At home this may be a phrase you often hear from your child when they’re looking for help in the bathroom.  At school, we are not allowed to physically assist your child with toileting tasks, like wiping.

This summer, we encourage you to work on building independence in this area.  You may find your child has an easier time using a baby wipe for cleaning up after bowel movements.  If you are using baby wipes, please work on training your child to put the wipes into a bag or the garbage bin and not into the toilet as they clog the toilets and are not meant to be flushed (even the flushable ones are bad for the sewage system).

Accidents happen!  It could be a fall in the mud, a spill at lunch, or a bathroom accident.

What should you put in your clearly labelled “Just in Case” clothes bag?

• 1-2 pairs of underwear

• 1-2 pairs of shorts/pants (depending on the season)

• 1-2 pairs of socks

• 1 shirt (some families put both a short and long sleeve shirt in)

• A plastic bag to send home dirty clothes in.

It’s okay - this happens!  We will make use of the extra clothes left at school and we can offer verbal instructions to help your child change step by step.  Ultimately, if your child cannot clean up and change independently or there are no extra clothes at school, we will have to call you to come to the school and assist your child. 

LABELS, LABELS, LABELS!

We can’t emphasize this enough!  Every year our lost and found is overflowing with lovely items missing their family.  At some point it is likely that your child will misplace something or forget something outside by mistake.  If you have your family or child’s name on their items there is a MUCH better chance that you will be reunited with the missing item.  The first place we usually look on clothing is the tag or back of the shirt/pants etc. 

Remember when labelling things like tupperware containers - label both the top and bottom of the container.  Students often have the same containers as other students in the class and they often don’t recognize their containers in September (and neither do we).  When we find a random lid we will be able to get it back with the bottom - if it’s labelled.

Students need a pair of indoor shoes that they can put on and do up independently.  We ask you to please send shoes with velcro or a pull-on style.  Elastic laces (similar to the picture) are okay.
These shoes stay at school each day and need to be appropriate for use in the gym so please avoid heels, Crocs, or slippers.

We also ask that you do not send lace up shoes to school.  Please save these types of shoes for at home.  We change shoes multiple times a day and there are many students to help get ready.  Shoes with laces make that extra challenging.

Research shows that children who are read to every day have some serious advantages!  Among other things, reading:

• increases knowledge and vocabulary

• lowers stress

• improves memory

• reading about character's thoughts and feelings can make you kinder

• reading helps with imagination

Talk about and ask questions about what you see around you as you take walks or go on a drive.  "I wonder where that squirrel lives?"

Play games like eye spy, freeze dance, or puzzles.

Learn nursery rhymes together and sing songs.