How to Prioritize Physical and Mental Health This Winter

During the holiday season, consider these tips to ensure staff and students prioritize their physical and mental health leading up to winter break and the holiday season.

Topics: NAESP Partner

The holiday season is exciting for staff, students, and their families, but it also might be challenging to remain productive and prioritize healthy habits. During the holiday season, consider these tips to ensure staff and students prioritize their physical and mental health leading up to winter break and the holiday season:

  1. Encourage Active Activities: Physical health among students is important. While many schools cannot take students outside during cold winter months, it is still important to encourage physical activity, especially when indulging with treats around the holiday season. To help encourage physical activity among students, consider keeping recess on the blacktop so children can enjoy the outdoors but avoid snow and cold equipment. If you are unable to go outside, bring recess to the inside gymnasium and facilitate games (like red light, green light) that are still active and fun.
  2. Disinfect High-Touch Surfaces: Before school closes for holiday break, ask your janitorial staff to pay attention to high-tough surfaces. With students and staff out of the building, janitorial staff can ensure they are properly using products like Lysol Disinfecting Wipes that, when used as directed, kill 99.9 percent of bacteria from high-touch surfaces like doorknobs, remotes, and desktops.
  3. Avoid Adding Extra Stress: While the holidays are an exciting time of year, the season can also be stressful for educators who are trying to balance lesson plans with other fun, seasonal celebrations scheduled like assemblies, guest speakers, and classroom parties. Students already might have the winter break mindset, so adding extra activities can interfere with classroom productivity. As principals, make sure you communicate with staff in advance about holiday programming and expectations so educators can plan appropriately.
  4. Unplug During Winter Break: The holiday season is a time for staff and students to unplug and spend time with family and friends. As a school leader, avoid sending work-related emails to parents and staff during this timeframe to let everyone fully unplug and recharge.

Want to learn more? Visit Lysol’s Here for Healthy Schools initiative.