Werner Weekly

Stay up-to-date with the Werner School Calendar

• Oct. 15- Odyssey of the Mind Info Mtg., 6-7 pm
• Oct. 16- Spirit Day: Wear your Roary's Readers T-Shirt
• Oct. 17- Werner Dines Out, Canes, 5-9 pm
• Oct. 17-18- No School, Parent/Teacher Conference Exchange Days
• Oct. 23- Picture Retake Day
• Oct. 31-Halloween Parade, 3:15

Dear Werner Community,

Our 5th graders had a great time up in the mountains for their Eco trip! This wonderful opportunity to learn in the environment is only possible because of the support of our staff and parents. Thanks to them for all their hard work in this trip!

We are in the parent/teacher conference season. This is an important time for our teachers and parents to discuss student progress and any plans for support. We try to build a flexible schedule for our parents and staff to connect. If you have not heard from your child's teacher about a possible time, please reach out. Thanks for your support in attending these important connection points!

Last, our Read-a-Thon is doing well so far! Our PTA is already looking at stretching our goal so that we can benefit our school even more. As a reminder, our school budget has been much tighter this year because of enrollment and the need to rebuild our reserves because of fluctuating staffing. This fundraiser will help us get our staff back to normal budget levels for addressing classroom and program needs. The rest of the fundraiser will help us add in some fun playground enhancements to give our students for play at recess. Thanks, again, for your support and we hope we can meet and exceed our goal!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your time with family!

Best,

Hayden Camp

Principal

• No School, Oct. 17-18- This is a friendly reminder that there is no school on Oct. 17-18 for Parent/Teacher Conference Exchange Days.

• Parent/Teacher Conferences- Teachers are in the process of conferences with parents/guardians. These are important opportunities to communicate together on students progress and needs. Thanks for your support in attending these.

• Werner Dines Out- Looking for a dinner option that is easy and great? Come out to Canes on Thursday, Oct. 17 from 5-9 pm. Mention the fundraiser and we get 15% back! More details are in the flyer below.

• Picture Retake Day-Picture retake day is on Oct. 23. This is for students that missed the first picture day or need a retake.

• 2024 Mill Levy Info Session- We encourage our community to attend one of the upcoming Mill levy Info sessions to learn more about this ballot initiative. Look for more details in the note from PSD (down below is News from PSD).

• Odyssey of the Mind Info Mtg.- RESCHEDULED -Odyssey of the Mind - If your student is interested in a fun and creative team challenge, attend the OM informational night on October 15th from 6-7pm in the Media Center. See the Info flyer and Problem synopses overview for more details. If you have questions, contact Butterscotch Culhane at bculhane@psdschools.org

• Halloween Parade and Parties-Our annual tradition of Halloween parties and parade will be Thursday, Oct. 31 at Werner. We invite our community to come watch our parade at 3:15 pm outside classrooms. Here is some guidance with regards to costumes and parties:

  • Halloween Parade and Parties- Our annual Halloween Parade will begin around 3:15 p.m. on Thursday, October 31. Parents are invited to view the parade outside classrooms on the playground. Parties will be held in each room before the parade sometime during the day. Room Parents and/or teachers will be communicating out to families on needs. Here is our Werner Guidance for Classroom Parties.

  • Guidance on Halloween Costumes- Halloween is a great opportunity for dressing up in costumes that are creative and fun. We ask that you help your students plan for costumes that are not scary (e.g. zombies, vampires, etc.) and that do not use pretend weapons of any kind. Guns, knives, nun-chucks, bows/arrows, etc. will not be permitted. Students are okay with wearing facemasks. Adults, please do not wear facemasks. Please be mindful to choose costumes that convey stereotypes or demean cultural groups. Please check the weather forecast before coming to school with their costume. The parade is outside, depending on the weather, and will last about 20 minutes.

  Thanks for your help and we look forward to seeing the creative costumes!

• Veteran's Day Breakfast, Nov. 8- Please see the flyer below about a special opportunity to honor our veterans or active military.

• Read-A-Thon- We are off to a great start with the Read-A-Thon and are looking to increase our goal so that we can get everything we are looking for on our wish list! Thanks for all your support and keep reading!

Media/Tech is a Specials class for students that can involve library skills or technology skills. I meet with all students one day a week. I see each class on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.

One of the skills we work on in every grade is typing. Students need to have typing skills for school, life, and work. Therefore, it is a major focus; however, we only have about 15 minutes a class to develop these skills. If students can find a few minutes several times a week to practice at home, this will definitely help them develop and practice their skills.

There are games on the K-2 Websites for grades K and 1. This can be accessed through the Werner Web Site on the Students page. It is found in the Resources section. They open K-2 and can go to Typing. Students in 2nd-5th can go through Clever to get to their Typing Club Lessons.

Skills Emphasis

Kindergarten: Students are just learning to recognize the letters and find them on a keyboard. The hunt and peck method is fine for them.

1st Grade: Students begin learning about home row hand position. They are trying to have correct posture, hand position, and are learning to keep their eyes off of their hands. By the end of the year, the goal is to be typing 5 words per minute, but we are most focused on accuracy.

2nd Grade: Home row focus continues with an emphasis on accuracy. 10 WPM by the end of the year.

3rd Grade: Students should be starting to feel more comfortable with typing and not looking at their fingers while they are typing. Going a little slowly is better. Accuracy is still more important than the 15 WPM goal by the end of the year.

4th Grade: Students should be developing their speed a little while still focusing on accuracy. They should feel comfortable with all the finger positions and shifting for capitals. Their goal is accuracy in the 90th percentile. This is still more important than the 20 WPM goal at the end of the year.

5th Grade: This is the year to be pushing for a little more speed. They should be solid in the finger positions and movements by now. Accuracy in the 90’s is still the goal but they should be moving their WPM closer to 25 by the end of the year.

Throughout the year, we ask our community for photos that could be used for our yearbook and/or social media. This relates to school events only (e.g. classroom parties, field trips, school events, spirit days and enrichment opportunities). You can upload pictures to our 2024-2025 Werner Photo Album throughout the year. Please be mindful to not include photos of students that may not have permission.

Save the Date:

• October 17th- Werner Dines Out @ Raising Cane's 5-9pm
• October 30th- Masked Reader Closing Assembly for Read a Thon

Our Read A Thon has officially started and as of Wednesday our Wildcats have raised over $8,400! Keep those reading minutes going!

The Werner Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) plays a crucial role in supporting our school, teachers, and most importantly, our students. We are dedicated to fostering a positive and enriching environment where every child can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

JOIN THE WERNER PTA

From our annual Fall Festival to this year's Read A Thon, we have some memorable events planned and would love your help. Although membership doesn’t obligate you to volunteer hours or attend meetings, we always love to meet more of our Werner community and have your support in any way you can give it.

• Sign up for the PTA HERE to receive a free Werner yard sign & notifications of upcoming events.
• *****New this year***** Wildcat Spirit Wear is launching with new shirts, hoodies, and stickers! Visit our Givebacks website HERE for a one stop shop for everything your PTA has to offer.
• For any questions please email the PTA at ptawernerelementary@gmail.com

FREE MONEY FOR YOUR SCHOOL! Did you know there are ways to donate money to the school by doing things you already do? - If you shop at King Soopers with a loyalty card they will donate to Werner when you sign up here.

- If you like to eat out, the PTA hosts Werner Dines Out once a month and the restaurants we partner with will donate back to the school anywhere from 10-15%!

- American Warehouse is now offering rewards back to Werner for any purchase you make throughout the whole year. Just mention Werner at checkout!

Your Werner PTA

Follow us on FACEBOOK to stay engaged with school events, Werner families, and see what the PTA is up to!

Your 2024/2025 PTA Board

PTA President | Gladys Kanode

PTA Vice President | Caitlin Papp

PTA Treasurer | Patti Haswell

PTA Secretary | Juliana Potts

PTA VP of Community Programs | Marissa McNulty

PTA Past-President | Nicole Kidd Connect with us at PTAWernerElementary@gmail.com

There Is No Wrong Way to PTA. How Do You PTA?

Thank you for supporting the Werner Elementary PTA!

At their Aug. 27, 2024, meeting, the Poudre School District Board of Education voted unanimously to refer a mill levy question to the Nov. 5, 2024, ballot. This mill levy, if approved by voters, will provide $49 million per year to improve and extend the useful life of the district’s school buildings and will allow the district to reprioritize more of its general fund for the recruitment and retention of teachers and staff, classroom resources, career and technical education, and neighborhood schools.

To ensure that our community has factual information about this mill levy, the district will host a series of community information sessions in September and October. These are open to the public and anyone who wishes to come learn more about the ballot measure and how it would impact the PSD system and our community are welcome. Each session will share the same information.

Information sessions will take place:

• Monday, Sept. 23, at 6 p.m., Poudre High School Theater, 201 S. Impala Dr., Fort Collins
• Thursday, Sept. 26, at 5:30 p.m., Fossil Ridge High School Performing Arts Center, 5400 Ziegler Road, Fort Collins
• Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m., Timnath Middle-High School Auditorium, 4700 Prospect Road, Timnath
• Thursday, Oct. 3, at 5:30 p.m., Wellington Middle-High School Auditorium, 2856 Cleveland Ave., Wellington
• Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 6 p.m., Rocky Mountain High School Theater, 1300 W. Swallow Road, Fort Collins
• Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 5:30 p.m., Fort Collins High School Theater, 3400 Lambkin Way, Fort Collins
• Thursday, Oct. 17, at 5:30 p.m. at the Future Ready Center inside Foothills Mall

The information sessions are being offered for transparency purposes only; these are not campaign events.

Simultaneous interpretation and translation via the district’s Instant Language Assistant (ILA) devices will be available at all sessions. If you would like oral interpretation, please bring wireless headphones that connect to your device to listen to the presentation.

To learn more, visit the 2024 Mill Levy Question web section.

• PSD sends frequent emails to currently registered volunteers, but those are getting lost in some recipients' junk mail folders. If you are registered as a volunteer with PSD, please check your junk mail & mark those sent by "Volunteer Coordinator" as safe to receive.

• For those who are not yet registered to volunteer but want to help in our schools please visit - Volunteer Registration

One of many ways information is shared is through the PSD Now community newsletter, which features timely information about the latest happenings in the district. This is emailed to families and interested community members about every other Thursday.

Here is the most recent newsletter of PSD Now. For archived newsletters and information about how to sign up, go to: https://www.psdschools.org/department/communications.

An award-winning neighborhood school in Fort Collins, Colorado

Email: hcamp@psdschools.org
Website: https://wer.psdschools.org/
Location: 5400 Mail Creek Lane, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Phone: (970) 488-5550

Attendance: (970) 488-5551
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wernerwildcats/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/werner_elementary/
X (Twitter): @WernerWildcats