Wash your hands with Rufus
Teach your kids handwashing the Rufus way
The Rufus handwashing programme has been developed with childcare professionals to teach children about good handwashing habits.
We all have our role to play in keeping germs like Covid-19 at bay, and Rufus our handwashing hero teaches kids about good handwashing practice at home – especially how important it is to wash hands for 20 seconds and to dry them properly.
Proper handwashing means following these five steps:
- Wash
- Soap
- Rub between fingers, thumbs and all parts of the hands for at least 20 seconds
- Rinse
- Dry
To help children memorise these steps, sing the Rufus song with RTÉjr’s Clara Murray. Repeat it two to three times to make sure your hands are clean.
You can also read the Rufus story book either by using our whiteboard version which works best on desktop or tablets, watch the YouTube video or download the pdf in English or Irish.
Whiteboard story book
Whiteboard story in Irish
Story time with Clara
Story book
Handwashing - the Rufus way
Here’s a Rufus animation which reminds us of the five steps – wash, soap, rub, rinse and dry.
Colouring sheets
Your little ones can colour in our Rufus colouring sheets.
Colour in a sink poster | Colour in Rufus
Character cut-outs
Here’s some of the story book characters to cut out and make into puppets to create new adventures for Rufus and friends
Character cut-outs Sheet 1 | Character cut-outs Sheet 2
Sink poster
And if you don’t have our sink poster, you can print it out to put over the sink to remind kids to follow the five steps.
