REFLECTIONS NEWSLETTER - ISSUE # 1 2016

What’s in this edition….

Diary Dates

Our Mission To provide a Montessori environment in which the needs of the whole child are met in a nurturing, safe and caring school, by encouraging independence, mutual respect and self-discipline so that students are prepared to take their place in the global community.

Principal News & Photos 2

Program Coordinators 5

Finance & School Banking 6

Community Spirit 7

Infant Toddler Program 8

Children’s House News 9

Lower Primary News 12

Upper Primary News 15

Adolescent Program News 16

Indonesian 18

Art 19

Health News 20

Scholastic Book Club 21

Community News 22

Inc.

Saturday 20th February Busy Bee

Jellyfish & Dolphins 9.00am

Tuesday 23th February Open Day9.30am

Monday 7th February

Labour Day Public Holiday

Tuesday 8th March OLNA commence

Thursday 17th March

Year 8 Immunisations

Thursday 17th March Parent Education Evening

NEWS FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Vanessa Aikins

Welcome to the new school year and we would like to extend a special welcome to our new families who have joined the School this year. I would like to thank our nine Par-ent Liaisons whose role it is to support their classes and help to welcome new families to the School. This year we are establishing for the first time a Community Spirit Group. This group is to be made up of representatives from each class and their role is to de-sign and host whole school community events. I would like to thank Natalie Quinlan for coordinating this group and I encourage you to attend the first Community Spirit Meet-ing on Monday 22nd February if you are interested in suggesting and helping to run fun events within the school. I would also like to thank those parents who have already volunteered to represent their class on this group and remind everyone that there is no limit to the numbers of this group however we would like one rep from each class to ensure all voices are heard.

Over the past few years we have had several families who have requested that we have a facility where they can drop their children off early in the mornings. I am really pleased to inform you that as of Monday 22 February this service will be in place. We will be running Breakfast Club each morning of the week from 7.30am – 8.30am. Your child/ren will have the opportunity to make their breakfast (with as much assistance as

A special thank you to Andrew Wollstein, our Science and Maths specialist and also To-ny Gillespie who will be joining the Adolescent Program in term 4. These gentlemen spent their Summer break in Queensland attending the AMI Montessori Orientation Program to Adolescent Studies (12-18 Years). This is a long time to be away from fami-lies however from the feedback that both Ang and I received throughout their course the two of them thoroughly enjoyed this time and Tony is looking forward to joining our team to put into practise everything that was learnt.

required) and then have time to have a play in the Primary Playground/Sandpit before being delivered to their classroom at 8.30am. The cost of Breakfast Club is $10 per child per day and all places for Breakfast Club need to be booked at least one day in advance. Breakfast Club will run for a trial period this term and its continuity will be based on student numbers. Please contact reception to notify us of your interest.

Our whole staff had a wonderful two days together prior to the school recommencing this term. Firstly we took a tour of our three existing School sites as well as our two new sites in Karnup. I would like to thank Orla (Infant Toddler Program) and Angela (Adolescent Program) for walking through their programs to ensure all teachers, EA’s and Admin staff are cognisant of how each component of our school interrelates to each other. (Please enjoy our photos) Following this our focus for the two days was on the Culture area of our curriculum where we went through each cycle to look at what and when various aspects of this curriculum area are covered. I would like to thank all of our wonderful staff for participating so enthusiastically over these two days and I know that they were so excited following this professional development that they could not wait for the children’s return to put what had been discussed into practise.

School Development Day

New site photos

OLNA

Program Coordinators

Angela Luvera

Want to know about the OLNA?

Some students in Years 10, 11 and 12 are about to sit the OLNA. You may have heard about it, but are not sure what it means to your child. OLNA stands for the Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment, which some students will use to demonstrate they have achieved the required standard of literacy and numeracy for their Western Aus-tralian Certificate of Education (WACE). The School Curriculum and Standards Authority (Authority) awards the WACE at the end of Year 12 to students who have met all the requirements. You can find more about the requirements on the Authority website at www.scsa.wa.edu.au. Some students prequalify for the literacy and numeracy requirement through their performance in the Year 9 NAPLAN test. We will inform you whether your child needs to the sit the OLNA, which is held in March and September each year, starting in Year 10. This means students will have up to six opportuni-ties before the end of Year 12 to demonstrate the standard. The OLNA has three components – reading, writing and numeracy. The reading and numeracy compo-nents comprise 45 multiple-choice questions; the writing component is an extended response of up to 600 words. Students are allowed 50 minutes for the reading and numeracy components and 60 minutes for the writing. The table below provides a quick guide to each component.

To prepare our students for the sorts of questions they can expect and to familiarise them with the online assessment software, we provide access to practice and example tests on a secure website. The link to the secure website for practice and example test is available on the Authority website at www.scsa.wa.edu.au under Senior Secondary > Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment > Students, parents and carers. For students with disability, we have guidelines to help set the appropriate adjustments for equal ac-cess. Information about disability adjustments is available on the Authority website under Senior Sec-ondary > Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment > Disability adjustments. If you want to know more, go to the Authority’s website and look under Senior Secondary > Online Lit-eracy and Numeracy Assessment. There you will find more information, answers to frequently asked questions and a brief video. You can also send questions to olna@scsa.wa.edu.au.

Numeracy Reading Writing

Number of Questions 45 1 (600 word limit)

Question type Multiple-choice Open-ended

Mode Online point and click Typed online

Time 50 minutes 60 minutes

Delivery Randomised 1 of 3 forms Randomised 1 of 2 forms

Adjustments Extra time, pause, coloured background and higher quality images

FINANCE & SCHOOL BANKING UPDATE

Finance Dear Families of Rockingham Montessori,

Thank you for your diligence in filling all you payment plans, health forms and direct debit details for 2016.

Please make sure that your bank account has sufficient funds for us to deduct fees. The bank will charge for any defaults and this charge will be passed on to the defaulting family.

School Banking School Banking has now changed day to every Tuesday.

To be a part of this worth while program and teach your child the skill of saving, please see Dee on the admin verandah at school banking from 8:20am for fur-ther details on how your child can join in.

Community Spirit

Welcome to our first Rockingham Montessori School Community Spirit Noticeboard. The com-mittee will be meeting at The Dome, Rockingham on Monday 22nd at 9am feel free to come and have a coffee! It is a fantastic opportunity to get connected with the school and meet some new people. At the first meeting we will be discussing a mission statement for the group, deciding on where we would like any funds to go (ie families in need, events) and deciding on a date for the first event of the year! There is no pressure to contribute, it is the best way to connect to the whole school and build positive communication, while supporting the education of the children along-side the Montessori philosophy There will be some helpers in the garden on Wednesday getting ready for the next season of planting, eventually the Octopus Group along with their Water Wise group will start to establish the garden including compost, worms and planting schedule. Once the garden is ready to go, the upkeep of the garden will be in the classroom curriculum, this way the children can see the full cycle of food...from seed to plate. Eva has offered her expertise in sourcing a suitable planting schedule and Gerry will be making up some notice boards so the children can see what stage

Community Spirit Noticeboard

THANK YOU!! Thank you so much to Zara Knol (Jaymon in Sealions) and her family, including Grandparents who donated their time on the school holidays to weeding the vegetable garden, it was greatly appreciated and unfortu-nately the corn was not salvageable as it was left too long…...at least we know it grows!!

“An education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking, it involves the spiritual development of man, the enhancement of his value as an individual and the preparation of

Pelicans INFANT TODDLER GROUP NEWS

Orla Dineen

Welcome back everyone. We hope you had a relaxing break and are ready for the busy year ahead. It is lovely to see so many new families in our group and we are sure that they will feel more and more set-tled over the coming weeks.

On the shelves you will find new and exciting work to inspire and engage your child in developmentally meaningful work. There is a beautiful wooden seven colour matching tray on the sensorial shelf that has already attracted and engaged so many children. This is a simple, old fashioned, unadorned but very attractive piece that is primarily focused on colour matching. It also incorporates an element of hand-eye coordination and dexterity to fit and match each piece together as it belongs. Use it as an op-portunity for lessons in the language of colour. There is a self correcting mechanism incorporated into the work which ensures that if the child makes an error (colour reversal) she gets a second chance to self correct before completing the work. This is a fundamental characteristic of what makes up a Mon-tessori material. Encourage your child to take time to explore and manipulate at their own pace. Hold back on trying to correct her, she may well self correct right at the end!

The Nesting bowl activity is also very popular and gives the child an opportunity to explore the concept of size, pattern recognition and sequence. The child can place them in order from largest to smallest with each bowl resting inside the preceding size. Of course they are also great to make a tower. So, what happens when one bowl is placed out of order during the nesting sequence? This bowl will be left over at the end of the activity and does not fit. Again, this material is self correcting and challenges the child to engage in problem solving. Allow her to problem solve. “Hmm, I wonder where this bowl be-longs?” In the past children have handed me the extra bowl to use for morning tea!

We would like to trial a parent help / pack away system this term. A box containing cards with a short description of each job will be at the entrance. All cards will have a specific time slot for each small job, so please take one that suits you on that day. Many hands do make light work.

Remember to bring a hat and apply sunscreen before you arrive during this sunny term.

Penguins CHILDREN’S HOUSE NEWS

This week we welcome Layla, Joshua and Zack to the Penguin class. It has also been lovely to have Rubin rejoin us again. All the children have returned with such enthusiasm, even with the incredible heat we have been dealing with. The first couple of days back they all wanted to get back to activities they had missed in the holidays. Now all the children are so keen for new lessons. A big welcome also to Amanda who is our new special needs education assistant. This term I will be in the classroom all day Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11.15am. Hel-en will be in on Thursday morning and all day Friday. If you would like to speak with me about your child I am available on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday after school. Please remember to write a message in the communication book in the morning or to send me an email at jborgia@rms.wa.edu.au, if your message is not urgent. Welcoming the children in the morning is a very important part of our day, so please understand that it is hard to talk to parents at drop off time. We are very fortunate to have Simone, Jessie’s mum, as our Parent Liaison again this year. Please help her out with the washing roster, picking up flowers etc if you can. We also have our new guinea pig roster up on the window. Pumpkin and Chester are looking forward to staying with many Penguin children during the term. Please add your name to the list if possible. Thank you to Riley and Alissa’s parents for giving the hutch a new lease of life over the break. Once again this year we request donations of crackers, vegemite, jam, cheese, carrots or oranges if you don’t mind adding an extra item into your weekly shopping. These donations help to keep our very important prac-tical life activities stocked and on the shelf for the chil-dren to develop independence, concentration, fine motor skills and patience.

Jodie Borgia, Helen Baronie, Nat Wright & Amanda Webster

Pic here Pic here

Seahorse CHILDREN’S HOUSE NEWS

Welcome back to a New Year in the Seahorse class! I hope all families have had a fantastic summer break. It is wonderful to see everyone again. We would like to welcome Zenia, Millie and Troy into our Seahorse class. The children have settled well into the classroom and have started getting back into their work-cycles and routines. They are delighted to engage in ‘food exercises’ daily and perform kitchen tasks that can some-times be deemed ‘too dangerous’ to do at home. These exercises help develop fine motor control and im-prove concentration. During the hot summer months, it is particularly important to be aware of sun safety. Since we have been ex-periencing many hot days, please make sure to apply sunscreen in the mornings especially if your child is stay-ing for the afternoon sessions. Also remember to send in a broad-brimmed hat to protect your child from the sun. Don’t forget to ‘Slip, Slop, Slap’. Please ensure that your child has proper supportive footwear for out-door play and sport, as accidents can easily occur when children wear thongs or open-toe sandals. Thanks to Sandy McNeill for being our class Parent Liaison and I'm sure that she would be happy to chat with you if you have any questions. Please feel free to discuss any matters of concern regarding your child with me . We are looking forward to a wonderful year in the Seahorse class.

Ayesha Meer, Paula Flynn & Simmi Madanjit

Dolphins CHILDREN’S HOUSE NEWS

Dear Dolphin Families, Happy New Year and Happy Year of the Monkey! There are some great Montessori characteristics for people born in the year of the monkey - they are curious, mischievous, sociable, inventive and humorous amongst other things! It is quite wonderful to welcome the children back to the classroom after the long break. To see how they have grown in height, in maturity, in creativity and much more! It is great to hear their stories and experiences and memories. In chatting to a few parents it seems that there is often not enough time for boredom during the holidays – boredom is so important for children to experience. It allows time for au-tonomy, self-challenge, intrinsic motivation, daydreaming and creativity. If you would like some interest-ing articles about this, please ask Deb. We are welcoming some new friends this term – Ingrid and Elsie have started so far and we know that

they and their families will feel settled very soon. The children have settled back into the rhythm of the

work cycle very quickly and are enjoying familiar work and are excited about new lessons and activities.

Thank you to everyone who looked after Chocolate and Chip over the holidays—Chip has really grown!

Thank you to Caitlin’s mum Sarah Pennell for being our Parent Liaison this year. Please chat to her about

questions you may have and, as always, never hesitate to chat to Deb when you need to. Here’s to a

great year!

Deb Dwyer and Renea Russell

Starfish LOWER PRIMARY NEWS

Renata Kanagaratnam & Paul Robertson

Dear parents of Starfish

Welcome to the first newsletter of the year. To my returning parents, it is a delight to have your children back after the long summer break. To my new parents, I would like to welcome you and your child to the Starfish class. Your children have settled well into the class for the past two weeks. I would like to welcome Lilly, Maybel and Skylar to Starfish. I have had 4 children transition from Children’s House to the Starfish classroom who are Peter, Liliana, Aiden and Ray. The past two weeks the children have adjusted well to the routine in the classroom and have been actively participating in all the activi-ties.

This term we are learning about the Human Body Parts and the children have just heard the First Great Story. They are learning about Oceania/Australasia in geography and learning about Australian History and Culture with Gurmayll on Fridays.

The students have been given news topics to talk about on a weekly basis, I do encourage your child to follow these topics and to avoid bringing in toys as news items. We have set up a laundry roster for par-ents to follow. The laundry only consists of the hand towels used during the week. Your child will bring the laundry home on Fridays and it should be returned to the class on Mondays. I appreciate your help in having things run smoothly in the classroom, hence fostering independence in your child by saying goodbye at the door of the class and for you not to enter the classroom in the mornings. Your child does know the routine and will know to bring their lunchbox in and place it at the allocated spot. If par-ents need to speak to me in the mornings, I am available between 8.15-8.40am, otherwise there is a communication book for you to write in or you can chat with me after school hours at 3pm.

Students researching on the plants of Oceania.

Students enjoying story time just before lunch.

Sealions LOWER PRIMARY NEWS

Welcome to the year 2016 and our Sealion’s class news. We would like to officially welcome Liam, Oscar and Riley from Children’s House. I was very pleased to see all children were keen to come back to school and show great interest to get back to their learning routines.

We are starting the year learning about Asia in the area of Cultural study, exploring some of the Asian countries’ names, customs, foods, history, geographic locations, flags, animals and plants. We hope every member in our class will find something they are interested in and explore further about that particular topic. The First Great Story has been told to the children and lots of questions have been asked by them. All of the children will be given the opportunity to ex-plore further.

This year, we are continuing using the Mathletics program and student’s sign in details will be sent home shortly. Do feel free to let your child work on it at home if you have com-puter and internet access at home.

Natalie Quinlan has volunteered to continue her role as the Sealions’ class Parent Liaison. Natalia has been with the school for a long time and is very familiar with the Sealions’ class practise. Her elder girl Sasha was with us for three years and now her younger girl Jorja is with us. Nat works hard to support the operations of our class and we are very thankful for this. Below are the house keeping requirements of our class:

Washing roster chart has been placed on our noticeboard, we need volunteers to do the weekly wash-ing of the towels used in the class for art and craft activities and table cleaning.

Our outdoor classroom (veggie patch) needs ongoing maintenance to provide a positive learning envi-ronment for the children. Although the children do work in the garden their time is very limited, and we would like to have them spending time doing constructive science learning and investigation rather than just pulling out weeds all the time. Thus, we would be very appreciative of parents who can con-tribute some of their valuable time in maintaining our vegetable garden.

Please keep in mind that the classroom door opens at 8.30am and children are required to be in class by 8:45am. If your child is late please go to the front office to obtain a late note. If your child needs to leave school early, please also complete a withdrawal form in reception and bring this to the class.

Please make sure that your child applies sunscreen before coming to school and has a hat with brim in their bag for outdoor activities at school. Appropriate clothing is also essential to protect the children from the harsh Australian sun, clothing should cover the child’s shoulders. Please refer to the Schools Sun Smart policy found on the schools website rms.wa.edu.au Please do note thongs are not appropri-ate for school.

We have a wonderful year ahead with lots of learning for all of us. Julie Chew & Mark Simms

Jellyfish LOWER PRIMARY NEWS

Welcome back everyone! And a very warm welcome it has been. The children have been eating snack and lunch inside the room to stay cool. We had play inside too on the very hot times, which the children enjoyed very much!

I’d like to welcome Harrison and Samson to the Jellyfish class. Everyone has settled in to their work routines and the level of enthusiasm for learning is right up to the top!

Pearls group were introduced to the Bank Game which requires quick mental calculations of big multiplications. The children take roles, such as Cashier, Customer and Banker. The photo shows the game set out , ready to start a new problem.

We are making a study of Australia this term, and we had a les-son on how to raise and lower the flag and the special way to fold it. We are learning about the States, Capital Cities and the flags and emblems for each one.

This term we have Indonesian and Art on Thursday afternoons. Gurmayll will take the class for the mornings on Thursday, giv-ing lessons in Geometry and Health. News will be on Monday and Wednesday and Fitness on Tuesday and Thursday. Friday will be Presentation Day for finished works.

With the heat, could you please ensure that the children have clothes that cover their shoulders, and sandals. Thongs are not appropriate for school wear. Water bottles are allowed in the room.

Di Edmonds & Bec Hill

Dugongs UPPER PRIMARY NEWS

Venus Olsen, Julie Cowley & Emma Thomson

Welcome to Term One!

The Dugongs have had a fantastic start to 2016. Our newest class members have settled in and everyone is enjoying working with their new friends.

Every Thursday the Dugongs will have Andrew for Science, Ka-ren for The Arts, Cindy for Indonesian and Gurmayall in the af-ternoon. Sport is on Friday mornings and we will walk to the "Blue Park", when the weather cools. If you haven't done so already, please supply your child with a wide brimmed hat for school. There is a parent communication book just inside our classroom for all notes or messages.

Thank you to Ynson for sharing the story of Chinese New Year with us. Also thanks to Scarlett and Jayvier for bringing their unusual pets to show us. We were treated to pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and had a fabulous incursion last Friday from Wonderful Worms. If you have a talent or skill you'd like to share with us please let me know.

"Today we got to play with worms. First we watched a presen-tation on compost and saw the biggest worms in the world! Then we went outside to make our own worm farms. It was great fun! Thank you Vicky." Keira

"Today we had an incursion about Wonderful Worm waste. Vicky showed us some of Australia's biggest worms, one was three metres long! We made our own worm farms (in a bottle). We had a lovely time with Vicky and the wonderful worm waste." Sophia.

Narwhals ADOLESCENT PROGRAM NEWS

Adolescent Program 2016 Orientation Camp Point Peron

Point Peron was a fun camp that had many activities packed into three fun days. There was Archery, Prusiking, Rafting and lots more games suggested by campers weaved in between. There were also games like Hide n’ Seek, Slender, 24 Home and Spotlight. The Camp Site Manager Roger, who lived on the site, took us on a hike to a hill top that let us look down over the whole of the Point Peron Camp and taught us about Hands Off Point Peron which is an organisation that is campaigning to save the surrounding environment .

Rafting was the first activity, where we had to get pipes, ropes and inflatable tubes to make a raft that would hopefully float in the sea. When the rafts were made we weaved them in and out of two buoys, the ones that stayed together were raced to see whose would be the most efficient and well built, and almost everyone’s raft fell apart by the end of it.

The next day we did Prusiking and Archery. Prusiking is when you climb up a rope unassisted. We were shown how to put on a harness and make sure we weren’t going to fall through it by utilizing knots, and then we started climbing up and up the rope. Lots of people touched the top and to our surprise lots of people overcame their fear of heights and touched the top, which made lots of peo-ple proud including the climber in themselves.

After a fun experience of Prusiking we headed down to Archery where everyone was taught how to successfully shoot an arrow from the bow, lots of people hit the target and someone even got the bull’s-eye. It was a hot day and by the end of it everyone was flat out exhausted.

The next day we played a game called Survival Game and that was fun and exhausting. The game was based on trophic levels which includes carnivore, omnivore and her-bivore. When that game ended everyone had lunch, got packed up and got ready to go home.

Camp at the start of the year was a bit weird but it al-lowed for students to get to know each other and build comradery and trust.

By Emily Petty

Angela Luvera, Katherine Shearer, Andrew Wollstein,

Fiona Forsythe, Stella Onderwater & Joe Visser

Wobbegongs Internship

Last year, I attempted to arrange an internship and was unable to find it in something I enjoy, or the organisations I chose were unable to tend to the arrangements required. However, late last year, after many phone calls, emails and tracing of connections, we had a possible contact, a man named Graham from an organisation called SMYL (South Metropolitan Youth Link), which is a non-profit community organisation managed by a committee of community representatives. It provides training to those who are either unable to pay for it or simply need help to re-enter the workforce. Needless to say I was pretty excited, as my mother had previously been part of this organisation, and she seemed to have really enjoyed her time there.

I arranged plans to communicate last year with Graham, however I unfortunately caught a nasty virus, which sabotaged my plan to make contact concerning the internship, and I was forced to instead re-cover. Sadly, my virus then evolved into pneumonia, which was not at all pleasant and I took a fair bit of time off school to work myself to full health. After I had recovered, the year was incredibly close to finishing, so instead, I postponed the organisation of the internship until this year, so I was able to catch up on other course work.

After finishing the year, and enjoying my holidays thoroughly, I returned to school, prepared for the New Year. As I slipped back into the train and thoughts of school, I remembered that I was to organise (finally) the internship that was briefly mentioned last year. I then quickly composed my script to talk to Graham over the phone. After I had finished my script, I made my way to Angela’s office, to make contact as soon as possible. As I rung his mobile, I was quite nervous, as I usually am when it comes to these things, so it was a pleasant surprise when I talked to Graham and he seemed really chill. Graham said that he was open to really any day, for a meet and greet, and in a moment of rushed planning and/or consideration, I said that I would be open for tomorrow. Luckily, everything was able to work the next day, and I then made my way down to Fremantle with Angela to meet up with Graham. As I stepped into the lobby, I was slightly intimidated by the complex itself, and felt a bit nervous in the waiting room. After waiting a minute or two, a friendly looking man came out, and introduced himself as Graham. He was honestly quite nice and I felt rather comfortable around him. After a brief hello, we then organised what days I would come in to do my internship on. Graham then took us on a tour of the SMYL campus, and the place was incredibly welcoming, with smiles coming from all sides. As we parted, I told him I was looking very much forward to working with him and that I was very grateful for this opportunity. I will begin me weekly placement next Thursday.

By Harrison Drew

Angela Luvera, Katherine Shearer, Andrew Wollstein,

Fiona Forsythe, Stella Onderwater & Joe Visser

Art Specialist, Karen Burke

Selamat Datang to 2016! Welcome to 2016. In both primary and adolescent programs, Indonesian les-sons have gotten off to a flying start. It’s also great to see students re-taking Indonesian after last year in the AP program. We started off by discussing what countries our families come from and how to say the names of those countries in Indonesian. So far, we have discovered that there are families in RMS who come from Se-landia Baru, Indonesia, Malaysia, Inggris, Kanada, Skotlandia, Belanda, Perancis dan Italia.

We have had an increase in Illustration class numbers this year with twenty students taking part. It is a demanding workshop and it is encouraging to see students of different ages, abilities, and experiences trying their very best. The first project of this year is ‘Zentangles’. Using pen and ink, students are developing their concen-tration and fine motor skills as they draw intricate patterns and designs. I look forward to seeing indi-vidual styles develop and improve throughout the year.

Indonesian / Illustration

Cindy Chung - Indonesian Teacher

Art

It has been wonderful to see the children back from the summer holidays! During Term One, we will be looking at how nature is depicted in art around the world. In week one we looked at bamboo and panda paintings in China as well as native birds and branches found on Chinese fans. In week two, we looked at how trees change in colder cli-mates like Canada and used paint and elastic band brushes to depict the changes we could see throughout the four seasons.

Karen Burke - Art Specialist

Back-to-School Health Overview Getting your children ready to start the school year involves more than finding the perfect backpack, buying school supplies, and shopping for new clothes. It means safeguarding their health so they'll be physically ready for the challenges of heading back to school. Consider

these tips for a healthy start for your child's new school year.

Wash Hands The most effective way to avoid spreading or catching germs is to encourage hand washing with simple soap and water. Remind your children to always cough or sneeze into the crooks

of their elbows or into their sleeves.

Don't Forget the Shots Make sure your child's immunizations are up to date.

Reinstate Routines At least a week before classes start, shift your child from summer carefree sleep hours to bedtime schedules more in line with the school year. It's time they minimise playing comput-er games and watching television. Help your child with this transition by encouraging reading or playing quiet games an hour before going to bed.

Power Up With Good Nutrition Childhood obesity continues to rise and with it a greater health risk to those affected. You can buck this trend by providing healthy meal options for your child. This includes breakfast. Students who eat breakfast versus those who don't are more alert during class. Plus, the right foods combined with adequate rest will help their bodies fight off infections.

Check for Head Lice Notice any excessive head scratching? Stress the importance to your child of not sharing combs, hats, and clothes, and send your child's pillow on a sleepover. Do a visual head check at least once a week, particularly for younger children.

Be Aware of Allergens A new school year coincides with a new allergy season. For some children, it means a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, and watery eyes. For others, these allergens can trigger asthma or lead indirectly to sinus infections. Prepare your child with the right dose of allergy medica-tion they need to get them through the day comfortably.

For more information visit www.healthline.com

Health News

Scholastic Book Club

Community News

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