DeKeyser News
October 6, 2023
DeKeyer Elementary Information
Welcome to DeKeyser ~ Home of the DeKeyser Dolphins
Principal: Mrs. Shannon Hathcock
Administrative Assistant: Mrs. Lisa Russo
Clerk: Mrs. Heather Mansour
Office Hours: 8:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m.
School Hours: 9:00 AM - 3:50 PM (full days) and 9:00 AM -12:04 PM (half days)
Breakfast - Door #2 opens at 8:40
Student Arrival - All students can enter their classroom at 8:50 am
Address:
39600 Atkinson
Sterling Heights, MI 48313
Office Phone Number: (586)797-4400
24 Hr Attendance Line (586)797-4499
Fax (586)797-4401
DeKeyser Email: officedekeyser @uticak12.org
October 9th - 13th
October 2023
Grade Level T-Shirt orders will be delivered BEFORE Friday! If you did not order your grade level shirt, no worries, just wear your grade level color on Friday. We are going to take a picture of our entire school prior to the Fun Run!
Mon., Oct. 9
- Fun Run Spirit Day - Crazy Sock Day
- 8 am - Rockstar Readers (M/T/TH)
- Fun Run Collection
- 3:55 – 4:55 - Soccer
Tues., Oct. 10
- Fun Run Spirit Day - Tie-Dye Day
- 8 am - Rockstar Readers (M/T/TH)
- PTCG – 6PM
- Lego Robotics 6:30 – 8:30 (Gym)
Wed., Oct. 11
- Fun Run Spirit Day - Hat Day
- Happy Birthday Mrs. Selvie!
- Restaurant Night - Chick-fil-A (4-8 pm)
Thur., Oct. 12
- Fun Run Spirit Day - Favorite Team Day
- 8 am - Rockstar Readers (M/T/TH)
- 9:30 / 1:00 – Preschool Fire Department Visit
- 10:00 – 11:00 – SMART MOVES – 6th Grade – Music Room
Fri., Oct. 13
- Fun Run Spirit Day - Grade Level T-Shirt Day or Grade-Level Color Day
- (K-Teal / 1-Red / 2-Orange / 3-Yellow / 4-Royal Blue / 5-Green / 6- Light Blue)
- Fun Run
- 9:30 / 1:00 – Preschool Fire Department Visit
- Kindergarten ABC Boot Camp Fashion Show
- 3:55 – 4:55 - Young Rembrandts
Upcoming OctoberEvents
Events will be added regularly so always double check each week for additions to our calendar.
October2023
VIP PARKING: ERICA KOZOCKI
Sun., Oct. 15
- Happy Birthday Mr. Steve!
Mon., Oct. 16
- 6th Grade Camp
- 8 am - Rockstar Readers (M/T/TH)
- 3:50-4:50 – DeKeyser Chess
- 3:55 – 4:55 – Soccer
- Board of Education Meeting – 7:00 pm
Tue., Oct. 17
- Happy Birthday Mrs. Miller!
- Lego Robotics 6:30 – 8:30 (Gym)
Wed., Oct. 18
- No School - Teacher Professional Development
Thur., Oct. 19
- 8 am - Rockstar Readers (M/T/TH)
- 10:00 – 11:00 – SMART MOVES – 6th Grade – Music Room
- 6:00 – 7:30 – Fall Sing-a-Long (Preschool)
Fri., Oct. 20
3:55 – 4:55 - Young Rembrandts
October VIP Parking
School Safety
Safety remains a priority for our school. DeKeyser is once again providing training to our students on our safety protocols. The protocols identify actions that students may be asked to take in the event of a potential incident: hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate and shelter.
The training is provided through a short, animated video. In the video, the teacher – Mrs. Appleton – and her students walk through the different responses in a very relaxed and engaging way for younger children. The script was written by our staff.
The protocols will continue to be part of the training while practicing our regular school safety drills, such as fire drills, security drills, tornado drills, evacuation procedures, etc.)
The video is available for you to review at this link: UCS School Safety: Standard Response Protocol - Elementary - YouTube If you have any questions, please contact our office.
DeKeyser Safety Procedure Reminder
Sending a friendly reminder that everyone must show their ID to the camera when requesting to enter DeKeyser. Please know that this is a safety procedure for all Utica Community Schools.
You are all family to us, and we know who you are, but please know that we must ask you to show your ID to the camera prior to entering the building. IDs will also be checked when asking to pick up a child. We make sure that information matches on PowerSchool. We do this for everyone's safety.
Thank you so much for working to provide a safe school for all to attend. Please contact our office at 586-797-4400 if you have any questions.
PTCG News
Your PTCG team is working hard on two big events coming up this month with the Fun Run and our Spooktacular! Thank you for all your support sharing out the link for donating to our Fun Run as well as signing up to volunteer on Friday, October 13th. We are excited to see donations coming in and getting us closer to our school goal of raising $16,000 for our school community. We have already raised $1, 945 so please keep those donations coming! We’re still looking for a few volunteers to help with setting up the Fun Run at 8am so please let us know or sign up online to help us prepare on that Friday morning (10/13).
Donate to the Fun Run: https://tinyurl.com/5asnd9au
Volunteer at the Fun Run: https://tinyurl.com/447evhxf
We have many members creating motivational posters to cheer our kiddos on at the Fun Run, dozens of prizes coming in for Fun Run winners, parents putting together boxes to use for our candy collection competition for Spooktacular, members already buying/sorting items for kiddos to purchase at Santa Shop, and much more happening behind the scenes! If you’d like to help out more with school events, please be sure to join us on Tuesday, October 10th at 6:00pm for our PTCG meeting in the Media Center. We are incredibly lucky to have Mrs. Ritz's student teacher, Ms. Stumpf, supervising a Kid's Room during the meeting time! Our kiddos can hang out together in Mrs. Ritz's room and do some sitting activities while parents meet together in the Media Center. PTCG has some fun prizes for lucky parents to win if you attend the meeting too! We look forward to having you join us!
Please be sure to check out the PTCG newsletter for a sneak peek at our agenda for the meeting on Tuesday, October 10th as well as all the amazing events we have planned throughout the month. PTCG is so excited to kick-off a fun month with our DeKeyser dolphins and couldn't do it without all the supportive and dedicated parents in our community. Thank you!
What's Happening at DeKeyser
Nursery / Preschool
We Preschool we have been talking about the changes we see during the season of Fall. We also explored things we see in the Fall when we took an outside tour. We found leaves, acorns and heard the chirping of birds. We decide to make Acorn cookies with Hersey kisses, frosting and mini vanilla wafers. Unwrapping the Kisses and putting together the cookie is a great way to practice our fine motor skills. The children also loved exploring our ramps and balls during discovery time. Kendall and Marlow, two of our 3 year olds, set up a " flu clinic" for the baby dolls.
Kindergarten
The Kindergarteners are excited to begin Writing Workshop and learning how to become illustrators. Students are working on drawing pictures, labeling, and adding details to their pictures. They are working on building their writing stamina.
Check out our DeKeyser FB page to see our Kindergarten students having some fun with their 6th grade book buddies and their experience with the Fire Truck!
1st Grade
As the sun shines brightly, our first graders are beaming with excitement at school! These warm weather days have brought smiles and newfound friendships as our young learners bond and explore together. In the classroom, we're diving headfirst into targeted reading instruction groups, igniting a passion for learning that will guide them on their educational journey. It's a season of growth and discovery for our first graders, and we can't wait to see all they achieve!
2nd Grade
Second grade students began focused small group stations this week to help us become better readers and writers! All students have been working hard on developing their reading skills!
Check out FB for all of the pictures!
3rd Grade
We have been very busy learning our multiplication facts in third grade! In September, we learned our 0s, 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s and this week we learned our 9s. We had fun finding patterns with the multiples of 9! We also learned how to use our hands to help us solve multiplication problems with 9 as a factor.
4th Grade
Fourth grade students are learning about political scientists. This week, we drew visual representations of the three levels of government and completed and cut and paste activity in preparation for our first test of year on Friday.
5th Grade
The students of fifth grade are currently working on personal narratives in writing, while also learning new ways to improve their writing in general. Transitions, hooks, and proper punctuation are just a few of the many methods they are learning to use. They got to choose their topics, so everyone’s passage is different and unique. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing a great job! They are all at different points in their writing and are all working really hard. Their goal is for this to be their best work, and it looks like they will accomplish that very soon!
6th Grade
6th graders are exploring light and matter in Science! They have been investigating how an object can act like a mirror and a window at the same time. They are using a scale model to try and figure out how light impacts what we see. Just like real scientists, they are drawing models, asking questions, and hypothesizing what might be happening.
Music
This week in Kindergarten we learned about our different voices and when we should use them. Our voices are Whisper, Talk, Sing, and Shout.
4th grade we put what we learned last week about note values and practiced some bucket drumming.
3rd Grade was exciting. While we were practicing for our upcoming Halloween Concert on Tuesday, October 24th the power went out. That didn't stop of from practicing our songs acappella.
Media Center
This week in the media center 2nd-5th grade worked on coding in Code.org. In kindergarten and 1st grade we read a fire safety book and did fire safety activities on the iPads. We also talked about what to do if there is a fire and they are in the media center.
Art
CHECK BACK NEXT WEEK
ISM
R.E.S.P.E.C.T! We are finding out what respect means to us this week in ISM. We learned that respect is seeing value in all things and treating them with care. We had meaningful discussions about what respect looks like in our school, at home and in our community. We also continued working on active listening to show respect to our classmates and instructors and discussed "The Golden Rule." Ask your students this week how they can be more intentional about practicing respect in and out of school.
Gym
Greetings from the gym teachers!
Sixth grade has been working on playing football, and learning the rules and positions of football. Upper Elementary classes are currently practicing the soccer unit. Lower Elementary classes are practicing locomotor skills and skills associated while playing with others in a big group/team. Students agave been learning to work together in teams and how to cooperate with each other during a sport or activity.
Reminders - Important Information
Community Enrichment
Grade Level T-Shirt Order
Grade Level T-Shirt Orders
Thank you for sending in your t-shirt orders. We are placing this order and will be getting you your shirt before our DeKeyser Fun Run.
IF you were unable to order a shirt, you may still do so throughout the year but you are not guaranteed your shirt prior to Fun Run.
Kindergarten = Teal
1st Grade = Red
2nd Grade = Orange
3rd Grade = Yellow
4th Grade =Royal Blue
5th Grade = Green
6th Grade =Light Blue