This year, the CPS Healthy Schools Initiative has issued guidelines not only for food that schools serve, but also foods allowed to be brought in. This includes limitations on food brought by students for lunches and treats for classroom and school wide celebrations. Schools are also encouraged to consider healthy options for food-based fundraisers. We will be working with our support organizations to come up with healthy fund raising options to promote healthy living.

One major shift that families may experience will be classroom birthday celebrations. Traditional cupcakes will no longer be allowed. However, healthy snacks or non-food items can be considered as well as donating a book or supplies to your child's classroom. ALWAYS arrange treats or visits to classrooms at least 2 days in advance to make sure the teacher is able to accommodate a small classroom celebration during the instructional day.

In planning lunches for your child, please use these guidelines if packing additional food for your child's lunch:

DO send: Fruits, vegetables, baked or low-fat chips, whole wheat crackers, yogurt, healthy cheeses, 100% juice, water, sandwiches and other healthy low sugar, low-fat options.

DO NOT send: Sugary drinks (Kool Aid, Capri Sun, pop, Gatoraide, etc.), cakes, cupcakes, cookies or sugary desserts, candy, high-salt high-fat chips (Flamin' Hots, Doritos, Cheetos, etc.), any other high fat, high sugar or high salt foods.

We hope to achieve CPS's "Healthy Schools" status and will continue to communicate with our families and students as we adjust to these new policies. 

Barnard is happy to announce our partnership with the Chicago Children's Choir through a $5000 grant we were awarded for this upcoming year. Auditions will be this week on Thursday. Grades 3-8 will be included. Insterested students will be receiving information about the auditions at school, so please check their backpacks! The Choir will rehearse during the week from 2:00 to 2:45 pm. Students who pass the audition will be included in our choir, as well as slated for several performances. There are currently two performances tentatively scheduled in December and April at Barnard and two off-campus performances scheduled for February and May.

We need an interested parent volunteer who can provide one hour a week to assist as a liason with the choir rehearsal. This commitment would last from 2:00 until 3:00 on Thursdays. Please contact Mrs. Burns if you are interested at mmburns1@cps.edu or call 773-535-0291. Thank you!

There's still time to enter to win a 19" TV by paying your student fees by this Wednesday, September 18th. Discounted rates for early payment will still apply until that date as well. If you are experiencing hardship, please see our office staff and we will make payment arrangements with you. Thank you for supporting Barnard during these lean financial times. To access the fee letter, click here.

Meet with CPS administrators and area personnel to learn more about CPS initiatives and to ask questions and express concerns. Speakers will include Diantha James and Margarita Delarosa from the Title 1 Parent Program, Karl Ross from the Budget Department and Emily Metz from Community Involvement. Thursday, September 19, 2013 -10:00 a.m. - 12 noon at the Parent Center, 4655 S. Dearborn. Breakfast will be served. Click here to navigate to the Barnard website for the meeting agenda.

As our students enter Barnard every morning, you might wonder how we make sure your little ones make it down the hall and to the auditorium during our morning "rush". In addition to our attentive teachers and staff, our IB students are busy making sure that everyone gets safely to where they need to go. Two such students are seventh graders (l to r) Taryn Rhodes and Leah Milton. These "young ladies in blue" work on the ground floor early every morning to keep traffic flowing smoothly and take special care to guide our littlest ones to their waiting area in the auditorium.  We are lucky to have Taryn and Leah keep track of our early morning arrivals and even luckier to see them do it with a smile!

Although we will still process paper order for gym uniforms, we now have a much easier preferred way to order via our new online site through Silk Screen Express. Prices are affordable and sizes are standard, although we do have a few samples in our office to help you get a sense of the sizing if you need to compare. Please consider ordering online, as this is much more efficient and tends to take less time for delivery than filling out paper orders.

The website for ordering can be accessed at  http://www.silkscreenx.com/barnard.php.

A record turn out of nearly 80% of Barnard families marked a  successful Open House on Thursday, September 12th. Families were informed of some of the newer initiatives at Barnard including our transition to the Common Core, attendance incentives, school-wide PBIS programing, tentative after school programming, CPS Healthy Schools, supplemental academic software licenses, community partnerships and many other new programs being implemented at Barnard this year. Parents were able to meet with classroom teachers as well as gain information on volunteer opportunities and how to get involved in the school. Click here to view the gallery of this event!

Congratulations to the following PBIS poster winners! Students were asked to convey the ideas of Respect, Responsibility and Safety (or choose one of these guidelines) in poster form. Students were judged on creativity, clarity and neatness. We had so many great submissions, the decision was very difficult. The following are the classroom winners:

Kindergarten: Jonathan Hammond
1st Grade: Elana Smith
2nd Grade: Mikail Flournoy
3rd Grade: Akaylah Hall
4th Grade: Laila Evans
5th Grade: Zamaria Howard                                                          6th Grade: Tanaja Morris                                                              7th Grade: Columbus Dunn                                                          8th Grade: Joe Quinn                                                                School wide winners were selected by the PBIS committee.  The winners are .....                                                                            3rd place: Joe Quinn - 8th grade                                                  2nd place: Jonathan Hammond - Kindergarten                                  1st place: Laila Evans - 4th grade

Posters will be uploaded to the website soon. Click here to link to our school website.

The Barnard LSC will meet on Monday, September 16th at 6:30 pm in the Library (room 204).  All members of the community as well as parents and teachers are welcome to attend. 

ONE MORE WEEK! If you are a Facebook user, then you can easily help Barnard earn valuable funds to help us bring books, materials, technology and programming to our children. Please click on the link below and vote for Barnard! Every click = $1. We're all working harder with much less this year. Help us continue to bring more resources to your children. Every little bit will help. Thank you so much for your support! Voting will end September 21st!   https://apps.facebook.com/givewithtarget/school/4280

Monday - Green Day - LSC Meeting - 6:30 pm - Library

Tuesday - Red Day

Wednesday - Blue Day - PTO Meeting - 8:30am -Teacher's Lounge

                         2nd Grade Field Trip - Storywriting

Thursday - Green Day - Chicago Children's Choir Auditions - 2:00 pm

Friday - Red Day