Lysol’s Healthy Habits Contest Helps Teachers Provide Materials for Their Classrooms

Lysol is a financial sponsor of National PTA, and has been invited to submit a blog post as part of their engagement with PTA. National PTA does not endorse any commercial entity, product, or service, and no endorsement is implied by this content.

Fifty Winners to Receive Gift Cards for Classroom Supplies

Nearly 22 million school days are missed each year due to illness. Every day a child is absent, he or she misses out on valuable educational programs. Because students are in close contact all day and use the same school supplies, door handles, desks and tables, schools can contribute to the spread of illness. The good news? Teaching hand hygiene and healthy habits in schools has been shown to reduce student absenteeism and illnesses in families.

This year, Lysol wants to see how your child’s teacher helps keep their students happy and healthy all year long by incorporating healthy habits into the classroom, with the overall goal of reducing the number of sick days. We’re excited to announce the kick-off of our annual Healthy Habits Contest, which gives teachers the chance to win gift cards for classroom materials and supplies that we know many often provide out of their own pockets.

Enter: Entering is easy! Encourage your child’s teacher to submit a short video (60 seconds or less) sharing how they incorporate Healthy Habits into their classroom. Whether it is showing us how they celebrate Healthy Habits Week (the third week of every September) or enforce hand washing before lunch and after recess, we encourage teachers to be creative and have fun with their submissions! To learn more and participate, visit Lysol.com/healthyhabits. Entries will be accepted between August 4 and October 16.

Vote to Win: Eligible entries will be public on the Lysol website, where viewers can vote for their favorites. Once your child’s teacher submits the video, encourage them to share the link on their social media channels in order to get more “Likes.” Get other parents from your child’s classroom excited in helping your teacher win and encourage them to do the same!

Prizes: The 50 videos with the most “Likes” will win a gift card for their classroom, ranging in value from $200 to $500, as well as Lysol products to use throughout the year.

For more info on the Healthy Habits Contest, please visit: Lysol.com/healthyhabits.


Conor O’Brien is the marketing director at Lysol. He drives Lysol’s Mission for Health campaign, a program focused on educating communities across the country on the importance of healthy habits and good hygiene practices.

Lysol Helps Families Practice Healthy Habits During Cold and Flu Season

Lysol_HealthyHabitsLysol is a financial sponsor of National PTA, and has been invited to submit a blog post as part of their engagement with PTA. National PTA does not endorse any commercial entity, product, or service, and no endorsement is implied by this content.

Illness Prevention Begins at Home

Every day a child is absent, he or she misses out on valuable educational programs. Yet school environments often contribute to absenteeism through the spread of illness as students are in close contact all day, using the same door handles, school supplies and desks. That’s why the National PTA has teamed up with Lysol and the National Education Association (NEA) to spread the word on healthy habits, beginning at home.  The aim is to help educate students on the importance of consistent hand washing, sneeze and cough etiquette and more both at home and in the classroom, with the goal of reducing the 22 million school days that are missed each year.

Lysol believes that knowledge is the best weapon against germs. Here are some tips to help spread the word on good healthy habits, not germs.

  • Practice Proper Hand Washing: Hand washing with soap and water is one of the most effective ways to help prevent the spread of germs. To make sure that children practice hand washing for at least 20 seconds, the amount of time needed to kill and remove germs, encourage them to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice while rubbing their hands together and share this trick with their peers at school.
  • When the Time is Right: Children should wash hands frequently throughout the day, especially before a meal, after recess or gym and before any cooking activities. Children should also practice good hand washing habits after using the bathroom, coughing, sneezing or playing outside.
  • Bring it To School: Encouraging frequent and proper hand washing etiquette at home helps students bring these habits to the classroom and encourage their peers to adopt them as well. Parents can demonstrate healthy habits by frequently disinfecting germ “hot spots” in the home such as faucets, door handles, counter tops, remote controls and the toilet flusher to help avoid illness.

For more information on healthy habits at home and beyond, please visit: Lysol.com/healthyhabits.

Conor O’Brien is the Marketing Director at Lysol.

The Lysol Healthy Habits Bus Hits the Road!

National PTA is a proud supporter of the Healthy Habits Bus Tour, which will visit schools nationwide.

Lysol_Health_Habits_Bus_1

We are excited that the National PTA is a proud supporter of the Healthy Habits Program, presented by Lysol in collaboration with the NEA and PTA. The program is focused on providing families and classrooms with the resources and tools they need to help live healthy, happy lives. The Healthy Habits Program provides teachers, parents and children with lesson plans, activity guides and a science museum on wheels – the Healthy Habits Bus, a first-ever educational bus that helps make germs more understandable and real. It’s important to reduce absenteeism in schools due to illness, so we strive to educate children on what they can do to help stop the spread of germs and stay healthy inside and outside of school.

Healthy Habits Bus InteractionBeginning in June and running through October of this year, the Lysol Healthy Habits Bus will tour schools and retailers across the country, spreading news on the importance of healthy habits and good hygiene practices. The bus offers a series of features that show children how thorough hand washing and healthy habits can help keep them healthy:

  • Clean Hands Germs Scan: Children will place their hands in the Hand Scanner and see their hands projected onto a screen in front of them with animated “germs” wriggling all over them! A video then teaches the proper way to clean hands and kill germs.
  • Anatomy of the Sneeze: An animated nose on a screen sneezes – accompanied by a burst of air so children feel like they have been sneezed on. They then see themselves surrounded by animated “germs,” simulating how sneezes spread germs around a small area.
  • When to Wash: A touchscreen game shows a class in progress. Children tap the students who need to wash their hands. Correct answers get a reward; missed chances prompt videos that explain how germs spread when hands aren’t washed.
  • Defeat the Germs!: In this KinectTM –styleaugmented reality game, students use disinfecting wipes with the goal of preventing germs from getting past them.

We have also developed the Lysol Healthy Habits contest, where you can enter your school for a chance to win one of three school grants valued at $15,000, $5,000 and $1,000, a year’s supply of Lysol Disinfecting Wipes, a Healthy Habits Day Celebration and a visit from the Healthy Habits Bus.  Please visit Lysol.com/HealthyHabits to learn more about the Healthy Habits Bus, and visit Facebook.com/Lysol for details and information about how to enter the Healthy Habits Contest!

We hope you to see you soon!

Conor O’Brien is the Marketing Director at Lysol. He drives Lysol’s Mission for Health campaign, a program focused on educating communities across the country on the importance of healthy habits and good hygiene practices.