Kindergarteners Win Grand Prize In Hand Washing Contest

WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) -- It had been months since the class of kindergarteners at William Winchester Elementary School had performed the song that made them famous, but once they put on their sunglasses, the words and movements quickly came back to them.

Music teacher Rachel Morgan and a kindergarten class at William Winchester Elementary School won the grand prize in the Lysol Blue Ribbon Classroom Hand Washing Song Contest. The contest was open to any classroom in grades pre-K through fifth grade in any public or private school in the country.

As the grand prize winner, the school will receive a $5,000 prize.

Morgan was with a fourth-grade class when she received a phone call a few weeks ago with the good news. Rather than wait to share the news, they all decided to give that kindergarten class a surprise visit while the students were in homeroom.

When she shared the news, everyone cheered.

"They said 'We're famous,"' Morgan said. "They're still very proud of it."

Jaeden Lee, 6, of Westminster, remembers the overall reaction to finding out the news.

"We just screamed in the classroom," he said. "It was cool."

The song, which is now featured on Scholastic's website, warns of the dangers of being neglectful of hand washing.

Emilee Keller, 6, of Westminster, has taken the song's message to heart.

"I learned that we have to wash our hands so we don't get sick," she said.

The teacher decided to have the class write and compose the song after hearing about the contest, which was featured in a Scholastic magazine.

"I thought the topic was appropriate for kindergarteners," Morgan said.

It only took the class of 18 students portions of about four 30-minute class periods to write and rehearse the song, Morgan said. She said she wrote the chorus, but they made up the choreography and discussed rhyming words for the two additional song verses as a group.

The activity met a lot of the students' music goals from the county, Morgan said, including identifying rhyming words, keeping a steady beat, creative expression and identifying how music relates to people in their daily lives.

After composing and rehearsing the song, the class had a performance in the cafeteria where the video was recorded in November, before being submitted with a few additional special effects.

Morgan said the students had a great time with the project.

"They're very animated," she said.

Carroll County Times
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