Are you trying to stay healthy during the winter months?  A great way to do that is to teach your students to cough and sneeze in their elbow.  Why, because they usually don't have a tissue handy to sneeze in.  

I actually practice this with my students! Don’t laugh.  Practice not only makes perfect, it makes for less sniffling on my part and fewer sick days!  I explain to my students that they can’t get germs on their hands from sneezing and coughing if they’re doing it in their elbows.

To demonstrate how germs get on our hands I shake some talcum powder on mine telling my students that this is like a sneeze sprinkling germs on their hands.  I rub my hands together as if to “rub out” the germs. Then I shake a few of my students hands, “sneeze” some more talcum powder on mine, until I have finally grasped all of my students' hands and given each of them some “sniffles” of talcum powder germs.

Now we file into our huge storage closet.  I turn on a black light bar and say, “Are you ready for me to turn the big light off so we can see the germs on our hands?”  They are amazed at how the black light makes everyone’s hands glow with germs!  The light goes back on, as well as the light bulb in their heads as to the importance of NOT sneezing into their hands.

A fun story to read after this experiment is The Flea’s Sneeze by Lynn Downey.  The illustrations by Karla Firehammer are adorable.  This poor little flea doesn't have a tissue either, and no one's taught him about sneezing in his elbow; so what do you think is going to happen to the other animals in the barn?  

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I scan the pictures of the animals, laminate them and cut them out, adding a scratchy Velcro dot to the back.   Before I read the story I pass them out to my students.  When we come to that character in the story that child puts the animal on the flannel board.  You could also put a piece of magnet strip on the back and use your white board.   I’ve also made a huge “Ah-choo” sign that I attach to a flyswatter.  When I hold it up all of the children sneeze in their elbow. At the end of the story when the pig is about to sneeze, I hold up the sign again and we sneeze in our elbows once more.  Click on the link to print off a copy of a barn, some animals and an "Achoo!", so that you can make manipulatives to tell the story.  Storytelling manipulatives

For discussion I ask them why they think the pig is sneezing?  Did he cover his mouth or sneeze in his elbow?   I ask them if they think any of the other animals in the barn will also get sick and why?  Does that happen in their family too one another member has a cold?

As children get the hang of sneezing and coughing in their elbow I encourage them by saying: “Thank you for sneezing/coughing in your elbow Kelli.”  Let’s everyone practice that.”

A nice graphing extension for January is to keep track of how many children are absent and present each day; you could then compare it with February.  As a math extension after the story, we graph which was our favorite animal character . Click on the link for my graphs.

Children can all identify with having the sniffles and being sick.  Why not take advantage of that and make a class book.  Click on the link for my class Ah-Choo booklet 

In September I ran an article about staying healthy.  Check it out for some great tips!

If you'd like to compare and contrast this book with another, a great choice would be The Napping House by Amanda Goodman.  Here a woman is sleeping with all sorts of animals in her bed with a naughty little flea on top that wakes the first creature up with a bite! 

I wish you a wonderful winter season and just incase you’re sneezing right now...

“Bless you!”