Teachers!

While most of us want to spend our summer relaxing by the pool, reading ‘grown up’ books, and catching up on soap operas, the truth is the next school year is slowly creeping up on us. Most of us are just now letting the dust settle in our rooms, but in just a few short weeks, we’ll be back in there stapling up bulletin boards, making copies and straightening desks.

Summer is a great time to tackle some projects to help start your year germ free! Think of all the things your students touch, but don’t get cleaned regularly. Centimeter cubes, unifix cubes, bingo chips, pattern blocks and letter dice probably don’t get cleaned as often as they should, so use the summer to get them clean and sanitized to prevent the early spread of germs next year.

If the objects are small, clean them in warm water with some dish soap to get all of the germs and grime off. Then, finish by sanitizing. Add 1 tablespoon of bleach to every quart of water and rinse all of those little pieces in the solution. Once they dry, they are ready to be stored for the next school year. Another trick for bigger items (phonics phones, rainy-day toys, etc.) is your dishwasher! Put them in with your regular dishwasher soap and they will come out cleaned and sanitized. Just make sure they don’t melt if you use heat to dry!

Enjoy the rest of your summer and say: Goodbye Germs!

 

Mrs. TMrs. T is a regularly featured writer for OUTFOX Prevention. Please contact us with questions for Mrs. T!