Free CMV Teaching Tool Kit: "Once Upon a Placemat: A Table Setting Tale" by Lisa Saunders

Free CMV Teaching Tool kit by Lisa Saunders

 "Once Upon a Placemat: A Table Setting Tale"
Educational "color-me-in" fairytale

Childcare workers and mothers of toddlers are at greater risk for contracting #1 viral cause of birth defects, congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV)

Mystic, Conn.— Lisa Saunders, author of “Once Upon a Placemat: A Table Setting Tale,” created a free downloadable school/child care program kit for parents and teachers to use to instruct children on table setting and germ prevention, particularly against diseases spread through saliva.

In Once Upon a Placemat: A Table Setting Tale, "Grandma" reminds children when and why to wash their hands and speaks for Miss Cup to teach germ prevention. She also features Mr. Knife's fear of the dish running away with the spoon to teach table-setting in the "color-me-in" fairytale, "Once Upon a Placemat: A Table Setting Tale."

FREE Teaching Tool kit includes:

• Educational Coloring Book: Free pdf version of Once Upon a Placemat: A Table Setting Tale (or the educational fairy tale can be purchased as a bound coloring book to hand out on Amazon for $6.99).
• Placemats: Side one: Placemat with tableware characters with space for your coloring artist's name (perfect for laminating and using as a table-setting reminder). Side two: Germ prevention tips and hand-washing instructions.
• Video: Short introduction of  the tableware characters by Lisa Saunders. 

"Once Upon a Placement is a clever way to get across an important message about prevention of infectious diseases. As a doctor, I recommend it to my young patients and their families. As a grandmother, I have shared it with my granddaughter." Gail J Demmler Harrison, MD, CMV Registry, CMV Research and CMV Clinic

"The lesson of how to set a table is valuable as this is part of encouraging a family to sit down and eat together—a main intervention in preventing obesity," said Alison Dvorak, MS, RDN, CDN, of Franklin, Connecticut.

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About the author:

Lisa Saunders is an award-winning writer living in Mystic, Connecticut, with her husband and hound. A graduate of Cornell University, she is the parent representative of the Congenital Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Foundation, and in 2015, was instrumental in helping Connecticut become one of the few states in the country to enact a law combating the leading viral cause of birth defects, congenital CMV.  Saunders said, “CMV is carried by a high percentage of apparently healthy toddlers. It is found in bodily fluids such as saliva and is of concern to women of childbearing age because the virus can lead to complications in their baby's development if they are pregnant while infected.” Lisa Saunders is author of  "The Danger of Spreading CMV: How We Can Protect Our Children" published in ChildCare Aware of America (June 2017). 

Co-author of "Once Upon a Placemat," Jackie Tortora, is a digital strategist living with her husband and their young son in Vienna, Virginia. It was illustrated by Marianne Greiner of Bloomfield, New York.  

For more information, visit www.authorlisasaunders.com or write to LisaSaunders42@gmail.com

Author's note:  “Once Upon a Placemat” is an expanded version of the fairytale Saunders told in her children’s novel, “Ride a Horse, Not an Elevator,” which is featured in the Cornell University 4-H “Horse Book in a Bucket” program.

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