Roll Call

It would be very helpful if I could check that everyone has the address for this blog. I have sent home the address twice, but I know that little pieces of paper can easily get lost. So, can you each please send me an email just to check in? Then I will get in touch with those who haven't emailed. Thanks for your help!   sarah.whitehead.jk@gmail.com

Volunteering Starts Monday!!

We are getting nicely settled in to our routines and are ready for you parents to come in and volunteer if you have some time and are interested. Please contact Meg Ogden ( meg.ogden@sympatico.ca) for morning times or Carrie Cuhaci (ccuhaci@mac.c) for afternoon times or me (sarah.whitehead.jk@gmail.com) to sign up. We are looking forward to your visits!

Jacket Weather

As the weather gets cooler the children are practising putting on our jackets by themselves. We use the popular Magic Flip method, or the Flip Flop Over the Top method as it is also known. Please help your child rehearse this at home if they need some extra time to master it. Here are the steps:
1) Make sure sleeves are right way out. If not, use the Shark Puppet to go down the tunnel, grab the end of the sleeve and pull it out.
2) Lie the coat on the floor with the front part open.
3) Stand at the hood end (this is key and confusing for everyone at the start)
4) Put your hands in the arm  holes.
5) Push your arms into the coat while flipping it over your head.
Sounds hard, but they learn quickly. Thank you!

Picture Day is Wednesday, October 3rd. The schedule is tight, so if we run out of time we may also have pictures taken on Thursday, October 4th. If you have a particular pose or background you would like, please send in the form from LifeTouch tomorrow or as soon as possible. Otherwise the photographer will choose something nice for you.

We are no longer Wheat Free!

Thank you so much to all the parents who were so helpful about avoiding wheat in snacks for school. There have been a few students move from my class to another class since then. Now we have no wheat allergies among our room 23 students, so the wheat ban is hereby lifted!

Calling all Morning Parent Volunteers

Meg Ogden, Andrei's mom, is coordinating the schedule for volunteering. Please e-mail her and she will start putting names on a calendar. We will update to an electronic calendar soon. Thank you, everyone!

Meg can be reached at meg.ogden@sympatico.ca

Indoor Shoes

                                                               

Please make sure your child has a pair of indoor shoes that can stay in the classroom. The easier they are to put on, the better. We have a red bin for the morning class's shoes and a blue bin for the afternoon class. When the weather gets messier it will be even more helpful to have these. A lot of sand is already getting tracked into the classroom. As the children often play on the floor, we really want to keep things clean. Thanks for your help!

Co-op Students!

We have co-op students to help the class! Yesterday we welcomed Chelsea Brosseau, a grade 12 student from Nepean with great experience working with children and an interest in the arts. She is doing a placement in the morning class until mid-January.  Today Neva Lavalley, also a grade 12 student from Nepean, will begin her placement in our afternoon class. She has also worked with young children and might even brush up her piano playing skills and play for our dance time. We are so glad to have these students in to help with the jk program. Please introduce  yourself to them when you see them in the yard and make them welcome.

Volunteers

I am looking forward to having parents in soon to volunteer. We just need a bit more time to get the children settled into their routines. If there is a morning parent who would like to help recruit volunteers, please let me know! For the afternoon parents, Carrie Cuhaci (Thomas C's mom) is helping to round up and organize volunteers. She will be sending home a note soon, or you can reach her at ccuhaci@mac.com .
Good news! Meg Ogden,  Andrei's mother, has offered to organize the morning parent volunteers. Thank you, Meg and Carrie!

A Wheat-Free Classroom

No Wheat Please! 




I hope you received the letter about snacks and safety for this year. We have a student who has anaphylactic reactions to wheat, so we must follow our school's anaphylaxis policy and minimize the risk. This means having no foods with wheat flour in them for the children's snacks. They can have things like rice crackers or baking made with rice flour as an alternative. I will be sending home (and posting) a list of snack ideas to help with this. Some good snack ideas are fruit, yogurt, veggies and dip, cheese, fruit smoothies and dried fruits like raisins. If your child carries a lunch with her or him, please pack it separately. It can contain wheat (bread, cookies, muffins, etc.) but should stay in her or his backpack at school. I will help them to remember which food to eat at school. Thank you very much for your help in making the classroom safe for everyone.

Special Bus Tags Coming Soon!

Soon we will be adding a bright yellow bus tag to the children's backpack. Please leave this attached and if you change backpacks please request a new tag. It is a Board initiative to help ensure the children's safety by identifying all kindergarten riders. Thank you for your help in this!

Welcome to our Blog!

Dear Junior Kindergarten Families;

   Welcome to our classroom blog! In it you will find some notes on what we are learning in class so you can talk about these at home as well. There will also be reminders about our activities and their dates. To keep it safe, there will be no pictures of the children, but there may be pictures of their art from time to time, and other surprises! We hope you like our blog. Thank you for reading!       

                  Ms. Whitehead and the am and pm classes.