Fiction Book:

General Information:The berenstain Bears; Come Clean For School. By; Jan and Mike Berenstein

This book gives great examples of the proper way to cover your mouth and come clean to school. This book is made for students to show them how to keep germs down. This book focuses on the common cold and washing your hands.

Core Integration: This book on coming clean to school would be great to integrate into a sixth grade class in both a fun and light hearted way. I would integrate this book in flu season to make sure the students are washing their hands. I would start a class talking about how i have noticed students are getting sick and i want them to remember a very important message about germs. I would read the book and ask the students to relate ways they can keep the spread of germs down in our middle school classes and the hallways. “To stop this all you have to do is wash your hands. Washing with soap and hot water gets rid of germs” Following i would have the students take a extra credit pop quiz on how to keep germs down and why it’s important to keep germs at bay.

Standards:

PHW 1.2.2 State why hygiene is important to good health

PHW1.2.4 State the steps for proper hand washing

PHW1.2.11 Identify ways to stop the spread of germs that cause common infectious disease

PHW 1.5.2 Describe values that promote healthy behaviors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VPva3SnUUA

Nonfiction book: Personal Hygiene? What’s that got to do with me? By: Pat Crissy

General Information: This book provides examples of how others perceive their appearance and social implications of neglecting personal hygiene. Specifically designed for children ages 8-14 learning about personal hygiene. This book is designed to help children struggling with understanding why personal hygiene is important. This book is a focus for children with learning disabilities such as autism, Asperger syndrome and learning/developing disabilities but perfect for everyone. There are quizzes, worksheets, and activities to go along with key points in the book.

Core Integration:This book on personal hygiene can tie into a lesson on biology learning about germs and microbes. The students can learn about where germs and microbes like to live and where they thrive then they can learn about the importance of washing those places and keeping good personal hygiene to avoid those germs making them sick, dirty, or smelly. For this lesson I would start by introducing germs, and bacteria. I would talk about the good and bad bacteria, where bacteria can be found, how bacteria can help the body, how bacteria can harm the body, and how bacteria gets in our bodies. We could look at bacteria under a microscope and learn about a couple different kinds and shapes and what the bacteria do and how there are germs we can’t see.

Then I would talk about how our bodies react to germs and the importance of keeping these germs away and how to avoid them which goes into cleaning our bodies and good hygiene practices. As an assessment I would assess the students knowledge by having them make a diagram with good and bad germs and listing out what each do and drawing what they look like. They can talk about the cause and effects of good and bad bacteria and why it’s important to have good hygiene.

Standards:

RST.6-8.3- Follow precisely a multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks.

RST.6-8.4- Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 6-8 texts and topics.

RST.6-8.7- Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually(e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).

Summary: These books are purposeful for grades 6-8 to teach about personal hygiene in a more fun way to keep students engaged in the topic. These books both inform students about personal hygiene, answer questions, and promote positive body image. The importance of hygiene is stressed in a way that promotes students to follow steps to having good personal hygiene. These books also allow students to be more comfortable on the topic, they can read them on their own or with the class and answer many questions students may have. I would integrate these books into science lessons easily by teaching germs and integrating the importance of staying clean and health risks of bad germs. Teaching about the size and shapes of germs and looking at them so the students are aware that we can’t always see dirtiness and integrating the health factors of good and bad bacteria and germs into the science lesson.

This could also be integrated into various other lessons such as math learning about how many germs and bacteria grow and again shapes, sizes, etc. as well as into literature lessons and having the students write about their experiences with germs or being sick or writing about the importance of personal hygiene after the lesson. Core standards as listed above as well as more integration ideas!