“Time For A Bath”, by Phillis Gershator. Illustrated by David Walker. Published in 2014 by Sterling Children’s Books of New York. This book is perfect to teach about personal hygiene for kids ages K-2.

Why this is the best selection:
-This book would be a great fiction story for children ages K-2 because it is within their reading level. It tells the story of a bunny and her mother making messes various ways, both inside and outside, and how they use a bath to clean up at the end of the day. The book also addresses that it is okay to make messes, as long as everything and everyone gets cleaned up afterwards, which is a great message for young children. I would integrate this into my writing curriculum because every student will have experienced a situation that was messy before. After reading the book to my class, I would give the students a prompt like “After I. . . I had to take a bath to clean up.” Then, I would allow the students to share with the class if they wanted to, to also build their social skills.

-Here is one of my favorite selections from the book because it encourages students to play outside.

Core Integration:
For a core subject, I would use this to tie into writing. Taking a bath is a familiar concept for children, so it would be a great exercise in using sentence stems to describe a situation they have experienced. As I mentioned above, I would have the students use the prompt “After I… I had to take a bath to clean up.” I would ask them to illustrate and write about their experience and give them an opportunity to share. By having them share, they could learn from their peers about other situations that a bath is appropriate after.

Health Standards:

NHES 1: Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.

• 2.2 State why hygiene is important to good health
  -HBO 1: Brush and floss daily
  -HBO 2: Practice appropriate hygiene habits
• 2.3 Identify the benefits of personal health care practices such as washing hair and bathing regularly
• 2.11 Identify different ways that disease-causing germs are transmitted
  -HBO 6: Practice behaviors that prevent infectious diseases
• 2.12 Identify ways to prevent the spread of germs that cause common infectious diseases
  -HBO 6: Practice behaviors that prevent infectious diseases

NHES 4: Students will demonstrate the ability to use interpersonal communication skills to enhance health and avoid or reduce health risks.

• 2.1 Demonstrate how to effectively communicate needs, wants, and feelings in healthy ways to enhance personal health and wellness.
• 2.2 Demonstrate effective active listening skills including paying attention, and verbal and nonverbal feedback to enhance personal health and wellness.

NHES 5: Students will demonstrate the ability to use decision-making skills to enhance health.

• 2.1 Identify situations that need a decision related to personal health and wellness (e.g. washing hands before eating, wearing sun protection, brushing teeth daily)
• 2.3 Explain the potential positive and negative outcomes from personal health or wellness-related decisionsNHES 7: Students will demonstrate the ability to practice health-enhancing behaviors and avoid or reduce health risks.
• 2.1 Identify personal health and wellness practices that reduce or prevent health risks
• 2.2 Make a commitment to practice positive personal health and wellness behaviors

-General Core Standards:

• ELA-Literacy.W.K.2
  Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
• ELA-Literacy.W.K.3

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

• ELA-Literacy.W.1.2

Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.

• ELA-Literacy.W.1.3

Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.

• ELA-Literacy.W.2.2

Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.

• ELA-Literacy.W.2.3

Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.