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Five Tips to Fight Germs in the Classroom
1. Throw away your bathroom pass! Bathroom passes usually mean germ city! Even if students wash their hands well after using the restroom they then touch the bathroom pass and undo all that great hand washing effort. Try an alternate pass that kids don't carry with them to the bathroom but instead leave on their desk to indicate they're out. You can even put a reminder on the item to wash their hands, just in case they forgot.
2. Teach students how to properly wash their hands. Hand washing is more than just throwing soap on your hands and rinsing it off. Check out Scrub Club for ideas on how to teach kids about the Six Steps for Proper Hand washing.
3. Show students the safe way to cough and sneeze. Teach students to cover their mouths and noses when they cough and sneeze. Ideally the students would cough/sneeze into a tissue which they would immediately throw away and then wash their hands. If no tissue is available show them how to cough/sneeze into their elbow.
4. Send sick kids home...and stay home when you're sick too!If a student comes to school sick, immediately send them home. That goes for teachers too! While nobody wants to miss a day of school or work, we must consider the health of everyone else and do the responsible thing - stay home!
5. Have a weekly class cleaning. Divide the students into teams and have them tackle different parts of the classroom with disinfectant wipes to kill any lingering germs. Make sure everyone washes their hands or gets a squirt of hand sanitizer when you're done!
"Every year more than 164 million school days are lost due to illness, which could be greatly reduced with proper handwashing."
-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics
Disease Prevention Education Lesson Plans and Resources
Lessons on Communicable Disease Prevention (Grades K-12)
Handwashing Awareness Videos and Activities (Grades K-3)
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Teacher Vision Health and Nutrition Resources (Grades K-12)
Tips for a Germ-Free Classroom
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