Social and Religious Studies

Key unit competence: Demonstrate proper hygiene practices and environment cleanliness

                                        Learning objectives

At the end of this unit, you should be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• Identify basic hygiene practices and their importance to the environment.
• Identify waterborne diseases.
• Identify signs, symptoms and treatment of malaria.

Skills

• Carry out activities that promote good hygiene of their surrounding environment.
• Explain the importance of proper hygiene and problems caused by lack of proper hygiene to the environment.
• Explain waterborne diseases, causes, effects and prevention.
• Suggest different ways of preventing malaria.

Attitudes and values

• Appreciate and practise proper environmental hygiene.
• Show respect towards keeping environment clean.
• Show concern about waterborne diseases and malaria.
• Contribute to prevention of waterborne diseases and malaria.

Introductory activity

Look at the picture. Then discuss the answers to these questions.

   1. What are the children doing?

   2. Why is it good to be in a clean area?

  3. What do you clean at home?

  4. Why do we need to be clean?

   5. Why should both girls and boys help to clean?

Learners cleaning the school yard

3.1 Hygiene

Hygiene is keeping yourself and your environment clean and healthy. If you keep clean, you can prevent or stop diseases. 

Your environment is everything around you. 

This can be, for example, your:

• classroom 
•  school
• home.

To be clean helps to stop germs from spreading. Germs cause diseases. 

They make you ill. When you are sick, you do not feel well.

3.2 How to be clean

Hygiene practices are what you do to keep yourself clean. They are also what

you do to keep your environment clean. Look at these examples of hygiene practices.

3.3 Wash your hands

It is very important to keep your hands clean. Germs on your hands can

make you and others sick. Wash your hands often. Use clean water and soap.

Always wash your hands before you:

•  peel fruit and vegetables
• eat
• cook
•  go to sleep.

Always wash your hands after you:

• go to the toilet or pit latrine
• touch an animal
• garden or farm.

Sing a song while you wash your hands. This will remind you to wash both your hands very well.

Activity

Do this activity.

1. Role play how you should wash your hands.

2. Explain why you should wash your hands.

3. Explain when you should wash your hands.

It is important to wash your hands regularly.

3.4 Keep your environment cleanHow to keep the area where you live clean. You can do this if you:

•  clean your house, classroom and school area
•  never litter and pick up waste
•  sweep and wash the floor
•  keep the area in and around the toilet and pit latrine clean
•  do not go to the toilet in or near water source.

Exercise

1. Explain the meaning of hygiene.

2. What is a germ?

3. What is a disease?

3.5 It is important to keep the environment clean

Problems happen when there is no hygiene. If we do not clean ourselves, we get germs.

 We can also spread germs. When we spread germs, we pass them on to others. 

Then they can get sick. If we do not clean the environment, we can cause diseases. 

That is because we let germs breed and spread. These insects like dirty environments:

• flies
• fleas
• mosquitoes
• ticks
• lice

These insects spread serious diseases. They breed in dirt. 

That is why it is very important to have hygiene in the environment.

If we make the water dirty, we can get very sick. If we drink dirty water, we can get an upset stomach. 

This is called diarrhoea.

Activity

1. Discuss why we should keep the environment clean.

2. Share your ideas with the class.

Activity

1. Clean the area around your school.

2. Make a record of the area you clean. Say what you have done.

Homework

Write four sentences to explain why it is important to clean the school.

3.8 MalariaMalaria is carried by mosquitoes. When a female anopheles mosquito bites you, you get malaria. Mosquitoes breed in water (especially dirty, still water). 

Never leave empty containers outside. Old tyres that lie around collect rain water. Mosquitoes like to breed in still and dirty water. It is best to prevent malaria. You can do this if you:

•  keep your environment clean 
•  do not put containers outside that can fill up with rain water. This is where mosquitoes breed.
• clean rivers and ponds• sleep under a mosquito net
•  cover your arms and legs at sunrise and sunset
• help other insects, birds, animals, fish and reptiles that eat mosquitoes, to live.

Malaria can be treated by taking tablets prescribed by a doctor.

Activity

1. Find out and discuss the causes and effects of malaria. Present your answers to the class. 

     Be prepared to ask and answer questions. 

2. Do a clean-up to destroy mosquito-breeding places. Find these places in your area.

Homework

Write four sentences to explain how to destroy mosquito breeding places.

Some insects, fish, birds, reptiles and animals eat mosquitoes. Do not kill them. 

They help to get rid of mosquitoes. That helps to prevent malaria.

Peer assessment

Do the following and swop with you partner to check each other’s work.

1. Describe the problems caused by a lack of hygiene.

2. Make a drawing to show how malaria can be spread by dirty water.

End unit assessment

    1. What does hygiene mean?

    2. Name two waterborne diseases. 

    3. What are the effects of waterborne diseases? 

    4. Give three reasons why we should keep the environment clean. 

    5. Explain how you could destroy or clean up places where mosquitoes breed. 

    6. Look at the picture. Then answer the questions.

a) What is the frog doing? 

b) In what way is the frog helping to prevent malaria? 

c) What else can you do to prevent malaria? Give two ideas.