The bugs have hit! As we were missing several students today due to illness and quite a few who were at school were frequent flyers to the tissue box, it is evident that the back to school germ bugs are here! We decided to spend some time today discussing ways that we can help to prevent spreading our germs to one another. The two biggest things that we came up with as a class are to cough or sneeze into our elbows and to make sure we are washing our hands often! We are lucky enough to have a sink and soap dispenser right in our classroom and we are practicing washing our hands before we eat and after we blow our noses!

Also this is the last week that all of the teachers will be out on supervision in the mornings and after-school. Starting September 19, we will have several staff out in the field areas to supervise starting at 7:45am so you are welcome to drop them off knowing that there will be adult supervision for the 15 minutes before the bell if you are comfortable with that. At 8:00 am, Ms. Sayani and I will open the doors at the end of the modulars to let the students inside. We will continue to bring your children outside at 2:30 dismissal to ensure they are safely picked up. It is a good idea to establish a meeting area that you or the person picking up will stand at so the students know where to watch for you. As long as they see someone that they know they are supposed to go with they can just quickly wave goodbye to me and be on their way. If it is an abnormal pick up and someone else will be coming to get them, please send me a note so that I'm aware. We do try to ensure that we are familiar with or are aware of the usual people retrieving students so that we can keep them safe. Please email me at ljstewart@cbe.ab.ca if there are any specific arrangements you would like me to be aware of, or if there are individuals who are definitely not allowed to pick up (even though they may be familiar to student).