Washing hands is one of the easiest ways to stay healthy at home, at school, and on the playground. Tiny germs can get on our hands when we touch toys, pets, food, door handles, or our faces. Soap and water help remove germs before they can spread to our eyes, nose, mouth, or other people.
Learning the steps makes handwashing a strong everyday habit for young children.
Key Facts
- Use clean running water, soap, rubbing, rinsing, and drying to wash hands well.
- Scrub time = 20 s, which is about the length of a short handwashing song.
- Soap helps loosen dirt, oils, and germs from the skin so water can rinse them away.
- Wash before eating, after using the bathroom, after coughing or sneezing, after playing outside, and after touching animals.
- Rub the fronts, backs, between fingers, under nails, and around thumbs.
- Dry hands with a clean towel or air dryer because germs spread more easily on wet hands.
Vocabulary
- Germs
- Germs are tiny living things, such as bacteria and viruses, that can sometimes make people sick.
- Soap
- Soap is a cleaning material that helps lift dirt, oil, and germs off the skin.
- Scrub
- Scrub means to rub hands together firmly to clean all parts of the skin.
- Rinse
- Rinse means to wash away soap, dirt, and germs with clean water.
- Habit
- A habit is something you practice often until it becomes easy to remember.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Skipping soap is wrong because water alone does not lift away oils and germs as well as soap does.
- Scrubbing for only a few seconds is wrong because hands need about 20 seconds of rubbing to clean all the small spaces.
- Forgetting fingertips and thumbs is wrong because germs can hide under nails and around fingers that touch food and faces.
- Touching the faucet or dirty surfaces right after washing is wrong because clean hands can pick up germs again.
Practice Questions
- 1 Mia scrubs her hands for 8 seconds. How many more seconds does she need to reach 20 seconds?
- 2 A class washes hands before snack and after recess each day. If there are 5 school days, how many handwashing times is that for one child?
- 3 A child rinses with water for 3 seconds but does not use soap or scrub. Explain why this is not enough to clean hands well.