A topical but always useful activity to do with children is to teach them how to wash their hands properly. And what better way to make this into a fun and doubly educational activity than to teach it in English with lots of songs and games! This then is a Wash your Hands EFL ESL activity for kids of all ages teaching lots of useful vocabulary, actions and practical hygiene rules. Hopefully, it will help keep us all healthy and well.
For this Wash your Hands EFL ESL activity for kids, you will need:
- A towel, preferably one per child, or paper towels
- Soap, either a bar or liquid but liquid soap may be more practical in school. Check for allergies!
- Warm running water
Hand washing songs or videos:
- Wash Your Hands Song by The Singing Walrus
- How to Wash Your Hands by NHS
Introduction – Show me your hands!
Let’s start by making sure we all know what hands are. Show me your hands everybody! Let’s wiggle our fingers and count to 10 with them. Now clap your hands, clap and follow my rhythm. Do this a few times and let the kids have a go at setting the rhythm too. Then ask them to show you their hands. Ask them if they are clean or dirty. Look doubtful if they say they are clean and tell them that we are going to learn how to wash them properly.
Learn a song about washing hands
Show the kids the soap and the towels and drill the vocabulary. Watch the Wash Your Hands song together and learn the words and do the actions: rub your hands, put on soap, rub again, rinse your hands, dry your hands etc. Do this a few times until you think the children know the words and actions.
Watch a video about how to wash your hands
There are lots of different videos available by different health authorities about how to wash your hands correctly. I chose this one because it is short and simple and we can adapt it to our hand washing song. The NHS advise singing Happy Birthday twice to wash hands for a correct amount of time but we can sing our song chorus three times instead while we do it. Make sure the kids know the different steps and vocabulary.
It’s time to wash our hands!
Get your soap and towels and give them out to the class. Let them take turns washing and drying their hands properly while everyone sings the song. When everyone is done, you can get them to draw a hand washing guide with lots of pictures of the different steps and when we need to wash our hands.
This is a very short activity but you could easily make washing hands and singing the song part of your regular activity at the beginning of a class or after craft activities. It’s a great way to get the children using English in a practical, everyday activity that is part of their routine.
If you are looking for ideas for games and activities for your classes, you can find lots of them here. To stay up to date with new posts and teaching ideas, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page. Alternatively, sign up for email updates below.