Kindergarten · Science

Health and Safety Lesson Plan for Kindergarten

A ready-to-teach health and safety lesson for Kindergarten, built around handwashing and hygiene routines, home and street safety, bedtime routines and sleep, staying active, and healthy habits at mealtime. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.

Approximately 45 minutes

Learning objective

Put the steps of handwashing and tooth brushing in the right order
Name times to wash hands, such as after the bathroom and before eating
Show how to cover a cough or sneeze with a tissue or an elbow

Materials

Handwashing Steps Cut and Paste
Safe or Not Safe at Home?
Bedtime Routine Cut and Paste
Active or Resting? Picture Sort
Choose the Healthy Drink
When Should You Wash Your Hands?
Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples

Lesson steps

1. Talk about a real moment (5 min)
Start with a moment from the children's own day: coming in from recess, lunch, bedtime, crossing the street. Ask what they do next. Every answer counts, and the ones out of order are the ones to come back to.
2. Show the habit (I do) (10 min)
Model the routine step by step, out loud and with real objects where you can: soap and a sink, a toothbrush, a pair of pajamas, a crosswalk drawn on the floor. Say each step's name as you do it.
3. Do it together (we do) (10 min)
Children act out the steps with you, then put picture cards in order as a group. Mix one step up on purpose and let them catch it.
4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)
Hand out "Handwashing Steps Cut and Paste". Read the instructions aloud and let children work at their own pace. Circulate and ask "what comes next?" rather than correcting.
5. Take it home (5 min)
Ask each child to name one health and safety habit they will do today, and when. Send the page home so a grown-up can see the routine too.

Check for understanding

Ask students to explain health and safety to a partner in one sentence, then write that sentence down. Collect the sentences: they show you exactly which part of the idea did not land.

Differentiation

Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild health and safety with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.

Extension. Children who finish early: draw one more step that belongs in the routine, or teach the routine to a partner using the pictures. Explaining a habit to someone else is how it sticks.

Skills covered in this lesson

Hygiene and handwashing · Safety · Sleep · Exercise · Healthy habits at mealtime

Questions teachers ask about teaching health and safety

What health and safety topics should kindergarteners learn?

Most kindergarten health lessons cover washing hands and brushing teeth, covering coughs and sneezes, safety at home and on the street, getting enough sleep, staying active and making healthy food choices. These worksheets group them into five sets: hygiene and handwashing, safety, sleep, exercise and healthy habits at mealtime.

How do I teach my child the steps of handwashing?

Show the steps in order: wet your hands, add soap, scrub the front, back and between your fingers, rinse and dry. Many families sing a short song while scrubbing so children keep going long enough. The handwashing steps cut and paste page lets children put the steps in order themselves, which helps them remember the routine at the sink.

How much sleep does a kindergartener need?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 10 to 13 hours in every 24 hours, naps included, for children ages 3 to 5, and 9 to 12 hours for ages 6 to 12. A steady bedtime routine helps most. The sleep pages have children put a bedtime routine in order, sort day and night activities and count the hours between a bedtime clock and a wake-up clock.

Do these worksheets cover food groups and nutrition?

They cover healthy habits at mealtime: choosing water or milk, packing a healthy lunchbox, listening for hungry or full, mealtime manners and washing fruit. For food groups, healthy foods and fruits and vegetables, use the Kindergarten Food and Nutrition worksheets, which pair well with these pages.