February 16, 2025

Our Character Strong trait for February is HONESTY. Check out what each grade level is working on!

• Pre-Kindergarten
• Kindergarten
• First Grade
• Second Grade
• Third Grade
• Fourth Grade
• Fifth Grade

Hello Hoover Families,

A reminder that there is NO SCHOOL on Monday and Tuesday of this week. We do have conferences this Tuesday and Thursday, though, so we look forward to seeing you all at Hoover.

Don't forget our Hoover Spirit Gear site is now open again! It will close on March 2nd, and the products will be delivered to students/staff the week of March 17th. This will be the final time to purchase Hoover gear this year, so if you haven't bought your student grade-level t-shirts for field trips/experiences and Track & Field, this is your last chance. Other great spirit gear items must be purchased for students, staff, and families!

We have 25 out of 45 spots filled for our first community blood drive with the American Red Cross on Wednesday, February 26th, from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. at Hoover Elementary. For more information or to make an appointment to donate, call 763-506-2890 or sign up online at bit.ly/HooverGiveBlood.

This week's events:

• Monday, February 17 - K-12 No School; District Closed
• Monday, February 17 - PTO Dining Night Fundraiser at Smashburgers - 11:00 am - 9:00 PM
• 13111 Riverdale Drive NW, Coon Rapids
• 20% Donated Back to PTO for Dine-in, Takeout, and Pick-up orders
• Promo Code: SBFUNDRAISE
• Tuesday, February 18 - No School; Staff PD Day
• Tuesday, February 18 - Conferences (2:30-8:30 pm)
• Wednesday, February 19-Friday, February 21 - Gr 5 STEMH STARBASE Offsite Field Experience
• Wednesday, February 19-Friday, February 21 - Gr 1-3 Dental Sealant
• Thursday, February 20 - Conferences (4:30-6:30 In-Person, 6:30-8:30 Virtual)

Best,

Mrs. Strusz

P.S. In case you missed the last Hoover Family Updates. Click here to view.

• Monday, February 24 - Gr 5 DARE w/Officer Platz
• Wednesday, February 26 - Educators Rising - Shadow Day (Hoover will be hosting students from Buffalo High School)
• Wednesday, February 26 - Hoover Blood Drive (12:00-6:00)
• Friday, February 28 - Gr 3 STEMH Conquer Ninja Gym Offsite Field Experience

***Hoover Read-Athon Update***

Way to go, Hoover!!! We surpassed the 25% mark! That means we earned a schoolwide Stuffed Animal Day—more details to come. If we hit 50% of our goal, our fabulous Gym Teacher, Mr. White, will spend the day on wheels (roller skates or rollerblades). Once we hit 75%, Mr. Kelley gets involved with the fun. Lastly, when we hit 100% of the goal, Mrs. Strusz turns into a sweat-treat! — feeling delighted.

 Every registered student receives a bookmark

 25% classroom registered: Hat Day

 50% classroom registered: Pajama Day

 75% classroom registered: Popcorn Party

 100 % classroom registered: Sweet Treat Party & Teacher receives Favorite Treat

Link to enroll students: https://www.getmovinfundhub.com/register...

Link for our Community Supporters:

https://www.getmovinfundhub.com/.../678966f36cf008.57044900

#thehooverway

#hooverpto

IT’S PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCE TIME!

Conferences are scheduled for:

• Tuesday, February 18th - 2:30 pm - 8:30 pm (In-Person)
• Thursday, February 20th - 4:30-6:30 (In-Person) and 6:30-8:30 (Virtual Conferences Only)

To schedule your preferred time for a parent-teacher conference:

1. Go to www.Myconferencetime.com/Hoover
2. Click on the name of your child’s teacher (if you need multiple conferences, click on the link “Register for Multiple Time Slots”)
3. Select the desired date/time for your conference by clicking ‘Sign Up’

4. Conferences are In-Person Only, Except 2/20 from 6:30-8:30pm.

5. Click “Sign Up”

After you schedule a conference on-line, the date and time are reserved for you. If you entered your email address correctly, you will receive an email reminder a few days prior to your conference. Please reach out to your student's teacher with any questions.

Our second grade students ventured to the Science Museum of MN and explored the many hands-on learning activities that elevated their already stellar minds! Click here for more pictures.

Our fourth graders didn't have to leave Hoover to engage in fun learning to add to their STEMH Circulatory System knowledge. The Science Crew was onsite to engage students in messy learning on how our blood travels throughout our circulatory system. Click here for more pictures.

Staff from the Red Cross visited to share with our Hoover 4th graders about the blood donation process to increase their knowledge and understanding of our upcoming Hoover Blood Drive. Our 4th-grade students have played a part in this blood drive by creating hand-drawn invites to send to district office staff, learning the importance of this blood drive, recruiting family and friends, and also helping out the day of by making sure those who have donated blood are checked on in the "canteen" before they leave.

Ivy (2nd grade) and Howard (4th grade) had participated in a new program during the Anoka County Fair called "Fair Buddies," where they were paired up with students with special needs to show the fun and awesomeness of the county fair. Check out the FaceBook link below to read more about this excellent program recognition and how two of our Hoover students participated.

Through February 21st, 10% of sales that come through our school’s unique code, FUN4HOOVER, will be returned to Hoover PTO in the form of an eGift Card, which we'll use to purchase carnival prizes. This is the perfect time to start planning and stocking up for Valentine’s Day parties, birthday parties, and more!

Hoover Elementary will host a community blood drive with the American Red Cross on Wednesday, February 26th from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. at Hoover Elementary.

For more information or to make an appointment to donate, call 763-506-2890 or sign up online at bit.ly/HooverGiveBlood.

Hoover Elementary is committed to strengthening our community and helping meet hospital and patient needs through blood donations. This blood drive is our way of giving staff, colleagues and families an opportunity to help save lives.

Blood is a perishable product that can only come from volunteer blood donors. With someone in the U.S. needing blood every two seconds, blood products must be constantly replenished, according to the Red Cross.

We urge community members to donate blood and help ensure that patients in local hospitals have a supply of blood ready and waiting before an emergency occurs. There's no better feeling than knowing that your blood donation may give someone a second chance at life.

According to the Red Cross, donors with all blood types are needed, especially those with types O negative, A negative and B negative.

Please send an extra pair of pants and underwear for your child in case there is an accident (bathroom, breakfast/lunch spill, etc.). The health office loves donations of gently used sweatpants and leggings sizes 5-10. We also appreciate new packs of underwear for boys and girls sizes 5-10.

The health office has free at home Covid tests. Email Darlene.Anderson@ahschools.us and we can send them home with your child.

Wondering if your child is well enough to come to school? Click here for more information.

If your child goes to the doctor or dentist, please request a doctor's note and send it with your child for attendance purposes.

I want to first start off by saying thank you for all the help we have received the past couple of weeks! This school would not be able to do all the amazing things we do without you amazing volunteers! Just this week, we had over 50 volunteers helping our school with a field experience, book distribution, vision and hearing screening, movie night, every meal food program, Skillbuilders and more! On behalf of myself and the rest of the staff, thank you so much!!

We have conferences coming up and the PTO is providing mac and cheese and salad for a meal to our amazing staff! They are hoping to get donations like toppings and sides for the mac and cheese and salad bar and also some drinks and snacks for our staff. Monetary donations can also be donated for PTO to use and purchase more food items for the meal.

Hoover is hosting a blood drive on February 26th! We are looking for a volunteer to come in and help support 4th grade students rotating through at the canteen table and to take over once the school day is out at the canteen table. Shifts are 12pm to 3pm and 3pm to 6pm. We are also looking for a volunteer to come in at 3:45pm to help check in people for the blood drive.

Staff Appreciation is the beginning of May and there is a lot of planning that goes into this. I am looking for some volunteers to assist with this. You can either sign up or reach out to me via email if you'd like to help or have questions.

You can find sign up links for all our volunteer opportunities HERE.

Just a reminder that any volunteer 18 years or older must complete the volunteer application and background check each school year. Those 17 and younger only need to complete the volunteer application each school year.

Please reach out Tina Fletcher, Volunteer Service Coordinator, at Tina.Fletcher@ahschools.us or 763.506.2830 with any questions.

Read-a-Thon - February I Love to Read Month

Our Read-AThon is live and will run until March 4th. We have registration rewards, reading incentives, and individual prizes. The goal is to get families to register and record their reading minutes. Each student will receive an “I Love to Read” pencil to celebrate the start of this fundraising campaign.

Bingo Night - March 21

Bingo Night seems to be a family favorite event, so we are doing it again after we get back from Spring Break. Save the date for March 21!

Spring Carnival - May 2

We are entering planning mode; can you believe it!! It is the time of year that we start to solicit donations for our raffle and find the best deals for game prizes. We need a bunch of volunteers for this event, and we’d love your help too.

HundredX – May 12 through June 10

Our HundredX Fundraiser is back this school year. It's great because families and supporters don't have to buy anything. They only need to complete surveys about their recent shopping or business interactions.

Dining Nights

We have two upcoming dining nights on the calendar, Monday, February 17 at Smashburger and Wednesday, March 5 at Chipotle.

Hoover PTO Facebook page

PTO's website

Hoover Elementary Facebook page

Please reach out if you have any questions or feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Thank you for your support; we appreciate you!

Cheers!

Hoover PTO

It may be cold, but in Minnesota we play outside all year long! In this month's Parent Press, we focus on having fun in the frigid weather with simple ideas to make winter fun.

Another option is to go to https://www.boxtops4education.com/ to learn more about downloading the app to scan receipts for box tops for Hoover Elementary.

The Anoka-Hennepin School District allows qualifying flyers from nonprofit groups to be distributed at school and sent home with students. These flyers have gone through the district approval process. A virtual gallery of flyers is also available. These events, classes and activities are not sponsored or endorsed by Anoka-Hennepin Schools.

This does NOT change our regular flyer policies or procedures! To have a flyer posted, the organization still needs to go through the process, be approved, and deliver paper flyers to schools in our district.