"Germs Are Not For Sharing"

Germs Are Not For Sharing
Written by: Elizabeth Verdick
Illustrated by: Marieka Heinlen
Published by: Free Spirit Publishing Inc. in Minneapolis, MN in 2006
Genre: Informational Text
Ages: grades K-2

Summary: This book tells children about ways to prevent the spread of germs. It details places germs live, how to rid oneself of bad germs, and when and how to wash one's hands. It talks about the relative size of germs, that one should use a kleenex (or at least cover one's mouth in some way) when one coughs or sneezes. This book also gives a way for children to tell when their hands are clean. The book suggests singing "Happy Birthday" twice while washing one's hands. In addition, the back of the book also gives great information for parents and educators to share with their children and students about germs.

Response: I learned a lot about germs from reading this book. I never knew how long they could live on surfaces (2 hours!) or about the "Happy Birthday" song. The information in the back of the book is great for teacher reference in a lesson about germs. This book has so much information, but is written in a style that is so wonderful for children. It teaches them about germs, but it ceases to be like a textbook full of "extra information." This book simply tells children when and why to be cautious about germs and how to get rid of them once one comes into contact with them. Germs are explained in a way that very young children would easily be able to understand and since those are the children who do not have very much knowledge of the germs around them, the awareness this book provides is wonderful for them!

This author and illustrator have worked together on several of Elizabeth Verdick's book. The illustrations are very colorful, in a 24-pack of crayons kind of way! The children in this work are drawn with very bold lines. The backgrounds are also very bright oversized scenes. All of the illustrations, which I believe to be watercolor, are all double page spreads, which give readers more time to ponder the situations to the pages.

One of the remarkable aspects of this book is the diversity of the children within. Multiple nationalities of children are represented within this work as well as children with disabilities, which makes this a great book to show children that all people are similar-we all become sick occasionally, we all need to wash our hand frequently, and none of us is immune to germs.

Teaching Connections: Teachers could make questions from the factual information in the back of this book, have her students form groups, and assign two or three of those questions to each group for them to answer.

Then, the teacher could have one student from each group write their group's answer to their questions on chart paper to serve as the "what we think we know" part of the lesson. (This paper could be hung in the room for a few days to remind them of this lesson.)

Next, the teacher could read Germs Are Not for Sharing to her students.

A great activity for this lesson is about glitter germs. Click here for the glitter germs activity. Following this activity, discuss how germs are similar to the glitter.

The conclusion to this lesson, to determine what students learned, can be to look back at the answers students wrote on the chart paper and discuss the correct answers.

(Image retrieved from http://www.kensonparenting.com/prodimages/germsPB_small.jpg on 19 April 2008)