DeKeyser News
October 15, 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 16th - 20th
October 2023
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
Upcoming OctoberEvents
Events will be added regularly so always double check each week for additions to our calendar.
October2023
VIP PARKING: ERICA KOZOCKI
Mon., Oct. 23
- Spirit Day: Marval Monday – Wear a T-Shirt or the colors of your favorite superhero
- Halloween Grams $1
- 8 am - Rockstar Readers (M/T/TH)
- 9:15 - Bus Evacuation Drill – All Students
- 3:50-4:50 – DeKeyser Chess Club
- 3:55 – 4:55 – Soccer
- PTCG Restaurant Night – Panda Express Time (all day)
Tue., Oct. 24
- Spirit Day – Terrifying Tuesday – Wear orange, black, purple, or green
- Halloween Grams $1
- 8 am - Rockstar Readers (M/T/TH)
- Lego Robotics 6:30 – 8:30 (Gym)
- 6:30 PM – 3rd Grade Concert – 6:15 PM Report time in classrooms
Wed., Oct. 25
- Spirit Day – Wicked Workout Wednesday – Wear workout clothes or a sports jersey
- Halloween Grams $1
Thur., Oct. 26
- Spirit Day – Tricky Thursday – Wear your grade level shirt
- Halloween Grams $1
- 8 am - Rockstar Readers (M/T/TH)
- Hearing Retakes
- 8:30 – 11:30 – Admin Meeting – Henry Ford ECC
- Preschool / Nursery – Halloween Celebration
- 10:00 – 11:00 – SMART MOVES – 6th Grade – Music Room
- 3:55 – 4:55 – TGA Golf
- Spooktacular 6:00 – 8:00 (Cars Arrive @ 5:00)
Fri., Oct. 27
- Spirit Day – Freaky Friday – Wear a Halloween themed T-Shirt
- ½ Day – Dismissal 12:04 – AM SPECIALS
- End Q1 – Records Day
- 9:45 – Fire Drill
- Preschool / Nursery – Halloween Celebration
- Fun Run – Cider & Donut Classroom Party (Class TBD)
- World Occupational Therapy Day
October VIP Parking
PTCG News
A TREMENDOUS thank you to all of the volunteers that helped out at our Fun Run on Friday! We had such a great turn-out of parents that were able to support our running dolphins and make this event run smoothly. Another humungous thank you to Julie Teschendorf for organizing and managing all the components of the Fun Run at DeKeyser. Our PTCG and school community are lucky to have her! We will have totaled up the donations and HIT OUR SCHOOL GOAL to raise $16,327!! Woo hoo! Bravo to all our dolphins! We can’t wait to see the BIG SURPISE that Mrs. Hathcock has in store for us to enjoy on Oct. 26th since we reached our goal. Thank you again for making our biggest fundraiser of the year so successful!
PTCG quickly switches gears from our Fun Run to the Spooktacular coming up on Thursday, October 26th. Your child will be bringing home two notes for this event to help make it a spooky fun time! At our Spooktacular, we are looking for families that would like to participate in the TRUNK-or-TREAT candy distribution. We're asking parents to decorate either their TRUNK or TABLE from 6:00-8:00pm on 10/26. PTCG will position your vehicles and school tables around the building for parents to station themselves at and pass out candy to our DeKeyser trick-or-treaters. All you need to bring are the decorations for your trunk or for the table provided to you as well as two large bowls to hold the candy that we'll give you! The two bowls for candy will help keep peanut/tree nut items in a separate place to keep all our dolphins safe!
In order to have all that delicious candy to pass out during the Spooktacular, please keep an eye out for the Halloween Candy Drive note! We need families to send in bags of Halloween candy starting on Monday, October 16th, and there will be a candy collection competition to see which classroom can bring in the most candy! PTCG volunteers will be coming into school to weigh the candy donation box for each classroom to see which classroom will earn a PIZZA PARTY for collecting the most candy for Spooktacular. Please tell your kiddos to keep an eye out for the DeKeyser Candy Monster coming around to each classroom to gobble up that candy!!
Lastly, we will be having a Pumpkin Raffle at our Spooktacular as well! We are looking for families that would be interested in decorating a pumpkin to represent their child's classroom. PTCG will be purchasing the pumpkins and we're hoping to have a decorated pumpkin for each class at DeKeyser that will be raffled off to a lucky winner at Spooktacular. If you'd be willing to decorate the pumpkin for your child's class, please be sure to scan the QR code on the Spooktacular note to let us know! We'll choose one family per classroom and the pumpkins will be sent home with your child on Thursday, October 19th to begin decorating. Thanks for your help!
Click here if you'd like to decorate your TRUNK or a TABLE at our Spooktacular on October 26th from 6:00-8:00pm: https://tinyurl.com/yadvjysu
Click here if you'd be interested in decorating a pumpkin for your child's classroom that will be raffled off in our Pumpkin Raffle at Spooktacular: https://tinyurl.com/yh8yhyc8
Free & Reduced Meals Application Expiration
Last year’s free & reduced applications will expire on Friday, October 13, 2023.
As required by federal guidelines, students without an approved 2023-2024 Free and Reduced Meal Application on file will not be eligible to receive additional benefits such as EBT assistance, reduced pay to participate and AP test fees, and other items beginning October 14th. Families must fill out a new application form located at https://utica.familyportal.cloud as soon as possible in order for benefits to continue.
If there are any questions, please call the Office of Food and Nutrition Services at 586-797-1180.
What's Happening at DeKeyser
Nursery / Preschool
The littlest learners at DeKeyser sure love cooking. What would be a better way to learn about the season of Fall then to make homemade Applesauce🍎. We have been exploring the wonderful world of Fall the last few weeks in class. Last week, as a culminating activity, we had a virtual visit to the apple orchard, made applesauce and enjoyed warm donuts and cider.
Kindergarten
In Kindergarten we have been exploring numbers! Our little mathematicians have been practicing recognizing and writing numbers, counting objects and representing quantities with objects. We have been using ten frames and other tools to "show how many"!
1st Grade
Our first graders returned to school with beaming smiles as they proudly shared their completed fire safety plans, earning themselves a well-deserved fire safety prize. Their excitement was palpable as they gained newfound knowledge about home fire safety. Additionally, our young students eagerly participated in the school fun run, contributing to the success of this event, which helped raise funds for our school's academic initiatives.
2nd Grade
Second grade students enjoyed the spirit days gearing up for the Fun Run on Friday! Students enjoyed partner learning in both math and writing this week in Mrs. Yax’s class. In Mrs. Sprow and Mrs. Distelrath’s classes, students have spent the past several weeks taking turns as leader of the day. As leader, they get to take responsibility for classroom jobs, share fun facts about themselves and share about their family!
Please check out our DeKeyser FB page to see all of the pictures!
3rd Grade
Calling all Michiganders! Our third-grade geographers are here to answer all your questions about Michigan's geography. For the past month they have been studying Michigan's natural and human characteristics, where Michigan is located, the Great Lakes, Michigan's climate and vegetation and the symbols that represent Michigan. They even were able to take some time to design their very own lighthouse.
4th Grade
4th graders have been thinking like geographers this week! We began studying 10 different landforms found in the United States. Later this week, students will imagine they are visiting one of these landmarks and will write a postcard to another classmate.
5th Grade
Science: Earth and Stars
The fifth grade scientists are learning about the Earth and its surrounding stars. Thanks to the app, Amplify, they are having fun while also learning to use a simulation, known as a sim. The sim contains the names and looks of constellations, demonstrates the earths rotation, and finally, shows what the stars look like at different times. Also, they are trying to decipher what a missing piece of an artifact looks like. Right now they don’t know, but I promise you, they will!
-By Judy, Maya and Victoria.
6th Grade
6th graders had the opportunity to meet their kindergarten buddy this past week. Students helped kindergartners with creating a firefighter hat. Each month, 6th graders and kindergartners will get together for a fun, collaborative activity.
Music
Our 3rd, 5th, and 6th grade classes were busy working on our Concerts songs for our concerts in October (3rd) December (5th/6th). The 4th Grade classes used what we've been learning about note values and rhythm to play a little Poisong Rhythm game on our bucket drums. Our younger classes had fun learning about Autumn by singing Autumn is Here along with our friend Mr. DelGaudio. We took turns playing the sound effects to the song on a lot of fun instruments. And....of course we had to add some dancing in the fun.
Media Center
This week in media center we did our first Common Sense Media Lesson of the school year, where we discuss how to be safe, responsible, and make good choices when we are online.
Art
Grace from our 6th grade Art class had her Art selected to be on display at our school!
6th graders were exploring, activating and expanding upon their previous knowledge of color theory and color temperature to create flat two-dimensional art appear more three-dimensional!
When human beings perceive color, they think of temperature. For example, when people see yellow, red & orange they think of the sun, fire, or a hot day; green is warm for warm green grass, lastly, blue & purple are cool for the ocean, cool breezy sky & shadowy ice. Artist sneak these colors into their subject matter & into the shadows of their artwork to help it look more realistic.
We are enjoying our creative time together & I love being your learners' Art teacher!
Sincerely,
Mr. T.
This week in Art we are learning about clay and the chemical reaction that must take place to produce functional ceramics. We concentrated on how to produce a three-dimensional piece that stresses the importance of texture and balance.
ISM
Our ISM discussions this week revolved around RESPECTing oneself and others! We read: The Name Jar, Chrysanthemum, and Peanut Butter and Cupcake with our students. DeKeyser classes brainstormed ways we show care for ourselves and how we can all respect the “uniqueness” in others…we will begin to add RESPONSIBILITY to our personal tool belt next week!
Gym
CHECK BACK NEXT WEEK
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