New Clorox Classrooms Website Helps Keep Kids Healthy at Home and at School‏

I still remember when my oldest son started kindergarten. Just a few months into the school year, he came down with chicken pox! (This was before kids were routinely vaccinated for it.) He then proceeded to pass it on to his little brother and me! (Somehow, I had miraculously escaped chicken pox as a child.) Fortunately, we all recovered nicely, but it was my first lesson in realizing that kids are very vulnerable to catching all kinds of illnesses at school. Cold and flu, of course, are most common. One study found that desks, pencil sharpeners, cafeteria tables and water fountains are some of the surfaces in schools with the highest number of bacteria.*

To help parents and teachers create healthier classrooms, Clorox has launched a website called Clorox Classrooms (www.clorox.com/classrooms). This first-of-its-kind website provides parents with health tips and resources to help them keep kids healthy at home and at school and support a healthy classroom. These include:

• Materials like the Healthy Classroom Supply Checklist, which can help you quickly find the items your child’s teacher needs most to clean and disinfect the classroom.

• Tips on extending the messages kids learn at school.

• Links to other health resources.

And to help teach students about healthy habits and preventing the spread of germs in the classroom, teachers can download fun, science-focused curriculum for grades K-2 and 3-5. These lesson plans and activities are free and developed by teachers, for teachers. To help better equip their classrooms, teachers will also find ongoing offers and grants.

Here’s another great opportunity: Between now and March 1, 2011, eligible K-5 teachers can enter the Free Books Sweepstakes for a chance to win a 50-book prize package for their classrooms!

I hope you will visit Clorox Classrooms and tell your child’s teacher about this new free resource!



*Gerba, C.P., and Maxwell, S.L. 2009. School Study.