Synopsis

Students discuss germs that spread illness. Using a demonstration with a spray bottle of water, the teacher illustrates how germs can travel from person to person through coughing and sneezing. Students then demonstrate how facial tissue can limit the spread of germs through the air.

Teaching Steps

1. 1. Discuss germs.

   Refer to Find Out How Germs Do Their Dirty Work.

   Explain that certain germs in our body may make us sick. Tell students that germs are too tiny to see, but can be spread from one person to another.

   Discuss how to care for illness and the importance of preventing illness from spreading.

   CONCEPTS

   • Medicine helps fight germs so people feel better.
   • It is important to try not to let the germs go to anyone else’s body, so other people do not get sick, too.

2. 2. Brainstorm ways germs spread.

   Ask students to brainstorm some ways that germs can get from one body to another.

   Possible Responses:

   • Breathing on someone
   • Coughing on someone
   • Sneezing on someone

3. 3. Demonstrate how germs may travel.

   Put warm water in a spray bottle set to very fine mist. Stand back from the class and spray the air above students to show how far a sneeze or cough can reach. Ask students to raise their hands if they felt any water. Tell students that that is how far germs can go when someone sneezes or coughs.

   DISCUSSION POINTS

   • Feel the area around you. Did the water only land on you? (probably not)
   • Did your hands get wet?
   • What would happen if, instead of water in a spray bottle, that had been a real sneeze or cough?

   Possible Responses:

    

   • We would get covered in germs.
   • The area around us would get covered in germs.

   • How can you keep your sneezes and coughs from reaching other people? (cover them)

   SKILL DEVELOPMENT

   • Covering sneezes and coughs with a tissue will keep them from reaching other people.
   • An uncovered sneeze or cough spreads germs on things as well as people.
   • Coughing into the sleeve of a shirt or jacket is another way to limit the spread of germs.

4. 4. Discuss ways to avoid spreading germs.

   Discuss the steps to take if you have to sneeze or cough. Have students practice these steps.

   SKILL DEVELOPMENT

   • Get a tissue.
   • Cover your mouth or nose.
   • Cough or sneeze.
   • Throw the tissue away.

5. 5. Reflect, summarize, and discuss.

   Teach students this rhyme and have them act out each step as they say it.

    

   May I have a tissue, please

   to cover my mouth and nose?

   I need to cough or sneeze,

   and then, away it goes!

Assessment

Have students act out having to sneeze and cough and what they should do to avoid spreading germs. Ask them to explain why these steps and are important.

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