**Note: This page is for educational inspiration and is not officially affiliated with Global Handwashing Day. Global Handwashing Day is an annual global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding about the importance of handwashing with soap as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases. It is observed annually on October 15th and was co-founded by the Global Handwashing Partnership. For official information and to learn more, please visit their website (www.globalhandwashing.org/global-handwashing-day).
Understanding Global Handwashing Day in EYFS & KS1
Wash, wash, wash your hands! 💧 Global Handwashing Day is an annual global advocacy day celebrated on October 15th. It's dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding about the importance of handwashing with soap as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases. Co-founded by the Global Handwashing Partnership, this day highlights the critical role hand hygiene plays in keeping us all healthy.
For early years settings, nurseries, preschools, childminders, and Year 1 and Year 2 classrooms, this day provides a vital and practical theme for exploring health, hygiene, personal care, and germs. It's about teaching children a fundamental life skill that protects them and others from illness, fostering healthy habits, and understanding how simple actions can have a big impact. This day offers fantastic planning ideas and inspiration for engaging activities that truly resonate with young minds, making learning about health and well-being both engaging and essential.
Why Is Teaching About Handwashing Important for Young Children?
Integrating lessons about handwashing and hygiene into your practice with young children (aged 0-7) is incredibly important for fostering their understanding of personal health, preventing the spread of illness, and building lifelong healthy habits. Young children are particularly susceptible to germs, making this a crucial area of learning.
Disease Prevention: The most direct benefit is teaching children how to reduce the spread of germs and protect themselves and others from colds, flu, and other illnesses.
Personal Responsibility: It empowers children to take an active role in their own health and well-being.
Understanding Germs: It introduces the concept of invisible germs and how they can make us sick, making handwashing more meaningful.
Routine Building: Establishing regular handwashing routines at key times (before eating, after toilet) instills good habits for life.
Community Health: Understanding that handwashing protects not just themselves but also their friends, family, and community fosters a sense of collective responsibility.
Engaging Handwashing & Hygiene Activities for Global Handwashing Day (0-7 Year Olds)
Make Global Handwashing Day a truly hands-on and health-focused experience with these planning ideas and activities perfect for EYFS and KS1 children. The focus is on learning the 'how' and 'why' of clean hands! Many of these early years and year 1 activities can be supported by the extensive range of printable resources we have available on our dedicated Handwashing & Hygiene page.
Here's some inspiration for making hygiene fun in your setting: (Please use your own discretion and knowledge of your children to ensure appropriateness of each activity and safety concerning any materials given and activity undertaken.)
Handwashing Song & Dance: Use familiar tunes with handwashing lyrics to make the process memorable and fun. Our song-based handwashing resources resources include 'If you're happy and you know it wash your hands', 'Hey diddle diddle', ‘Once I caught a fish alive', 'Hickory dickory dock', 'Incy Wincy/Itsy Bitsy spider', 'Twinkle Twinkle little star', 'Happy Birthday'. Each also has a Colouring version to reinforce learning.
Demonstrate Proper Handwashing: Visually demonstrate the steps of proper handwashing (wet, soap, scrub for 20 seconds, rinse, dry). You could use glitter glue on hands to represent germs and show how thorough washing removes them.
"When Do We Wash Our Hands?" Discussion: Talk about the important times to wash hands throughout the day. Use our targeted posters: 'After you cough, sneeze or blow your nose...wash your hands!' poster, 'Before eating...wash your hands!' poster, 'After using the toilet...wash your hands!' poster, 'After playtime...wash your hands!' poster, and 'After being in the outdoor area...wash your hands!' poster. Each poster also has a Colouring poster version.
Handwashing Display: Create a clear and engaging display in your washing area. Use 'Wash your hands!' - display pack and 'Wash your hands!' banner/reminder.
Germ Art: Have children draw or paint "germs" (little monsters or colourful blobs) and then discuss how washing hands gets rid of them.
Role-Play Doctors/Nurses: Link handwashing to keeping people healthy. Our ‘Medicine: 'Doctors and Nurses' page is a good resource for this, with ideas for doctor's surgery role-play.
Story Time: Books about Germs/Hygiene: Read age-appropriate books that explain germs and the importance of cleanliness.
Healthy Habits Chart: Create a class chart to track when children remember to wash their hands without prompting, celebrating their growing independence.
Explore Related Pages: For more comprehensive support on health and well-being, visit our dedicated pages:
These activities offer great inspiration for making Global Handwashing Day a memorable and impactful experience in your early years and Key Stage One setting, fostering personal hygiene, health awareness, and a proactive approach to well-being.
To explore ideas surrounding additional early years events, please visit our 'Special Dates Calendar' page.
Printable resources to support teaching & learning surrounding: ‘World Mental Health Day’
Please visit our ‘Handwashing & Hygiene’ page for our entire catalogue of resources.
Please visit our ‘Handwashing & Hygiene’ page for even more resources.
Additional Pages you may like to explore which cover relevant &/or Connected themes
More Early Years Event Pages for October
Explore special dates (including awareness dates, festivals, celebrations & events) relevant to your EYFS & KS1 children
Browse our ‘Special Dates Calendar’ page using the link below. You’ll find calendars for every month of the year to aid your planning!
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Disclaimer:
This page is for educational purposes only and is intended to support early years and primary practitioners with ideas and resources related to 'Global Handwashing Day'. We are not officially affiliated with or endorsed by the Global Handwashing Partnership, which co-founded this day. We do not claim any rights to specific trademarks or official materials associated with this event. For official information and to learn more about global handwashing initiatives, please visit their website at www.globalhandwashing.org.
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