Food Safety is Key, Its Up to You & Me

By: Denielle Saitta and Susannah Brewton

Intended Audience:
The FoodMASTER Intermediate curriculum prepares 3rd through 5th grade students about the
ten basic topics in foods. The lesson presented will covered Healthy Hand Washing.

Purpose/Background:
Each topic area has hands-on and computer based lessons to take students on an exciting and
innovative exploration of food, math, and science. These engaging lessons will help students
develop valuable skills and encourage them to think about learning in a new fashion that is fun
and exciting for everyone involved.
The lesson topics include:

Measurement
Food Safety
Vegetables
Fruits
Milk and Cheese
Meats
Eggs
Fats and Oils
Grains
Management

The student hands-on activities and worksheets, are designed to be kid friendly and easy
for both teachers and students to follow. Each lab activity can be adapted to fit a variety of
classroom structures. Computer-aided learning materials are simple enough to be self-directed by

the students. The hands-on and computer-aided lessons may be used independently or combined
to create a multimedia curriculum.
If individuals do not practice proper food safety techniques, they put themselves and
other at risk for sickness. We are presenting the topic of Food Safety to children in grades three
through five, as it is important for them to learn how to keep themselves, their friends, and their
family safe from foodborne illness. Learning simple food safety techniques, such as proper hand
washing, at an early age will help children to lead by example throughout their lifetime.

Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to state how long hands need to be washed.
Students will be able to demonstrate proper handwashing techniques.
Students will be able to communicate the importance of handwashing.
Assessment Tool:
Assessment tool can be found within the Appendix.

Nutrition Education Outline Table:

Duration

Topic

Activity

5 minutes

Pretest

Pretest

Materials needed
Hand Washing
For the teacher: Glo Germ gel, UV

10 minutes

Healthy Hands

Lesson

20 minutes

Healthy Hands

light.
For each group: 1 piece of paper,
pencil, sink, soap, paper towels, 1
yellow marker, 1 red marker.
Hand Washing activity Optional: 1 green marker.

5 minutes

Posttest

Posttest

Nutrition Education Content: Food Safety is Key, Its Up To You & Me

To Be Done In Advance:
Gather supplies: Glo Germ gel, UV light, paper, pencils, paper towels, yellow markers, and red
markers.
Organize materials so that they can be easily passed out to each group
Have copies of handout
Have PowerPoint ready to begin
Welcome & Introduction: Hello everyone, welcome to Food Safety is Key, Its Up To You &
Me. My/Our name(s) is/are ______________, and I/We am/are from_______________. Before
we get started with our lesson and activities, we are going to pass out a quick little test to see
what you already know about food safety.
Pretest: Handout the pretest to all students, and read the questions out loud. Allow the students 3
minutes to complete the pretest. After 3 minutes, collect all papers.

Lesson:
Raise your hand if you can tell me the biggest movers of bacteria
to food.
The answer is your hands!
Your top goal is to stop the spread of bacteria in the kitchen.

 Raise your hand if you can tell me ways that you can stop the
spread of bacteria.
Today, we are going to focus on one important way that you can
keep away sickness that is caused by unsafe food - hand washing.
Remember that you should always wash your hands before
touching, cooking, and eating food.
Raise your hand if you can tell me a type of raw food that you
should definitely wash your hands after touching.
Yes, it is very important to wash your hands after touching raw
meat, poultry, fish, and eggs.
Now, raise your hand if you can tell me when you feel like you
should wash your hands during the day.
Good job boys and girls! You should all remember to wash your
hands after blowing your nose, coughing, sneezing, using the restroom, caring for pets,
and taking out the trash.
We are now going to learn seven easy steps for proper hand
washing.
1. Wet your hands with warm running water.
2. Use enough soap to make lots of bubbles.
3. Rub your hands together for 20 seconds or as long
as it takes to sing Happy Birthday to You.
4. Scrub under your fingernails and between your
fingers.
5. Rinse off all soap under running water.
6. Use a clean paper towel to turn off the water.
7. Dry your hands with another clean paper towel.
Now that we have learn all about how important it is to properly
wash our hands, we are going to do a fun handwashing activity!
Hand Washing Activity:
Divide the class into groups of four to complete Scientific Inquiry: Hand Washing. Each group

will need a reader, recorder, washer and prop person.

Prop people will gather supplies.
Readers will reread the hand washing steps.
Recorders will trace an outline of a hand on a piece of paper.
An adult will squeeze a drop of Glo Germ Gel in each washers hands and will instruct the

washers to rub the gel all over their hands.

The prop people will shine the UV light on the washers hands. Remind prop people that they
will need to share the UV light.
Each group will observe the glowing areas on their washers hands. On the traced hand,
recorders will use a yellow marker to color the glowing areas from one of the washers hands.
(Glowing areas represent germs.)
Washers will wash and dry their hands. Then prop people will shine the light on the washers
hands a second time.
Groups will look for any remaining glowing spots and recorders will draw red dots on the traced
hand to represent any remaining glowing areas.
If extra time remains, repeat the washing and observing glowing areas. This time circle any
remaining glowing areas with a green marker.
Discuss results and answer questions.
Wrap-up/Conclusion: (add more information here)
Expected results:

Safety and security are basic needs of humans. Safety involves freedom from danger, risk, or
injury. Security involves feelings of confidence and lack of anxiety and fear. Student
understandings include following safety rules for home and school, preventing abuse and

neglect, avoiding injury, knowing whom to ask for help, and when and how to say no.
Individuals have some responsibility for their own health. Students should engage in personal
care dental hygiene, cleanliness and exercise that will maintain and improve health.
Understandings include how communicable diseases, such as colds, are transmitted and some of
the bodys defense mechanisms that prevent or overcome illness.

We hope now that everyone is aware of the importance of handwashing, the proper 7
steps of handwashing, and how long hands need to be washed.
At this time we would take questions and allow room for discussion with the students.

Evaluation
We feel that our overall lesson was successful. Out lesson flowed smoothly and was well
organized. The information presented was relevant to the age group, which was third through
fifth graders. The Glow Gel activity was a success and had students and faculty engaged
throughout the process. They all were intrigued and excited to see the germs with the UV light.
Evaluate and write an assessment about the implementation of your lesson plan. The group sizes
and interaction made for open discussion amongst the class and created a more interactive
learning environment. The PowerPoint presentation also helped with showing the handwashing
steps and describing the importance of handwashing to the students.
After reflecting on our lesson, we identified specific things that did not go as planned.
The classroom was very well lit so it was hard at first to see the germs with the UV light, but
once the lights were turned off and the blinds were closed then this was not an issue. This did not
take away from the activity itself though. Due to the time constraints we did not have much time
for discussion, in completing this lesson again we would make sure there was enough time
allotted. We additionally identified ways in which we could improve our nutrition education
lesson. Utilize a room with a sink so that the children will not have to leave the room. Have the

pre and post tests printed out and ready for the students. Having enough UV lights for several
groups to utilize.

References:
FoodMASTER Intermediate. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2016, from
https://www.foodmaster.org/grade3-5.html#.VxbIavkrK00

Appendix

Appendix Table of Contents:

i. Assessment tool and answers
ii. Activity instructions
iv. Supplies checklist
iii. Audience handouts
v. References

i. Assessment tool and answers

Circle the best answer:
1.
a.
b.
c.
d.
2.
a.
b.
c.
d.
3.
a.
b.
c.
d.
4.
a.
b.

What are the biggest movers of bacteria?

Hands
Feed
Noses
Lips
How long should you wash your hands?
10 seconds
60 seconds
The time it takes to sing the Star Spangled Banner
The time it takes to sing Happy Birthday to You
How many steps are there in hand washing?
3 steps
5 steps
7 steps
9 steps
The first step in handwashing is to put soap on your hands.
True
False

ii. Activity instructions

Healthy Hands:
i. Purpose: Explain the purpose of the activity how the activity reinforces a learning
objective.
Students will learn proper techniques for hand washing.
The use of Glo Germ gel will visually reinforce the importance of
personal hygiene/hand washing.
ii. Duration: Estimate the time required to complete the activity.
Instruction on Healthy Hands will last about 5-10 minutes
The activity will take 25 minutes
iii. Equipment and supplies: Be thorough; list of all equipment and supplies needed to
conduct the activity
For the teacher: Glo Germ gel, UV light.
For each group: 1 piece of paper, pencil, sink, soap, paper
towels, 1 yellow marker, 1 red marker. Optional: 1 green marker.
iv. Directions: Specifically describe how to prepare for and conduct the activity
1. Read Healthy Hands and complete the Doodle Bugs.
2. Divide the class into groups of four to complete Scientific Inquiry: Hand
Washing. Each group will need a reader, recorder, washer and prop person.
3. Prop people will gather supplies.
4. Readers will reread the hand washing steps.
5. Recorders will trace an outline of a hand on a piece of paper.
6. An adult will squeeze a drop of Glo Germ Gel in each washers hands and
will instruct the washers to rub the gel all over their hands.

7. The prop people will shine the UV light on the washers hands. Remind prop
people that they will need to share the UV light.
8. Each group will observe the glowing areas on their washers hands. On the
traced hand, recorders will use a yellow marker to color the glowing areas from
one of the washers hands. (Glowing areas represent germs.)
9. Washers will wash and dry their hands. Then prop people will shine the light on
the washers hands a second time.
10. Groups will look for any remaining glowing spots and recorders will draw red
dots on the traced hand to represent any remaining glowing areas.
11. If extra time remains, repeat the washing and observing glowing areas. This
time circle any remaining glowing areas with a green marker.
12. Discuss results and answer questions.

iii. Audience handouts

Front:

Back:

iv. Supplies checklist

For the entire class:
Glo Germ Gel
UV Light
For each group:
1 piece of paper
Pencil
Sink
Soap
Paper towels
1 yellow marker
1 red marker

v. References

FoodMASTER Intermediate. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2016, from

https://www.foodmaster.org/grade3-5.html#.VxbIavkrK00