Graphic organizer Grade 3 Health & Consumer Science
Soap, Water, and Germs: A Handwashing Chain Organizer
A grade 3 cause-and-effect chain organizer tracing how each handwashing step uses water to move germs off hands and down the drain, with a completed exemplar.
Objectives
- Students will complete a cause-and-effect chain showing what each handwashing step does to germs.
- Students will use the finished chain to write three informative sentences about handwashing.
Vocabulary
Key words: germs, lather, rinse, drain
Teacher overview
This organizer is a six-link cause-and-effect chain in which each row names one handwashing step, and students fill in what happens during the step and what it leads to next. Because germs cannot be seen, the chain gives students a way to track what each step does to them, and it ends where the used water actually goes, down the drain toward the town's wastewater plant. The final writing task turns the completed chain into three informative sentences, so the organizer feeds directly into a short piece of explanatory writing.
Organizer
Fill in the two right-hand columns for each link, writing after the arrow in the last column. Use the word bank. Then write three sentences that teach a kindergartner how handwashing works.
Word bank: germs, wet, soap, lather, scrub, count, rinse, drain, dry, towel, clean, sick
| Link | What happens in this step | What it leads to |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Play and work | → | |
| 2. Wet your hands | → | |
| 3. Soap and scrub | → | |
| 4. Rinse | → | |
| 5. Dry | → | |
| 6. Down the drain | → |
My three teaching sentences:
- My first sentence, about how germs get on hands:
- My second sentence, about what soap and water do:
- My third sentence, about where the germs go:
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Completed Exemplar
| Link | What happens in this step | What it leads to |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Play and work | Hands touch desks, balls, pets, and food, and germs too small to see stick to the skin. | → Hands carry hidden germs |
| 2. Wet your hands | Clean water from the tap wets the skin so soap can spread everywhere. | → Soap can start working |
| 3. Soap and scrub | Soap makes a lather that grabs the germs while you scrub and slowly count to twenty. | → Germs let go of the skin |
| 4. Rinse | Running water washes the lather, and the germs stuck in it, off the hands. | → Germs leave with the water |
| 5. Dry | A clean towel dries the skin, because damp hands pick up new germs faster. | → Hands stay cleaner longer |
| 6. Down the drain | The dirty water carries the germs down the drain and off to the town's wastewater plant to be cleaned. | → Fewer germs reach mouths, food, and friends |
Sample teaching sentences: Germs stick to your hands when you play, even though you cannot see them. Soap and water grab the germs and wash them off. The germs go down the drain with the dirty water, so they cannot make you sick.
Differentiation
Support
Fill in links 1 and 2 together as a class before students work alone, and let students complete the remaining rows with single words from the word bank instead of full phrases. The three sentences may be dictated to a partner or teacher.
Extension
Ask students to add a seventh link showing what happens when someone skips the soap and only rinses, then explain in one sentence why the chain breaks at link 3.
ELL supports
Act out the six links in order as a whole class, pairing one gesture with each link name before writing begins. Provide the word bank with a small sketch beside each word, and accept teaching sentences that follow the frame "First ___. Then ___. Last ___."
Extensions
Have students take the chain home, teach it to someone in their family, and report back which link surprised their listener most. A follow-up discussion can trace link 6 further: the drain leads to pipes, and the pipes lead to the wastewater plant, where the town cleans the water before returning it to the environment.