Dear Families,

Wow – it’s already fall conference time! We look forward to meeting with you and sharing your child’s progress. Between or after conferences, we invite you to the cafeteria for cookies and punch. Here are some questions you may want to consider asking your child’s teacher:

What will my child learn this year in key subjects like math, reading, writing, science and social studies?
What subject does my child seem to like most? Least?
How can I help my child improve his work?
Is my child trying as hard as he can?
How well does my child get along with others?
How are you measuring my child’s progress?
What kinds of test do you give?
How often do you assign homework and what kinds of homework assignments can I expect to see?
How can we work together to help my student?

Following the conference, sit down with your child at home to discuss what was shared, and make sure your child knows that you and the teacher care and are working together.

Best wishes for a productive parent – teacher conference. I hope to see you there!

Lori Simon, Principal

As we move forward with service learning, we are asking for your input. Please take the time to complete a very brief survey during Parent – Teacher Conferences. Your input will help us to determine how we can better educate and involve parents in our service learning projects and in our change to school-wide service learning. While at conferences, be sure to check out your child’s grade level bulletin board across from the cafeteria. Our kids are doing exciting and fantastic work with their service learning projects!

We are looking for interested parents to join PTO! Our goal is to have at least one parent from each grade level. At fall conferences, your child’s teacher will have a sign up sheet in their classroom. Look also for a volunteer sign up sheet to help out at our evening events. This is an exciting opportunity to link your involvement with our school community as well as supporting your child. We are working very hard to create at Webster, a welcoming family friendly school. We look forward to seeing you and welcome your suggestions, questions and participation. If you have any questions, please contact Monroe Walker at 651-293-8625 ext. 1502.

* Choose an article in the newspaper. Read it aloud or have your child read it and summarize it in a few sentences.

* Visit the library and choose two storybooks or novels on the same topic by different authors. Read the books, identify the main characters, list the major events in sequence, and describe ways in which the two books are similar and different.

* Write a letter to one of the characters in the books they have read. Review story elements, character, setting, problem and solution.

Do you know where your carotid artery is? Students in Ms. Parr-Smestad’s physical education classes have been learning different ways to locate their heart rate. Have your son or daughter show you where it is. Have you been learning the “Webster Walk” and the “Bird Dance” at home with your son or daughter? If not, have them show you what they have been doing in physical education. Students have been learning many exercises including the broccoli bump, the crab kick and the strawberry stretch. See if they can show you these at home. The Fall Fun House included the bat cave, spider web, monster mouth and many more movement activities for student to participate in while having fun!

I welcome you to visit your son/daughter, in physical education, anytime throughout the school year.

The district wellness policy was written to combat our national obesity crisis by increasing physical activity and healthy foods. We need your help in increasing your child’s physical activity at home. Try to turn off the screens and be more active as a family. We are also trying to reduce the amount of snack foods in student’s diets by offering more fruits and vegetables during school meals. We need your help in changing your child’s eating habits by offering more fruits and vegetables at home. Together we can do more!

The Webster Literacy Committee is supporting this initiative for this school year by "Cooking with Books." We are creating a display in one of the cafeteria windows which will show which classes have met their reading goals for the month. Every classroom teacher will set a reasonable goal with their students each month as to how many books they can read separately and together during that month. Our first month will be November. At the end of each month, classes that meet their goal will have their class's name posted on the display in the cafeteria window. Please support your child at home by encouraging them to read every day at home. Let’s everyone get “Cooking with Books”!!!

Pledge Drive has started!!! Information about Webster's Donation Pledge Drive was sent home in early October, please take time to read over the information and consider donating to Webster. We are no longer doing a catalog fundraiser and the money that is raised through this drive will help support classrooms, fieldtrips and family events. Each student who brings in a donation will receive a voucher that can be exchanged for a FREE book at the Book Fair. More information will be available at conferences, please stop by the PTO table and make your donation!

Keep collecting Box Tops!! For every Box Top sent in, Webster earns money. Look for a new collection sheet to be coming home soon. Each month, PTO is sponsoring a contest to see which classroom can collect the most Box Tops. Please help your child's class to win!

Hello Webster families! The Climate Team is excited to be working toward improving our school’s climate. We have monthly meetings where we discuss ways in which Webster teachers and staff can promote a positive learning environment for our students. Last year we focused on many strategies to make improvements.

One way we were successful in this was by hosting the Golden Shoe Award. This improved our hallway behavior by giving students a goal to work towards using quiet voices and calm bodies. When staff members in the hall recognized classes with exceptional behavior, they signed that class’s Golden Shoe signature sheet. The signatures were totaled and the classes with the most signatures in each building were announced and awarded the Golden Shoe Award. Students gained a sense of pride by acting as role models at Webster.

We are working on strategies that will continue to help our school grow and foster a positive learning environment for all. Thank you for always being supportive of Webster students and staff members!

Work on reading in a fun, rewarding way! You choose the schedule that works for you: once a week for an hour, twice a week for a half hour, or three days a week for 15 minutes. You will work with individual students in grades K-3 (your choice), teaching them specific phonics or fluency lessons. These routines are easy to learn, and Diane Craig, Literacy Coach will show you how to do them. You can work in Room 208E with the MN Reading Corps members, and observe them in action as well. Each student's lesson takes 15 minutes, so you could work with 4 students in one hour or 2 students in half an hour. There is a waiting list of students who need your support. Come make a difference at Webster!!!

Club Leadership is a student led group made up of 4^th – 6^th graders. They meet twice a week after school to plan ways to promote school spirit, address school climate and help their community.

School Spirit: To support the school-wide “Cooking With Books” campaign, we are sponsoring a Pajama/D.E.A.R. Day. Students are invited to wear their pajamas to school on Wednesday, November 26^th. If students choose to wear their pajamas we are asking them to donate $1 for the day’s events. Once they pay their dollar, they will receive a Pajama Day sticker and be entered into a raffle for prizes. Drawings will be held during lunch that day for each grade level. Funds raised will be used to support Club Leadership activities throughout the school year. Also, we will have a school-wide D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) at the end of the day for fifteen minutes. Everyone in the school will stop what they are doing to pick up a book and read! (No slippers please)

School Climate: One problem that we have noticed is the condition of the bathrooms in our school. In order to encourage students to take pride in their bathrooms we are looking at ways to motivate our peers. We will start by making posters for every bathroom reminding students of Webster’s procedures and expectations

Philanthropy: We are educating our 6^th grade student body on the importance of elections and the democratic process by holding our own Webster Club Leadership elections. We will ask the Webster 6^th grade students to vote for our Club Leadership president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. The candidates will give speeches during our 6^th grade morning meeting on Friday, November 14^th in the drama room and elections will be held right after the speeches are done. Candidates will be able to campaign during the week of November 10^th.