Rowland Norment Students in Hand to Hand Combat

You can't help but be aware of the flu epidemic and how everyone is lining up for H1N1 vaccines and doing all sorts of things to try to stay healthy. The first grade students at Rowland Norment Elementary School in Lumberton are no different. Today the EC and first grade youth took charge by learning how to properly wash their hands. Hand washing you might think is a little preventative. However as the students learned today it is probably one of the best ways to fight illnesses and stay healthy.
Shea Ann DeJarnette and Aggie Rogers, with Robeson County 4-H Youth Development were invited to do their Glo-Germ program with the students. Glo-Germ is a neat science type program that allows youth to see the germs on their hands and then, using the proper hand washing techniques, kill the germs. You might ask what are proper hand washing techniques? We're glad you asked. As the youth learned today using warm water and soap are the best tools in the war on germs. The students learned as they lather up and wash their hands (particularly between their fingers) they need to sing (in their heads) the ABC's or Happy Birthday. When they are done they can rinse and the germs should be gone. Of course the fun part is putting on the Glo-Germ lotion and placing your hands under a black light. Then the germs glow a really bright white and you can see just how sneaky those darn germs are. The majority of students got it right on the first try. A few were sneaky and didn't quite wash as long as they needed to so they went back to bathroom and tried again, this time doing a much better job.
Before we left we were able to name each of our students certified expert hand washers and charged them with some new responsibilities. It is their duty to now make sure others wash their hands appropriately and if they see someone who is not doing it right they are going to show them how to do it. Talk about germ warfare!
We must give a special thanks to Ms. Vera Hockaday's class (pictured above). Not only did they invite us to come do this they were kind enough to share their Harvest Festival treats with us, and even gave us enough to bring back to share with our entire Cooperative Extension Staff. We really appreciate the generosity and thoughtfulness. We had so much fun today that we have been invited back to visit with the second and third grades next Tuesday. Stay tuned because we are looking forward to that as well.