• Sneeze Experiment: Grab a spray bottle, fill it with water and food coloring. Use the spray bottle and tissues to “fake sneeze” and to show how germs spread. Explain the right way to sneeze, to prevent germs spread.
• Heart rate activity: Feel your heartbeat at rest, dance to fast paced music, then feel your heartbeat again afterward. Exercise is a very important part of staying healthy, explain why it is important to get exercise each and every day. What types of activities will get your heart rate up?
• Make soap together as a family.  Include a treat in it to make hand-washing even more fun!
• Talk about how nutrition and vitamins affects our health.
• Grow germs to study them in “petri dishes”: In a saucepan mix 1 bullion cube, 2 tsp sugar, 1 cup water, and 1 envelope of gelatin. Divide the mixture between little sauce cups, or foil muffin tins and let cool in refrigerator. Once they are cool and solid, touch one with your unwashed finger (make sure to label and keep track), one to a light switch, leave one out for 15 minutes, wash your hands and touch one, and leave one covered as your control dish. Observe what happens. Germs that land on the nutrients in the cups grow and multiply, they will make colonies big enough to see without a microscope.
• Does washing hands work experiment: Tear a paper towel in half, get each piece wet and put each of the two pieces in a plastic ziploc bag. The take your hands outside and rub them in dirt, touch your dirty hands to a slice of bread. Put that slice in one of the ziploc bags with a paper towel in it. Then wash your hands thoroughly. Touch your clean hands to another slice of bread, put that slice in the other bag with a paper towel. What happened? You should see mold growing on the dirty bread after a few days. Washing your hands takes off all the microscopic germs
  
• Use syringes with the needles removed to paint a picture. This is an especially good activity for kids who are nervous around needles.
• How germs are spread: Have the children all use lotion on their hands, then put superfine glitter on their hands. Go about your day. Where does the glitter end up? That is where germs would be also.
• Why do we keep food in the refridgerator?: Take two soda bottles, fill them halfway with warm water. Put a packet of yeast into each bottle, and 1 TBL sugar in each. Fit a balloon over the neck of each bottle. Place on bottle in a warm place, and the other in the fridge. Which balloon blows up, and why?
• Make a stethescope from pipe cleaners, tin foil, and cotton balls.
• Make a doctor bag .
• Use cornstarch to show how germs are spread.
• Discuss brushing teeth the right way. Use an empty egg carton for “alligator teeth” give children an old tooth brush, and white paint to “brush/paint” the alligator teeth right. Explain how we have to get between the teeth. Practice flossing.
• Discuss first aid, what to do in various situations.
• create a stuffed animal first aid station. Any bears who neeed “stiches”?, Use Plaster of paris and white gauze to cast an animal.
• Finger cast finger puppets: Use plaster of paris and gauze to create a finger cast. let dry, then decorate the cast.
• Use a paper plate to create Mr Yuk. Then go through your home and talk about all the items that are poisonous using Mr Yuk. Go to your local poinson control center and grab some Mr Yuk stickers, lable everything in the house that is hazardous with the stickers.

  

  

  
  

  

  

  
  

  

  
  

A big thanks to Jennifer for graciously sharing her Germs Unit with us!  Check out her blog!