CUBS STAFF COMMUNICATION

Our mission at Collins, with the help of the community, is to foster a caring and enriching environment that enables all students to grow academically and socially, to reach their individual potential as they become lifelong learners.

SCHOOL HOURS: 8:25-3:15 DAILY

HALF-DAY HOURS: 8:25-11:29

BREAKFAST OPENS @ 8:10-8:25

email: mailto:officecollins@uticak12.org

website: https://collins.uticak12.org

Location: 12900 Grand Haven, Sterling Heights, MI 48312

Phone: 586-797-4200

Attendance Line: 586-797-4299 (24 hours)

COLLINS Facebook: www.facebook.com/CollinsCubs

PTO Facebook: www.facebook.com/BruceCollinsPTO

DECEMBER DATES:

2-20: Collins Cub of Cheer!

2-9: Collins Winter Themed or Book Cover Door Decorating Contests

9-13: PTO Santa Shop Location-ISM on CART

9: A & G Night

10: Mr. Monroe DATA PRESENTAITON MEETING Details @ staff meeting

10: Music Concert Grades 5 and 6, 6pm @ Collins

12: SCIENCE ASSEMBLY

13: Door Decorating PRIZE JUDGING

19: PAWS ASSEMBLY 2:00pm

20: HALF-DAY OF SCHOOL/PM SPECIALS (CORRECTION)

23-Jan. 3, 2025: NO SCHOOL for K-12 Students, Winter Break

JANUARY DATES:

1-3: WINTER BREAK

6: WELCOME BACK! First day back after Winter Break.

8: MEG @ PRINCIPAL MEETING 1-4

20: NO SCHOOL MLK JR. HOLIDAY OBSERVED

23: MEG @ PRINCIPAL MEETING 8:30-12

FEBRUARY DATES

17-21: NO SCHOOL MID-WINTER BREAK

Happy FULL December Staff!!

We have another full week together in school and looking forward to a lot of fun and excitement in the air this week. Thank you to all the families and staff that participated in the Kiwanis Club Canned Food drive. Stay tuned for the totals!

This week, we have a special Data Presentation Visit with classroom visits on Tuesday, December 10th from 9:30-11:00. We will be visiting as many classrooms as possible to showcase our focus on School Improvement goals and strategies being utilized to achieve those goals of: Vocabulary, Flexible and Skills-Based groups, critical thinking, and spiral curriculum along with Restorative Practices.

Lastly, we have a staff CUB OF CHEER FUNDRAISER that will commence this week: simply communicate with the office the charity you plan to donate (monetary or other means) and you get to earn a dress down week all week long! We cannot wait to see how many people will be impacted by our CUB OF CHEER!

WEEK AHEAD AT-A-GLANCE

• NWEA TESTING WINDOW OPENS MONDAY!!
• IF YOU HAVEN'T TURNED IN YOUR IRPs, please do so ASAP.
• CUB OF CHEER FUNDRAISER: Tell the office which charity you are supporting in a way you see appropriate and enjoy a dress down week December 9-13! Choosing HOW you support a charity is your choice: volunteering, toys, monetary-you name it. Choosing WHO you support is up to you-local shelter, Toys for Tots, church, whichever. All we ask is you let the office know so we can celebrate how far we spread our CUB OF CHEER!
• LET'S READ THE HALLWAYS-DOOR DECORATING CONTEST extended through December 13th for Judging.
• CUB OF CHEER BEGINS: I hope this is a fun addition to your classes!
• SCIENCE ASSEMBLY DECEMBER 12th. See below for details.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• 9-January 14th NWEA WINDOW OPENS
• 9-13 ISM WILL BE ON THE CART
• 9-13 SECRET SANTA SHOP by PTO in ISM STAGE LOCATION
• 9-13: CUB OF CHEER FUNDRAISER-Donate to a charity of your choice, jeans all week!
• 10: Mr. Monroe Visit!
• 10: Door Decorating READ the HALLWAYS special GUEST JUDGES!
• 12: Science Amplify Assembly
• 19: PAWS ASSEMBLY 2pm
• 20: AM SPECIALS and HALF DAY.

Introducing a Dress Down week for a great cause: A charity contribution of your choice.

• Simply tell the office which charity you are supporting in a way you see appropriate and enjoy a dress down week December 9-13!
• Choosing HOW you support a charity is your choice: volunteering, toys, monetary-you name it.
• Choosing WHO you support is up to you-local shelter, Toys for Tots, church, whichever.
• All we ask is that you let the office know so we can celebrate how far we spread our CUB OF CHEER!

Let's spread the CUB of CHEER around!

A very special thank you to our CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT team's support as well as our staff's input for our Data Analysis. We would like to continue to celebrate the growth and progress completed from 22/23 school year to the 23/24 school year. One year's growth and you are truly moving the needle of progress in the right direction. This is a DIRECT result of your dedication and commitment to students in our building. Thank you for continuing to proceed with our building goals in ELA, MATH, and SEL.

The strategies for success to help with vocabulary will continue this year with further professional development on Literacy Essential practices and MSTEP Construct Relevant Vocabulary for English Language Arts and Literacy.

CALLING ALL CLASSROOM CREATIVES!! Let's READ the HALLS!

Beginning the week of December 2nd and running through December 9th, we are inviting all classrooms to participate in a Door Decorating Contest for the winter!

RULES:

• Must be inspired by a Favorite Book Cover.
• Can have help from adults and students.
• Could be Winter Themed but does not have to be!
• Be creative and have fun!
• Judging will take place on Tuesday, December 10th by SPECIAL GUEST JUDGES and winners announced in the afternoon!

Let's spread a CUB OF CHEER to make this a DECEMBER to REMEMBER! Rather than doing a spirit day each day in December, this year, we will be spreading a CUB of CHEER. There will be TWO CUBS in bags with treats that will begin Monday, December 2nd and last through December 20th. Let's see how many classrooms can get CUBBED before the holiday break!

When your classroom receives the bag of cheer, house the CUB for a day or two before sending it along to another class. Be sure to use the same bag, pass along the CUB, and replace the little treats in the bag for the next class. Be sure to display your 'WE'VE BEEN CUBBED" sign for all to see and have fun making this a DECEMBER to REMEMBER! If you would rather not participate, simply display the sign in your window and pass the bag along to another classroom to enjoy.

COLLINS CLOSET:

Once again, we are excited to open our COLLINS CLOSET to our community members. If you have a student in need of a winter jacket, hats, gloves, etc., please let the office know. We can help the family to shop in our COLLINS CLOSET!!

LOOKING FOR DONATIONS:

If you would like to donate materials for the Collins Closet, please add them to our collection in the closet area attached to Conference Room 2.

The wonderful STUDENT COUNCIL will once again be collecting Canned Food for the Kiwanis Club. This event will take place from November 25-26, and again when we return from the break from December 2-6th. Thank you Student Council!

We are excited to have the opportunity to share that our school was selected by both Oakland University and Utica Community Schools to partner with Oakland University and their Nursing Program. Students in the nursing program will be coming out to our school for the course of 8-10 weeks beginning on Tuesday, October 22 and continuing through December 3, 2024. During this time, OU nursing students and staff will be visiting classrooms, lunchroom, gyms, and recess to complete their community service hours required for their Nursing Labs.

I will be sharing a schedule with you for Tuesday, October 22. Please click on the link button below to take you to our active schedule. When the nurses come in to your classroom, they will teach a small lesson and then move on to the next grade level. Our goal is to have them into all classrooms during their time and partnership in our building. I will be sending home the letter below in our Community Smore.

Safety remains a priority for our school. Collins Elementary 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.

THANK YOU to Jennifer Merrifield, Emily Taubitz, Ms. Wendy, Ms. Jennifer, and Mr. Mason for helping us to create a cute video for our PBIS stations!!!

The stations were a success and our first week of school together seemed to go smoothly. Thank you for continuing to enforce the following building-wide procedures. Having quiet voices and voices off when in the hallways are crucial for conducting a calm learning environment for all students involved:

1. HALLWAYS: Walking on the right side of the hallway, body-behind-body, hug ourselves or hands to our sides, and quiet voices.
2. CLASSROOM PASSES: Please have your students carry a pass of some sort when they are walking in the hallways. This allows us to know they have your permission to be out and about. If you need paper passes, please let me know and we can give you a generic one. Thank you.
3. OFFICE PASSES: Must have a pass completed by teacher to come to the office. These are used for helping us with behavior interventions and providing additional information if/when needed for families.
4. RETURN TO SCHOOL PASS: If students do not have a return to class pass, they most likely left without permission. Please contact the office in this event as we are human and may have forgotten. Thank you!
5. LUNCHROOM: Quiet voices while waiting in line for their hot lunch staying on the RIGHT SIDE OF THE HALLWAY. Please have students line up by COLD LUNCHERS in the front of your line, daily. This allows them to walk right into the lunch room and hot lunchers go to the right to line up.

• They must remain seated and raise hand for a bathroom pass.
• They must throw garbage away when tables dismissed.
• LUNCHES MUST BE PLACED IN LUNCH TUBS and please have a student helper come back after lunch to get their tubs. Thank you.

BEHAVIOR CONTRACT

• When returning back to the classroom, please have students work on the BEHAVIOR booklet.
• Please collect the PAWS tickets earned from each station.
• Please send review and send home the BEHAVIOR CONTRACT for the 2024-2025 school year. Any returned earn a PAWS ticket.
• Please share the video with students on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2024. This is a great time to sit together in a Restorative Circle and have a conversation about how THEY plan to show their PAWS and what to do if they are NOT showing their PAWS.

REFERRALS and COMMUNICATION

All of these are found in your BLUE binders (details on OPENING DAY). We have streamlined the behavior communication and office referral system. I have also included the parent handbook for you to review, include in your newsletters for families, and share at any time.

PAWS POSITIVE TICKETS and STUDENT SHOUTOUT NOMINATIONS

We will continue with the CARING CUB awards for classrooms to earn a FREE RECESS with Mrs. C.! In addition, we are looking to add STAFF and STUDENT SHOUTOUTS on morning announcements to celebrate student successes for PRINCIPAL PRIZES!! Each month, it will reset. Please use the button below and submit at any time students that might need a phone call home, special note, or a morning announcement shout-out!

ALL STAFF MEETINGS ARE TUESDAYS IN THE MEDIA CENTER @3:30-4:30

1. September 10: 3:30-5 (HEALTH and SAFETY TRAINING-Duzey and SSO Edwards
2. September 24- CANCELLED
3. October 8- School Improvement DATA DIGGING and GRADE LEVEL MEETING
4. November 19-School Improvement-Grade Level Goals Data Analysis
5. December 3-Data Digging Presentation Data Analysis
6. December 10th: DATA DIGGING PRESENTATION for MR. Monroe
7. January 14-Teacher Share-Outs
8. February 4-Continuous Improvement NWEA REVIEW and PLANNING DATA
9. March 4: MSTEP TRAINING PART 1
10. March 18: MSTEP TRAINING PART 2
11. April 8
12. April 29-GROUPINGS MEETING
13. May 13-GROUPSING MEETING
14. June 4

If you need to contact someone for help, please know that our Care Match site is always running. At anytime, students, staff, or families can submit an anonymous request to care through your district's custom link caresolace.com/utica.

FIELD TRIP REMINDERS:

No field trips on Count Day- October 2nd

Please see the updated rules and regulations for student travel, any paperwork moving forward should be on the document below. Two key changes to note-

"For elementary school day trips, a ratio of one adult to five (or less) students is recommended"

"The trip sponsor is responsible for ensuring that copies of medial forms are readily available. In addition, all required medication must be available and properly administered according to individual student health plans and Board of Education Policy 5325 – Administration of Medication."

Bond Issue Updates / Bond Issue Updates (uticak12.org)

Principal of Collins Elementary

Email: collinsquestions@uticak12.org
Website: https://www.uticak12.org/Collins
Location: 12900 Grand Haven Drive, Sterling Heights, MI, USA
Phone: (586)797-4200
Facebook: facebook.com/collins