Web Publishing: Halton District School Board

May 14 - Welcome to spring! The good weather is here to stay now, and we'll be outdoors a lot. Whenever possible, we'll be doing gym outside, and other subjects too. A hat and sunscreen are a very good idea. This Thursday we'll be going on our nature walk. It will be a LONG walk, but Grade 1 students can do it no problem. All are welcome to join us. Wear good hiking shoes - no sandals!

February 22 - As you may be aware, there has been quite a lice outbreak in the school lately. Some parents are struggling to successfully treat the lice, and students are coming back and re-infecting their classmates. I thought it would be helpful to give my advice for treating lice, as I have had considerable experience!

First of all, don't panic if you get the phone call from the school, or discover them yourself. You might not see the insects - they are very shy. Nits look like teardrop-shaped dandruff that adheres to the hair shaft. They don't come off when you shake the hair. Don't worry - this too shall pass! The first thing you need to do is get yourself a good lice comb. I can't stress this enough: You cannot remove all the nits with your fingers! They are too small and we have too much hair. I recommend the LiceMeister comb http://www.headlice.org/licemeister/canada.htm. It is metal and has round tines that nothing gets through. The plastic ones in the kits are good for nothing! See the link for local distributers. You can also purchase the chemical treatment kit, which kills any live insects. I believe you can do without this - the chemicals are toxic - but I totally understand why you'd want the critters to die quickly! So, proceed as follows:

Starting at one side of the head, make a small part in the hair (about a centimetre). Comb the hair from the scalp to the ends, wiping the accumulated conditioner off on a paper towel. You will likely see nits in the conditioner. Comb both sides of the part. Proceed through the hair, parting and combing, from one side of the head to the other, wiping comb as necessary. Discard paper towels right to the outside garbage!

Clean bedding, clothing (including outdoor clothes), and vacuum well. Don't worry too much about the house. If you have a reoccurrence, it will most likely come from classmates, or you missed a nit. It only takes one to grow a whole new crop! But they don't survive long off a human body. They don't live in carpet, like fleas.

February 8 - Wow, I haven't posted for a long time! My apologies. We jumped right back in to work upon coming back from the break, and we haven't stopped! The kids have been working very hard every day. Report cards are finished, and will be distributed after Family Day. All the students have grown so much, both physically and academically, since September. Celebrate those achievements! Also, take the time to do some goal setting for the remainder of the year.

Valentine's Day is coming up, and students are welcome to bring cards for their classmates. I have sent home a list that they can use to simply cut and paste the names on the cards. No need to buy cards - everyone has learned how to cut out a heart shape, so they could easily make cards for each other.

No sign of snow, so we haven't been able to do what I wanted for gym outside. Maybe this month, so make sure your child has warm gear every day. They spend a lot of time outside anyway. Snow pants are a good idea even if there's no snow.

December 20 - Thank you for coming to our show, and being so supportive! Thanks especially to those who helped with the glowsticks (extra big thanks for the Murrays, who did all the detaching of the glowsticks, a no-fun job!). In spite of some glitches, we were a big success. Great to see all of you out getting in the holiday spirit!

December 12 - I'm glad to be back after my first ever whole week absence. I'm fully healthy and ready to work hard on all the exciting things coming up. First is this week's Winter Concert on Wednesday night. I believe we should meet at 6:15, but I will send a confirmation time in the agenda. For our first number for Mrs. Winstanley, they were told to wear shiny silver or gold. Underneath if they have solid black or navy, they can just take off the shiny and be ready for our second number, our dance. I've asked those who have light up shoes to wear them, but don't worry if you don't have any. Other things will light up. It should be interesting! We haven't had quite as much rehearsal time as I would have liked, but I think it'll still be pretty cool. On Friday, the kids can shop at our Mistletoe Market for small gifts for their families. Please send them with no more than $10 if you would like them to be able to shop. The items are inexpensive and will come home fully wrapped so they can be a surprise.

November 22 - Well, we all had our conferences, and they were great! It's often hard for such young students to talk about their learning, but I was very impressed with how well my students could articulate what they were especially proud of and their next steps. It's even better to see them all working so hard on their goals this week! We are all so focused and improving so quickly! I am very proud of everybody. Thanks so much to all the parents who are so supportive of their children's academic efforts.

Just a reminder that we all need to have hats and mittens at school for recesses from now until April! The kids are outside for at least 40 minutes a day, and will suffer without warm clothing. Make sure everything is labelled, please, especially mittens which get lost every day!

October 24 - We just came back from seeing Jack Grunsky, and I've got to say, my class was the best behaved in the whole place! We've been practising our audience manners during our oral presentations, and we're getting good at attentive listening, for sure. It was a great show - fun music and dancing, just the right length.

We also had a good time on Friday at the Country Heritage Park. It was my first time there and I thought the educational program was top-notch. The weather cooperated, and we saw and did lots of cool things. Thanks to my parent volunteers, who were super helpful. Sorry you had to provide your own transportation (and sorry you didn't find that out sooner). You helped make our day even better!

I am terribly sorry about my newsletter being late. I was away for four days of the last two weeks, and got behind on EVERYTHING! I will be back on track next week. I appreciate your patience and understanding. We've got a lot of cool stuff coming up this month, including two class trips. Details to follow!

Just wanted to say a few thank yous: thanks to everyone who came out to admire their child's great work at the open house, thanks to all who came along for the Terry Fox run, thanks to all my fabulous volunteers! I'm giving thanks for ALL of you this weekend! Our year is off to such a great start due to everyone's collaborative efforts. Way to go!

September 22 - I was wondering if there was a very kind person out there who would take on the job of looking after my monthly Scholastic orders. The job is to separate the flyers and combine into sets for all the students, with the due date on them. Then when the orders come in, to put them together on the order forms for me to call in, and total the money for each form. Then, if you wanted to be a total super star, when the orders arrive you could pack them up for each kid. It's a bit of work, but the kids love to get their books. Not only that, but I get free stuff for the classroom. Is there a volunteer for this very important job?

September 21 - I've had a great time getting to know my class in the past couple of weeks! It is a most delightful group of young people, I must say. We are already quite comfortable with each other and having some excellent conversations. We have settled into the class routines with ease. A fabulous start, for sure!

I have sent home our first oral language assignment, the name project. We will do one every month, on a topic that we're working on in class. The students are expected to speak confidently to the group, with good expression, and to field questions about what they said. It helps to practise at home to make it smooth and help them feel comfortable. We will start presentations on Sept. 26.

The home reading program will begin this week. Please read every night! It makes such a difference to your reader's development. It's the single most important thing you can do to help your child succeed at school.

Welcome to Grade 1! I am very excited to meet my new class and new families. Our first week will be spent getting to know each other and learning the classroom routines. Feel free to drop in and introduce yourself!

I will use this website, in addition to monthly newsletters, to give information about what's going on at school. For now it is pretty primitive, but one of my goals for the year is to jazz it up a bit! I will update it biweekly (more when necessary). If you have any questions or concerns ever, you can contact me at bryanc@hdsb.ca.