Teacher Brilliantly Shows Kids Why They Need to Wash Their Hands With a Really Gross Bread Experiment

In November 2014 pre-kindergarten teacher Courtney Lee Simpson conducted a really gross bread experiment to show her students why they need to wash their hands often. She packed the first slice of bread into a plastic bag with gloves on, the second with freshly washed hands, and the third was passed around and handled by students before going into a third bag. Over the next few days, the class watched as the bread in the third bag developed quite a bit of mold.

To all my teacher friends this is the grossest yet coolest experiment. I did this while teaching about germs and how they spread. You use three pieces of bread. You let all the kids see you put a piece of bread in a baggy with a glove on hence “controlled” then you wash your hands and put a piece of bread in a baggy for “clean” last but definitely not least you pass a piece of bread around and let every kid in class touch it then you put it in a baggy and label it dirty. Watch how the bread changes over time due to germs. It is so cool and a great way to teach the importance of hand washing. :)