How often do your kids wash their hands during the day?
You don’t have to add it all up because I already know that the answer is A LOT! One trip through the task of washing hands typically goes like this…
EVERY student in your classroom has to turn on the water, pump some soap, wash hands, rinse hands, turn the water off, dry hands, throw a paper towel in the trash, and then move on to whatever else is next on the list! That’s at least 7 steps to complete one task.
That’s 70 Steps!
If you have 10 students, that’s 10 trips times 7 hand-washing steps per child which equals 70 steps EACH time the children have to wash hands. Whew! That is crazy pants when you break it down like that.
Here’s the Deal
If you have to help the children for every hand-washing, then you are spending way to much time on a task the children can do all by themselves. And anything the children can learn to do all by themselves can make the entire transition a much smoother experience.
Let’s Change That!
Instead of spending day after day helping your children walk through every step, take one day and have a mini-lesson. Your mini-lesson might look like this…
- Bring all your students together (or one group at a time).
- Walk the children through each of the 7 steps for hand-washing by modeling exactly what to do and talking out loud while you show them each step.Â
- Have each child take a turn walking through each step.Â
- While the children walk through each step, continue to talk out loud; “Sarah is going to turn on the cold water.” “Now Sarah is going to get ONE pump of soap.” And so on.
Give it a try!
Deborah
