Steele Family Newsletter

Mrs. Grice, Dean of Students

Mrs. Knuth, Nurse

Mrs. Hickey, Family Engagement

Mrs. Mowen, Outreach

Mrs. Fones and Ms. Patch, Front Office Assistants

Email: kcoate@galesburg205.org
Website: https://steele.galesburg205.org/
Location: 1480 West Main Street, Galesburg, IL, USA
Phone: (309)973-2016
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steele205/
X: @wearesteele

Instagram: @205steelestars

We held our first family night and we were very excited to see all of the families enjoy a variety of math activities. We had 135 families attend. When each family walked in they were greeted by staff members and handed a map of activities, bag of Goldfish crackers and water bottle to enjoy as they wandered through the building. Thank you to the PTO for providing the snacks. In addition, we had a family donate several apples from their orchard that the students were able to enjoy as well. Pictures from the event will be posted here..

Our second graders visited Tanner's Apple Orchard for their first field trip of the year. Third graders will attend Wildlife Prairie Park on Wednesday. Field trip permission slips are required for all out of town trips. For in town field trips, a notice will be sent home. We expect that all students follow the same behavior expectations that are required at Steele School. A complete list of field trips for the year is listed below.

As we move into October, we are noticing that our incidents of student misbehavior are increasing. We would like your help talking to your children about the importance of using calm down strategies instead of letting frustration out on others. We know that all of the students are still learning how to appropriately respond to unexpected events. As students mature and learn appropriate conflict strategies, more is expected. What we will not tolerate is fighting instead of using a non-physical response to big feelings. At school, it doesn't matter who starts it, all students are expected to use non-physical responses. Thank you for your help partnering with us to make Steele the best it can be.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Coate

You may have heard that Mrs. Coate had to speak with the entire third grade on Friday afternoon about too many incidents of disrespect to teachers and substitutes and students not acting or working to their potential. Every teacher had talked to Mrs. Coate about this over the last two weeks. In this talk she told the students that if improvements weren't seen this week, then she would consider cancelling or rescheduling the field trip. She also challenged the third graders that are following expectations to start using their voices to tell others to stop ruining it for the others. We anticipate that everything will proceed as normal. However, if not, families of those affected individuals will be notified by Tuesday evening.

The students will leave by 9:30 AM and return at 2 PM.

School tours Include:

Hip, Hip, Hooray! You have won breakfast at Judy's Cafe! We are so fortunate to partner with Judy's Family Cafe in Galesburg for our weekly attendance prizes. Judy graciously donates a free breakfast to each one of our winners every week! Teachers will pick one student per week that has been at school all week long and has shown up ready to learn.

Judy's Family Cafe 1195 N. Broad Street, Galesburg https://www.facebook.com/judysfamilycafe

Congratulations to our weekly attendance winners!

September 9 - 13 , 2024

Congratulations to our students that were nominated by their bus driver for showing safety on the bus!

September 9-13 , 2024

Congratulations to our students that were recognized for following our Steele Star behavior expectations.

September 9-13 , 2024

This second grade class noticed that there was trash on the playground. They decided on their own to pick up trash to show respect for their environment. We recognized them during morning announcements!

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Take a look at the "Family Strong" website for more resources for home FamilyStrong

Board Policy 6:250-The Board of Education encourages the use of resource persons and volunteers to: (1) increase students' educational attainment; (2) provide enrichment experiences for students; (3) increase the effective utilization of staff time and skills; (4) give more individual attention to students; and (5) promote greater community involvement.

All adult volunteer applicants, including field trip chaperones, must complete the online application and wait for clearance prior to volunteering or chaperoning. Please click the button below to begin the application process. The application needs to be completed accurately and in its entirety. You will be asked to renew this clearance annually. Complete volunteer application

You will be contacted after your application is submitted and reviewed. If you have questions, please contact Amy Pickrel, apickrel@galesburg205.org, 309-973-2118.

All meetings are held at Steele in the library. Meetings run from 5:30 - 6:30 PM and are typically on the first Monday of the month.

A Google Meet will be set up for those of you that want to attend but cannot be in person.

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/jms-yjdu-agj

Or dial: ‪(US) +1 678-487-9512‬ PIN: ‪356 280 867‬#

Quarter 1: August 8 - October 11, 2024

Quarter 2: October 14 - December 20, 2024

Quarter 3: January 6 - March 14, 2025

Quarter 4: March 17 - May 21, 2025*

*unless emergency days are needed

How do we grade at the elementary level? We use a standards-based report card instead of a report card with letter grades. Elementary report cards are issued at the end of each grading period. They are intended to give an evaluation of the scholastic achievement and work habits of each child. Parents should examine all cards carefully since each child is rated not only on academic progress, but also progress in development of social attitudes and work habits.

We use a 4,3,2,1 system to assess a student's mastery of standards.

4 = Exceeding State and District Standards

3 = Meeting State and District Standards

2 = Approaching State and District Standards

1 = Not Meeting State and District Standards