reading everybody’s Thing 1 and Thing 2 stories. Then they colored everything red and black and blue. It turned out so cute! 

All the kids wanted their chores done by Thing 1 and 2. Go figure. I’d want that too, wouldn’t you? 

Cute little cats lined the hallways at our school fir Dr. Seuss Day. 

Cute Cat in the Hat art project for first grade. It was really fun. I copied off a sheet of eyeballs and each of the kids cut one set out. I got them HERE at Vector Magz.com.

Our Cat in the Hat bulletin board was very cute. There are 27 little cats and hats and stories here. It was a week of work editing and rewriting. 

We also made some necklaces out of “Oh the Places You’ll Go” tags the principal bought us and I added them to black yarn and went and bought red black and white beads for the kids to bead on either side of them. They made some cute necklaces that I forgot to take a picture of. Bad me. 
All in all it was a very fun day. Thanks Dr. Seuss for all the good fun that was funny this week. 

January Poems of the Week and Flannel Fingerplays

I’m adding a new center to my first grade classroom this week.  I know kids love to manipulate flannel and I have made or found a few cute little poems with darling things to go with the poems.

January Poems of the Week and Flannel Board Finger Plays.

I will introduce Poems of the Week at our rug time and I’ll teach them to a familiar tune. Then after all the kids have learned the tune and poem I will place them that week at the Poems & Flannel Board center. I will have flannel things to manipulate along with each poem.

Make a Snowman by adding the parts and pieces. 

Here are my 4 poems for January:

JANUARY POEM (Tune: Itsy Bitsy Spider)
The month of January is finally here to stay.
We stay up late at night, to ring in New Year’s Day.
The snowflakes fall in the middle of the night.
And when we all wake up, the whole wide world is white.

Our class will set new goals to get better at some things
Like sight words and math facts and new songs to sing
But the best part is skating or sledding in the snow
So grab your coats and hats, and away we all will GO!

I will have snowflakes, skates, sleds, snow hats and Snowmen in flannel.

Snowman face parts and scarfs and hats to add. 

  SNOWMEN in the WIND
Five little snowmen big and fat
The first one had one big black hat
The second one had two mittens in blue
The third one had three fingers on arms made of twig
The fourth one had four buttons on his belly so big
The fifth one had five coal bits for his grin
When all of a sudden the wind and snows begin
To blow the stuff around again and what do you suppose?
Those things landed on my snowman, so I add a carrot nose.
And all that wonderful, winter snow and ice,
Sure make my Snowman look happy and nice.

January Poems (Here is a free poem to start your Poems of the Week and Finger Plays and Flannel Board Center!)

I found this cute SNOW ceramic and little tin mailbox from Hobby Lobby. So Cute! 

It would be fun to cut out parts of snowmen from felt and just let the kids design snowmen to go along with the poems. The same thing with different snowflake cutouts I could make from white sparkly felt. There are also foam ones to purchase from Michaels like these here.

The last poem I got from TPT 5 Little Snowmen HERE and  one on Snowflakes HERE.  This pack is only $6.00 and the kids would love using them for counting too if I add some addition flashcard facts to the center.

 
These are really cute and I could tape a tiny sight word on a label to each one of the 24 snowflakes. Or I might check at Michaels or Joannes for similar snowflakes with a 40% off coupon and my teacher discount. Or I could go cheap and buy 2 little 33 cent sheets of white foam and punch out snowflakes at the district using die cuts.

Another fun set to choose from would be the 5 snowmen in felt that comes along with this CD of songs. I love that idea. I could use it to sing the songs and poems with the kids at the rug, and then put the snowmen and snowflakes at the center. It is $14.95. It looks super cute. And I have Amazon Prime so I could get free shipping.

  

The one I liked the very best was the winter scene flannel board set below. It is the most expensive at $16.00 but I think just placing it at the flannel board center with 5 poems would be a hit for the whole month. I could cover the poems with page protectors and put them in a January blue folder or small binder.

The students could sit on the rug and put pieces on the flannel board while reciting or singing the poems.  They could also use little witch fingers or tiny pointers I have to point to the words together. They will LOVE this center.

I have some cute Snowmen out of fabric and Tin and this new book Snowmen All Year set up in my classroom to start the new year. 
Some of my favorite books we will read this month too. Happy New Year!