Keeping Healthy in Kitah Alef

When it's cold outside

do you curl up? Do you hide?

Do you sleep all winter long,

'til the birds burst out in song?

Do you gain a lot of weight,

and sleep very, very late?

Do you hibernate?!

(Tune of "Do your Ears Hang Low")

With the recent blast of cold weather, some of us might feel like hibernating - under our covers! We are grateful for the heat in our school building and our warm jackets and coats. The winter and all it brings with it provides opportunities to talk about important life skills. Even our little Kitah Alef-ers can learn healthy habits that prevent the spread of germs and illness! At circle time we've been practicing sneezing and coughing into our elbows as well as wiping our own noses with a tissue and putting it in the garbage.

We've also taken out our doctor set, complete with toddler-sized scrubs and doctor tools. This dramatic play area introduces new items and vocabulary and helps the children learn empathy as they care for their baby dolls. They feel empowered as they get to be the doctor instead of the patient this time!

Even the babies joined in!

Budding Doctors in Kitah Bet

"Achoo!" Winter is here, bringing along with it its requisite increase of coughs and colds. That and Morah Rena's happy return to IJP after an unexpected bout with infection begged for the exploration of preventing the spread of germs.  We discussed proper hand washing and the importance of using soap. As a demonstration of soap's power to get rid of germs, we shook some pepper into a bowl of water.

With the pepper acting as our "germs," Morah Rena dipped her finger in, and when she took it out, there were germs on it! Ew! She tried it again, this time dipping her finger into dish soap first.

Amazing! The "germs" ran away from her finger as fast as they could.

Everyone wanted a turn to try it themselves.

We noticed that once the soap had been introduced to the water, the germs would only run away once, so we continued the experiment in individual cups.

The topic of health and hygiene brought us to the subject of doctors. We decided to create our very own doctor's office in our classroom. Before opening it, Morah Rena introduced various doctor's tools and illustrated how to use them.

The children sat in rapt attention during the display and asked excitedly if they could have a chance to handle the tools themselves. Of course!

Evan said his mommy works in a hospital.

When the doctor's office was open for business, our doctors got right to work. They donned their scrubs, took out their instruments and began to see patients.

 

Next to the office is a "waiting room" where patients can read books while they wait for their appointment.

 

With our newfound knowledge and reinforcing of prior concepts, we know we'll do what we can to stay healthy this winter season. See ya later, germs!