Hello there, you might remember our friend Jesse. Jesse is just like you,
he's learning to be independent. That means he's learning to do things without anyone else's help.
It looks like Jesse is in a new place today. He is at the sink. Hmm,
what could we possibly be here to learn today? I see that Jesse is standing in front of the sink.
I bet we are going to use it. I also see soap next to the sink.
What can we do with soap and water in the sink? I know! We can learn how to wash our hands.
Washing our hands is a super important skill to know, it helps keep our hands clean and free from
germs and other yucky things that can make us and others sick. Germs are sneaky little things!
They are so tiny that we can't see them with just our eyes, we can only see them if we use a device
that is like a very strong magnifying glass called a microscope. Even though we can't see them,
germs are always around and always ready to make us sick if we forget to wash them off.
Germs spread very quickly too! They travel from our hands to all of the things we touch.
Since we can't see them we never know when we are spreading germs. That's why it's important
to wash our hands before we do things like eat or cook and after we do things like use the restroom
or play outside. So are you ready to learn how to wash your hands? Let's get to work!
The first thing we need to do is of course turn on the water. With this sink,
Jesse can turn on the cold water by twisting the handle on the right marked with a blue circle.
He can twist it back to turn it off. The other handle on the left marked with a red circle
turns on the hot water. We do not want to do that. We wouldn't want you to burn your hands.
Always look for the small red and blue circle! Red means hot blue means cold.
Next, we will want to get some soap. We want to use enough to cover both of our hands,
usually one pump is plenty. Then we can rub our hands together to make the soap nice and bubbly.
Try to do this part for 20 seconds! You can count to 20, sing happy birthday, or use a timer to keep
track of the time. Make sure to rub the palms of your hands together, get between your fingers,
rub the tops of your hands, and scrub your fingernails too. It's important to make sure we
wash each part of our hands in case any germs are hiding in between our fingers or under our nails.
Finally, we can rinse our hands and turn off the water.
In public restrooms, it's a good idea to turn the water off with a paper towel or tissue,
that way germs won't get on your nice clean hands. Oh, and remember to dry your hands too!
Oops, not like that! We wouldn't want your clothes to be all wet. Using a towel or
a paper towel is a good idea. Washing your hands isn't so hard, is it? Wow,
you and Jesse did such a great job learning how to wash your hands. Let's do a quick review.
First, we turn on the water, next we get our soap, then we scrub for 20 seconds.
Finally, we turn off the water and dry our hands. Great work! I think Jesse has earned
his super hand washer badge! Make sure you practice this skill every day, especially
before eating and after using the restroom. After you've practiced for a few days, show
your adult at home that you've mastered this skill so you can earn your badge too! See you next time!