RACINE COUNTY - Experts estimate the H1N1 swine flu could infect half the U.S. population this winter. To make sure as few area students as possible are part of those who get sick with the influenza virus that has been deemed a global pandemic, local schools are stepping up their game when it comes to hand-washing and covering your mouth.

Area school districts are pulling out all the stops by sending more information home and even using cartoon characters and songs to teach healthy habits.

Racine Unified has enlisted the help of Henry the Hand, an online hand-shaped cartoon that teaches proper hand washing with downloadable coloring books and a catchy jingle.

"It gets in your head and you cannot for the life of you forget it," said Susan Stroupe, Unified's Health Services supervisor. "That's really what you want with children."

The Children's Hospital of Wisconsin is using similar methods to get their healthy habits message to kids and school districts. They announced an H1N1 prevention campaign in September that uses four characters: Missy Clean, Captain Cough, Super Sneeze and R&R Kid.

Districts and individual schools in the state can register to be part of the campaign and can receive free information packets with posters, stickers and more. Schools, parents and other caregivers can also download activity sheets, view H1N1 updates and read blogs by Children's Hospital experts by visiting http://www.childrensflufighters.com

As of Wednesday, when Children's Hospital sent out mailings to interested districts, 42 public and private schools in Racine County had expressed interest in the campaign, said Beth Crivello-Wagner, hospital spokeswoman.

Area schools are also working hard in other ways to prevent the spread of H1N1. Unified has a special H1N1 information page on its Web site, http://www.racine.k12.wi.us, sent a letter about H1N1 home to parents in early September and provided a flier in English and Spanish for all schools and staff, even those at local parochial and private schools, Stroupe said.

Some Unified school nurses have also given classroom presentations on proper hand-washing, and the district has put up more than 1,000 mirror stickers on bathrooms reminding students to wash their hands for at least 15 seconds, Stroupe said.

Unified and the Burlington Area School District have hung posters throughout their school buildings reminding students to cough or sneeze into their sleeves, and Burlington Director of School Health Services Rosemary Dolatowski said she is also sending out weekly blurbs to staff about how they can prevent the spread of H1N1 through social distancing in the classroom, putting used tissues in the garbage and staying home when ill.

Many of these efforts are focused at elementary school-age children because they come into closer contact with each other and need more reminders. But older students have not been forgotten.

Unified targets them more with posters and written materials as well as through health class curriculum, Stroupe said.

If these methods don't work and a child does get sick, districts are asking parents to be as specific as possible about symptoms when calling them in sick.

That helps contain and track the disease, Dolatowski said.

Starting on the first day of school this year, Burlington has had sheets at all schools that record staff and student absences along with reasons why. Those sheets are given to the Western Racine County Health Department, she said.

Schools usually try to prevent the seasonal flu but efforts to spread the word on healthy habits have definitely increased this year because of H1N1, Stroupe said.

Experts have said H1N1 could cause between 30,000 and 90,000 deaths this winter in the U.S., mostly among 6-month-olds to 24-year-olds.

"That's everybody that we've got," Stroupe said.