Natchez — If you walk by the McLaurin Elementary nurse’s office this year, you might hear the melodic voices of students singing “Happy Birthday To You” echoing from the room.

But the students won’t be having a party. Instead, they will be learning how to stay healthy and germ free.

Mandy Howington, the school’s nurse, has been showing her students the importance of washing hands thoroughly.

As part of her instruction, she has been having the students sing the birthday song as they lather up. But she doesn’t have them sing the song once.

“In order to properly wash your hands, you need to sing it two times,” Howington said. “You need to lather for about 20 seconds.”

This was just one of the lessons Howington has taught as part of the “High Five Hand Washing Program” through a grant from the Mississippi Nurses Foundation. The program, sponsored by Natchez Community Hospital, provides students with information about germs and how to minimize the transmission of germs from person to person.

Howington and school officials hope the lessons will reduce the incidence of illness in the school.

Learning proper washing techniques is just one part of the program.

More importantly, student learn when and how often they need to wash.

“You need to wash before you eat, when leaving the bathroom, when you sneeze and when you get dirty,” McLaurin student Jairus Patton said during class. “And after you pet your dog.”

“That’s a big one,” Howington stressed to the students. “You need to wash any time you touch another animal.”

As part of the program, Howington also visits classes armed with her own brand of glo-germ — a powder substance that spreads like germs but won’t make anyone sick.

During the class she picks a secret student who puts the powder in his or her hands. In regular light the powder is invisible and odorless.

Afterward the students are asked to play a board game called “Contagious.” The student roll dice, handle playing pieces, look at cards and slap each other on the back.

After 15 minutes of playing, the overhead lights turn out and the black light turns on. The once invisible powder suddenly lights up.

Bright spots show up on fingers, faces, clothing and various places on the gameboard. Any spot the secret student may have touched lights up.

“Look I have some in between my fingers,” Tyreek Woods said.

Afterward, the students take to the sink and wash their hands.

After a thorough scrubbing, Howington turns on the black light once more to show what a good hand washing can do.

Most of the students hands were clean and spotless during a recent lesson. Others had a few bright spots of the powder left in the crevices of fingernails.

Quincy Henderson was one of those students. Henderson quickly returned to the sink to make sure his hands were glo-germ free.

“I stayed back there for three minutes,” Henderson said.