How To Make Child-Friendly Hand Sanitizer With Your Kids (+ 5 Worksheet Bundles to Explain Why It’s Important)

Hand sanitizer has soared in popularity in 2020. In a world faced with COVID-19, it’s now an essential, everyday item. So why not make a kid-friendly hand sanitizer at home or in the classroom?

We know that washing hands with soap and warm water is the ideal defense in environments where we might come into contact with COVID-19. However, in situations where traditional hand washing just isn’t possible, hand sanitizer is a close second best for eliminating the pathogens that cause coronavirus.

Whether you’re a homeschooling parent or a teacher welcoming students back into school, this is a great (and very topical) science project to do with your kids.

And with the help of some quality KidsKonnect worksheets, it’s a great jumping-off point for enriching science study.

Hand sanitizer for kids: ingredients

To make your kid-friendly hand sanitizer, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• ⅔ cup 99% isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol)
• ⅓ cup aloe vera gel
• An airtight container

Alcohol kills bacteria, but it can also dry hands out and make them sore. That’s why aloe vera is included as it helps to protect the skin.

You can increase or decrease the measurements listed here but be sure to keep the same ratio between the rubbing alcohol and aloe vera. Pro tip: hand sanitizer for kids or adults is only effective if it contains at least 60% alcohol.

Method for making kid-friendly hand sanitizer

Making your own kid-friendly hand sanitizer couldn’t be easier. In a well-ventilated area, mix the rubbing alcohol and aloe vera together until you have a smooth mixture.

You may want to add a few drops of essential oil at this point, to make your hand sanitizer scented. Just be sure to use as little as possible so the alcohol ratio isn’t depleted.

Next, use a funnel to pour the mixture into your airtight container — and you’re done!

How to use kid-friendly hand sanitizer

The amount of hand sanitizer you use is really important. Experts think that many of us aren’t using enough to completely eliminate the bacteria and virus particles on our hands.

We should be using just over half a teaspoon of hand sanitizer (about 3ml). We should then rub our hands together, coating all parts of the hand and fingers, until the hands feel dry.

There are a few safety considerations worth noting, though. One: hand sanitizer should be stored out of reach of younger children. And an adult should always be present to ensure that hand sanitizer is used correctly.

5 worksheet bundles to explain why cleaning your hands is so important

Making kid-friendly hand sanitizer is lots of fun — but don’t stop there! It’s essential that kids understand why cleaning their hands is so important, too.

The following worksheet bundles teach kids about the human body, the immune system, and medical interventions like vaccines.

Tied in with all of the worksheets is the fact that washing or sanitizing hands is a really simple but super important way to protect our health.

Coronavirus Worksheets

With our worlds turned upside down by the novel coronavirus, kids are bound to have loads of questions. Plus, throw in the fear factor of lockdown and it certainly helps kids to separate fact from fiction.

These worksheets explore different coronaviruses: SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. They test kids on the symptoms associated with COVID-19 and flu, and explore what nations are doing to “flatten the curve”.

You could go one step further and explore the role of public health initiatives, the history of the WHO, or — for a spot of math study — the ways in which coronavirus statistics are being reported.

Respiratory System Worksheets

These worksheets help to explain exactly how the respiratory system works. Kids will learn about the structure and mechanics of the lungs and take a look at respiratory infections, too.

Hand sanitizer is obviously one of the ways that we can prevent a respiratory infection like COVID-19 from entering the body in the first place. But these worksheets show kids what happens if the virus gets past that first line of defense.

These lessons can work in conjunction with a wider study on the human body and the various systems contained within.

Bacteria and Viruses Worksheets

What’s the difference between bacteria and viruses? What do they do to the body? And what can we do to prevent them? Kids will be able to answer all of these questions (and more!) after completing this worksheet bundle.

Antibiotics and the dangers of antibiotic resistance are covered, along with the difficulty we have in curing viral infections. This highlights the need for prevention and the role good hand hygiene plays in achieving that.

There’s so much more you can do with kids on this topic, too — learning about good and bad bacteria, understanding where viruses come from, and investigating the role of DNA viruses.

Immune System Worksheets

Immune system. T-cells. Antibodies. These worksheets will help kids to make sense of terminology they’re hearing on the news or from adults around them.

Kids learn about the various ways the body fights a foreign invader, like COVID-19. They also get to see what happens if good hand hygiene and social distancing aren’t observed and a pathogen manages to enter the body.

These worksheets can act as a great jumping-off point for lessons about the human body in general. The bundle also prompts further investigations into health and the factors that affect the functioning of our immune systems.

Vaccine Worksheets

Another really topical subject! This vaccine bundle explores different vaccines, the diseases they fight against, and how vaccines work to produce an immune response.

We will hopefully have a vaccine for COVID-19 in the future. But until that hope becomes a reality, good hand hygiene using soap, water, and hand sanitizer is essential for kids and adults alike.

Using these worksheets, teachers, and parents can create classes on medical history — how our ability to fight viruses and bacteria has developed over the centuries — and take a look at the progress being made in creating a vaccine for COVID-19 in particular. 

We hope you and your kids have lots of fun making kid-friendly hand sanitizer and exploring these worksheet bundles. For more high-quality worksheets, covering all aspects of the curriculum, be sure to check out the KidsKonnect library.