World Hand Washing Day

As a healthy schools volunteer I thought it would that World Hand Washing Day would be a wonderful opportunity to do a fun activity with the children about why we wash our hands and how we wash our hands. Unfortunately, the school year finished two weeks ago and none of the children are in school. My host sister, who is a third grade teacher, and I talked about what we could do to celebrate and incorporate kids outside of the school environment. We decided to have an activity day at my house with the kids from the neighborhood.

On Saturday morning eleven of the neighborhood children, aged four to ten, showed up at my house and we started with an ice breaker game in which each child had to say their name, their age and their favorite food. We segued from food into the conversation of washing our hands and why we wash our hands. My host sister did a wonderful presentation with them reading the story of Mariquita Cochinita with them. Afterwards we did a question and answer with them asking them questions like, How do you think Mariquita felt when she was sick? and the kids were very enthusiastic about the activity.

Afterwards I brought out water and soap and taught each of the kids how to wash our hands before we eat and after we go do the bathroom. We played music from the radio for one minute so that they could get used to how long they needed to wash their hands for. They had a lot of fun dancing around my porch singing as they washed their hands.

The third activity we did was a drawing activity. Each child had a sheet of paper with their name on it that said Lin Ka’ba Lain _______, Ut Lain Nin Ch’aaj Lin Ruuq. That translates from Q’eqchi Mayan to My Name Is ____, and I Wash My Hands. They got to trace their hand onto the paper and color the sheets however they wanted to.

Afterwards we washed our hands again, a few of our older kids were really excited and even recruited some of the other kids from the neighborhood and showed them how to wash their hands. Afterwards everyone got to choose between pineapple or mango slices for a snack and got to take home their new handwashing poster. It was a small project but the kids really enjoyed it.