Hand-washing workshop for kindergart'ners

Kindergarten class (x2)
Second Street Elementary School
Burnaby, BC
09:30 am

"Do any of you know what a pharmacist does?" we asked them.

"I know--I know! ... he makes--animals!" the kid in green shirt and pants exclaimed.

We broke into laughter and when the laughter subsided, one of us (but not me) said in a kindergarten-teacher-like-voice, "Not quite, but that is very close. When you get sick, you go to the doctor. But the doctor doesn't have the medicine in his office. So he writes the medicine on a piece of paper and you bring it to a pharmacist who gives you medicine. But today, we are going to teach you how not to get sick. We are going to teach you how to wash your hands."


So there I was with two other second year pharmacy students running a workshop to teach kindergarteners the art of hand washing. We even had wallet-sized cards with clear instructions--not that they had wallets. As part of our introduction, we passed around stuffed toys--stuffed germs.

"Did anyone ever have a cough? Well, this is what the cough looks like. You can blame your cough on him."

"OooooOOOhhhh...!"

"Yes, we are going to show you how to wash these germs off your hands. Because if your hands are dirty, and you touch your nose, then play tag, someone could end up getting sick. And that's not good."

Basically, we shone a UV light on their hands before and after they had washed their hands after having had them rub a fluorescent lotion on their hands. While they washed this lotion off their hands we had them sing "Happy Birthday", which meant that we had to sing along. So because of this, we must've sung this 60+ times to my dismay.

Overall, I would say this was an enriching experience. While we were setting up, the teacher and the kinds sung the Months of the Year and Days of the Week songs, which sent chills of 15 years past down my spine. In terms of the actual hand washing, I was surprised of how enthusiastic and overt many of the kids were. Some of them came back for a second hand washing. I was quite the shy kindergartener so none of them were like me.

We shone the UV light onto the hands of the last kid. "Oh, it looks like you may have missed a spot by your wrist. So, next time make sure you wash up by your wrist ok?"

Towards the end, we wrapped up. "Some of your friends aren't at school today because they are sick. So when they come back, be sure to teach them how to wash their hands. So they don't get sick again. Spread what you've learned today."

With that, we started to head out of the building within which contained kindergarteners whose hands were that much cleaner...

Then facing a dark corner of the room by the door between a shelf and a wall, one kindergartener with a smirk on his face silently worked his finger up his nose. Then out. Then into his mouth. Then he giggled.

Yes, without a doubt we did some important work here today.