Congratulations to the
students and staff members for a great 2008 Homecoming.
The Student Council, and the
sponsors: Mr. Ed VanEtten, Mr. Andrew Heller, and Mrs. Elizabeth WhiteEyes for their
guidance in developing a rewarding week of events.
The students met during
their Learning Community period to make posters.
We greatly appreciated to
have the support of the Walthill Boosters during the Tailgate and the
Lock-In. Together we can make great
things happen.
2008-2009 Royalty:
Freshman: Latesha Flores and Brandon Charley
Sophomores: Sonjra
Sheridan and Kyle Grant
Juniors: Danna Miller and
Cameron Freemont
Senior: King - Daulton Sheridan
FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT:
I am
really excited about the start of our school year. It has been a pleasure to watch our staff and students in the
classroom. It has been equally exciting
to see our students participating in our activities. I have seen some great effort from our students to improve in their
academic and athletic skills. It has
been nice to see everyone working towards our school goals for a safe learning
environment and high academic success.
The school atmosphere has been very positive.
I would like to thank our parents
for helping us improve our attendance for the start of the year. Research has proven that academic success is
very dependent on parent support and attendance. I would also like to thank everyone for filling out the free and
reduced lunch information. If you
haven’t had a chance to fill out this form, please come in and do so. This helps increase our grant and other
revenue opportunities for the school.
The school has purchased a milk
cooler to improve our wellness program.
The milk cooler is in our lobby and the cost for milk will be
$1.00. The flavors will be white,
chocolate, and strawberry. The school
wants to encourage our students and staff to live a healthier lifestyle by
drinking milk instead of pop.
The month of October and November
can bring about the chance of inclement weather. I will post any cancellation, early dismissal or late start on
the local news channels.
Parent / teacher conferences are
scheduled for October 9 from 4:00-8:00 pm.
Research has proven how important it is for parents to stay involved in
their child’s educational progress.
Take advantage of the opportunity to visit your child’s teachers and
keep the lines of communication open.
I hope you had a chance to visit our
school and our activities. Take time to
visit our website to see more of the academic and activity achievements of our
students throughout the school year.
The website is http://walthweb.esu1.org/
Sincerely,
Ed
Stansberry
Superintendent
Parent ~
Teacher ~ Student Conferences
October 9th
4:00 –
8:00 pm
Greetings:
We have had an exciting and
rewarding beginning to the 2008-2009 school year. It is exciting to be a part of a positive school movement that is
creating an environment rich in academics, safe for all our students, and
inviting to the public. Rewarding to
see the positive impact on student in and out of the classrooms.
This year we are placing a
greater emphasis on the importance of student attendance. It is important that students receive
instruction and assistance every class periods. An attendance/participation grade is given each which. Students are rewarded just for being in attendance.
Congratulations to the students
and staff members for a great 2008 Homecoming.
The Student Council, and the sponsors: Mr. Ed VanEtten, Mr. Andrew
Heller, and Mrs. Elizabeth WhiteEyes for their guidance in developing a
rewarding week of events. The students met during their Learning Community
period to make posters. We greatly appreciated to have the support of the
Walthill Boosters during the Tailgate and the Lock-In. Together we can make great things happen.
2008-2009 Royalty:
Freshman: Latesha Flores and Brandon
Charley
Sophomores: Sonjra
Sheridan and Kyle Grant
Juniors: Danna
Miller and Cameron Freemont
Senior: King - Daulton Sheridan
We have just completed the
first half of the first nine-weeks.
Midterms were sent home. Please
take time to review your student’s performance and discuss any concerns you may
have with them. Parent-teacher
conferences are scheduled for October 9th from 4:00 until 8:00. Make plans to attend, as the communication
between the classroom teachers and the parents/guardians is important to your
student’s success.
Again, I encourage you to
stop in and visit. If you have any
questions regarding anything that is happening in school, do not hesitate to
contact me.
Remember to attend conferences.
We,
the people of Walthill Public School District,
are committed to generating a caring, respectful,
and safe learning environment, which promotes positive
self-realization
Parents On
Line (POL)
Parents who want to use the Internet
to monitor their student's grades and progress will need to have an account set
up. We will need your child's name (names), your name, and your email
address. Accessing the POL system is simple. A link to POL
(Parents On Line) and SOL (Students On Line) is available on the Main Page of
the school website -- http://walthweb.esu1.org.
Parents can email:
Dar Bales at dbales@esu1.org or
Robin Davis at rdavis@esu1.org,
or
Diane Jasa at djasa@esu1.org ,
or
Call 846-5432 to request your
account.
Thanks Administration
and high academic success
Once again
Walthill Public Schools will be participating in Hy-Vee’s school cents this
year.
We earned $416.30 from all the
receipts last year!
How this program works is when you
shop at Hy-Vee for groceries, flowers or prescriptions save your
receipts. This year Hy-Vee is not accepting gas receipts.
Have your child bring your
receipts to school where the teachers will start collecting them. For
every $ 100.00 turned into the school, we will earn one dollar. It is
important to know that even if you use food stamps the receipts still can earn
the school money. The school does not check to see what you bought with
your receipts or how you paid your bill, all we want is the receipt so that we
can earn money for our school.
If you
have any questions at all, please call Mrs. Rodasky at 846-5432.
Fall Book
Fair Coming Soon!
By Paula
Low ~ Librarian
The
2008 Fall Book Fair is right around the corner. This year’s start date is Monday, October 6th, and it
continues through Monday October 13th from 8:00 a.m. through 4:00
p.m each day. However, during
Thursday’s parent-teacher-child conferences, the hours will be extended to 8:00
p. m.
This year’s theme will be “Book
Fair Safari”. Food and prizes will be given
out during conference hours, and books will again be available or $1.00.
So don’t forget to come to the
library! Get wild about books!
Don’t worry if you don’t have
students in our school. The public is welcome too.
So let’s
get wild about books!
Parents -
Please follow these steps to prevent head lice infestations:
·
Check children’s heads for signs of lice and/or nits. Detecting is easy:
o Closely
examine your child’s hair and scalp.
Look for white or grayish crawling forms, about the size of a sesame
seed with six legs (lice), and yellowish-white eggs (nits) attached to hair
shafts close to the scalp.
·
Tell your children to avoid head-to-head contact and any
sharing of combs, brushes, towels, hats, scarves, barrettes, or other personal
items commonly worn on the head.
·
Wash your hands and children’s hands and nails thoroughly;
getting under the nails as some lice may be around there.
In case of infestation, please follow these steps:
·
Notify the school nurse so that we can help limit the spread
of lice.
·
Treat your child immediately. Contact the school nurse or your trusted health-care professional
for additional information about safe and effective treatment options.
Thanks Bonnie Storm ~ RN School Nurse
Kindergarten Is
Off and Running
Mrs. Anderson ~ Mrs. Rodasky
We are delighted to have 27
students in our Kindergarten classrooms this year. We have been very busy learning about our alphabet, numbers and
how to read. Soon we will begin reading
with special guests in our classrooms.
We have been writing our names, letters and numbers. We are working hard everyday at counting and
identifying our numbers. We began the
year with a bear theme. We read books,
went on a bear hunt and had a bear picnic.
One of our favorite books was “Don’t eat the Teacher”. We made oceans with sharks and ate them for
snack.
If you
ever need to contact us, please call the school at 846-5432.
We are
available from 7:45 – 7:55 am, 1:00 – 1:40, and 3:35-3:45.
Or you may
email us at mrodasky@esu1.org or jianders@esu1.org.
3rd
Grade
Mrs. Fernau
Mrs. Fernau's class has been busy
learning some things about bird migration and monarch butterfly migration since
these are happening very soon. They have maps with the creatures on their
migratory routes displayed in the hallway outside of their room. They
also learned to make raisins dance and float candy bars for learning
about Scientific Inquiry.
Math has them beginning multiplication with the "0's and 1's" along
with the comparing and ordering of numbers. We've had a few state
required tests already and the results have been pretty good.
We had new red writing journals
this year and we put all kinds of writing items in it from spelling words to
Science terms.
Please
feel free to come up and visit our room and see what we're up to!
Music
Dianna Spirk
Music
classes have been focusing on several important September dates. We have been learning the story of how the
Star Spangled Banner was written. In
addition to learning the song, jr. high classes have also been doing some
beautiful illustrations of the words.
We have celebrated Constitution Day with the singing of “We the People”
which has some challenging vocabulary to learn. We have also been learning songs for Native American Day. A favorite has been “Go My Son” along with
the Indian sign language. Students have
already been asking to sing their favorite Halloween songs, which we will begin
in October.
Introducing
School Psychologist ~ Roberta (Bobbi) Mehrer
Hi! I am so excited to work again as Walthill’s School
Psychologist.
To let you know a little bit about myself:
I grew up on a farm close to Scotland, South Dakota with my
two older sisters, and two younger brothers.
I attended grade school in a 2-story building with grades 1st
through 3rd on the first floor and 4th through 6th
on the second floor. For Junior High
and High School, I traveled 10 miles on the bus to Scotland and had a class
size of 30 students (my elementary class size was 5). Anyway, the point of this is that I had no idea that school
psychologists even existed until I attended college. I notice now that a lot of
people ask the question “so what exactly do you do?” after I tell them my
profession. So following is a little
snippet found on the ESU#1website (www.esu1.org)
to let you know what my skills are.
I am in Walthill two days a week: Tuesday and Wednesday
(usually). Please feel free to call or
e-mail me if there is any way that I can be of assistance to you and/or your
student. You can e-mail me at bmehrer@esu1.org
or call the school at 846-5432.
Twenty
Ways to Benefit from Your School Psychologist
Name
one thing that a school psychologist is capable of doing. Chances are that
“testing” would be the most common answer given. Unfortunately, the school
psychologist is often seen as providing a very limited specific psychometric
service and is not utilized to provide many of the additional services for
which they have been trained. Using your school psychologist in areas other
than testing will prove to be very beneficial for teachers, students, and
families.
1.
Consultation 2.
In-service
3.
Parent Training 4. Crisis Intervention
5.
Research 6.
Recommendations
7.
Counseling 8.
Screening
9.
Testing 10.
Test Interpretation
11.
Follow-up 12.
Behavior Techniques (Interventions)
13.
Reports 14.
Preschool Assessment
15.
Pre-referral 16.
Academic Interventions
17.
Committees 18.
Community Liaison
19.
Community Resources 20.
Personality Assessment
I look forward to the school year and helping students succeed!
Art Room News
Brenda Murphy
Well, the pace sure picked up once students got their
schedules down and settled into a routine. I now have K - 8 students as well as
high school students who elect to take art. That makes our room a pretty
creative and busy place. Class sizes range from a handful of students up to
over 20. It can get pretty crowded at times, but as long as we are all there
for the same purpose, to practice doing art, it’s a fun time for all.
Important
notice to parents and/or caregivers of elementary age students:
Know which day of the week your student has art and make sure they either wear
something you don’t mind getting paint on it, or send them with an old shirt to
cover their other clothes. We do our best to keep paint and markers on the
paper and not the student, but some kids just spread the materials around more
than others. Many great artists started that way. The school buys paint that
says on the label it is washable, but it has been my experience as a parent
that sometimes it doesn’t wash out all the way. If your child is in K-2 then
the art classes are on the same day each week. If they are in 3rd --
6th the date is on a 6 day rotation. Again, check the schedule if
this is a concern.
Art 2 and Art 3 (high school art classes) will be working
projects to artistically enhance the school. Art 2 will be painting the south
playground, and the Art 3 class will be painting a mural on the west facing
wall behind the school. Sketches are being worked on by the students and will be
submitted to the administration for approval. We are hoping to begin soon so it
will be done before the weather gets cold. Look for pictures in upcoming
newsletters.
The art room is into recycling. From time to time we will
put items we are looking for in our newsletter. Right now we are looking for:
clear plastic dish liquid bottles, button front shirts to use as smocks for the
students, clean plastic margarine tubs with lids, and clean plastic yogurt
containers with lids. If you have other items you think we could make use of
please give us a call.
Thank you
for your support. We look forward to seeing you at our next gallery show during
Parent/Teacher conferences.