November Steeby Star

November 1: NO SCHOOL, Teacher PD day

November 3: Daylight Savings Time ends, Fall back

November 4: WEPA meeting, 6:30

November 6: Picture RETAKES and make-ups

November 12 and 14: Third grade field trip - Charlton Park

November 15: Smoothie Bike at Lunches! And End of First Trimester

November 18: Second Trimester Begins

Novebmer 22: Report cards published to Parent Portal

November 27-29: Thanksgiving break, NO SCHOOL

Looking ahead: December 23-Jan3: Holiday Break

Dear Steeby Families,

A huge shout out goes to all of those who have volunteered to come into classrooms, at recess, and at lunch/breakfast to help support our Steeby Supercats! Not only are you making a positive impact on our students' experience, you are helping to create a fun, safe environment! If you are interested in being a part of our day here at Steeby, please complete an iChat form and fill out our volunteer survey. We would love to have you!

Our WIN (What I Need) groups have been underway and students are working on building proficiency around essential standards for 2nd and 3rd grade. We are excited to provide this time for targeted work addressing Math and ELA curriculum.

Although we are having some unusually warm weather, the temperatures will drop soon, and it will get colder and colder outside. Please be sure that your students are prepared and dressed appropriately for the changes.

Thank you for all that you do to support our students and staff at Steeby Elementary! Please feel free to contact us with any questions or needs you have to help build the best experience possible for the 24/25 school year!

Your partner in education,

Karri Bailey

Principal, Steeby Elementary

Started in October, students who are regular or consistent pick ups at the end of the day have been given TWO pick up tags for their pick up vehicles to display during the pick up process. This will be similar to Baker's pick up tags. An ideal place to display the tags would be attached to the passenger side sun visor that you can swing down to be seen. This can help the adults and students keep an eye on who belongs to what vehicle and keep the pick up line moving. It will also be very helpful in the event of inclement weather (pouring rain, thunder storms) when students have to wait inside the gym to be called out to their vehicles. PLEASE start using them now, so we can get used to it. Students who are randomly picks ups will have their end of day pick up notes and we will be able to match tag-less vehicles with those students. For safety reasons, please commit to staying in your vehicles and using the drive up process. We want to avoid students and parents walking all around and through our vehicle line. THANK YOU for your help to keep our pick up line safe and efficient! See examples below.

At the end of each week at lunch, SuperCat tickets are drawn and winners choose from a list of special jobs they get to do the following week!

Third Grade:

Third grade practiced line designs and got creative making fall trees. They enjoyed picking fun colors to paint their leaves. Some students also had some time to create their own haunted house. They did a great job adding some spooky details!

Second Grade:

We had fun this month making fun ghosts with candy falling out of their mouths. Students drew their friendly ghosts then we did an oil pastel pattern around the outside of the ghost. We rubbed the oil pastels to give our ghosts a colorful touch! Then they drew candy falling out of the mouth of our ghosts.

Mrs. Spicer

Happy November!

In October students were learning how to type! Second and third grade students have been going to Typetastic on Information Place : https://sites.google.com/waylandunion.org/libraries/home?scrlybrkr=7286356e. They have been learning where to place their fingers to use touch typing. We will continue practicing typing in November also.

November is picture book month! So we will be talking about picture books which have won the Caldecott which is for best illustrations in a picture book. We will also have a mock Caldecott. Students will vote on which book they think has the best pictures. Then we will watch the Caldecott awards in the winter to see which books won.

The two tech wizards for October are Roman and Dean! Congratulations to you both!

Happy November and Happy Reading!

Mrs. Barnes

Media Teacher

Greetings from Music! The month of October has certainly gone fast in the music room. We have been reviewing music notes that we know and melody (solfege) words that we know. We are also learning some new music notes and melody words. Both 2nd and 3rd graders sang fall songs and used tone chimes with the songs. We also have been moving our bodies to simple songs. And since it was October we had fun singing Halloween songs and using boomwhackers. The 3rd graders got a special treat for Halloween by using glow sticks as rhythm sticks (see the picture).

Click below for the PE Newsletter from

Once a month, Miss M our School Social Worker goes into classrooms and teaches different Social Emotional Skills. Last month, Miss M taught students about Mindfulness. This is being present on purpose to what is going on right now. We learned that Mindfulness can be a helpful tool to use when feeling uncomfortable feelings. Students listened to a Read Aloud, and then practiced two Mindfulness activities as a class. If you would like to practice these at home, below are the visuals with the instructions!

Belly Breathing:

Pretend there is a ballroom inside your belly. As you take a deep breath in, pretend your belly is a balloon blowing up with air. Feel your belly getting bigger as you breathe in. As you let the air out, the balloon deflates. Blow up and deflate the balloon belly 3-4 times.

5 senses superhero:

This exercise follows our 5 main senses, and introduces students to noticing each sense. Here is a visual you can practice at home with them!

Steeby Elementary is looking for volunteers for our School Supercat Store! Once a month, students get a chance to spend their supercat tickets that they earn for good behavior at our store. There are many different prizes that they get to choose from! We need parent and family volunteers to assist with helping students shop, counting their tickets, and setup/clean up. Please sign up for a day or time, we would love to have you! Any questions feel free to email Ms. M at millermadaje@waylandunion.org or Mrs. Bailey at baileyk@waylandunion.org

We are looking to welcome in parents, grandparents, relatives, community members to volunteer in our cafeteria during breakfast or lunch, and on our playground to help out! See the flyer. You can also find the form to fill out if you are interested.

Below is a link to Title 1 informational presentation from our title 1 teacher Mrs. Terrell. For questions or more information, please reach out to her at terrellj@waylandunion.org !

Follow us online to see the fun things we share each week!

Please note that comments and questions may not be answered. Please direct questions to the appropriate areas - teachers, principal, or office. Thank you!

PLEASE start using the tags that were sent with students in October. If you need replacement or additional tags, please email your student's teacher and we can get those tags. These tags will help the line keep moving and help when inclement weather arises. Thank you for helping with the pick up process!

Our school day schedule runs from 8:45am to 3:45pm daily. The half day schedule runs from 8:45am to 11:45am. Students are expected to be in class by 8:45am each day.

Morning Drop Off is from 8:35 to 8:45, with students needing breakfast entering at 8:35 and the other students lining up until 8:40 when classrooms open. Please DO NOT drop off students in the morning and drive away until a staff member appears at the door at 8:35. Drop off doors close at 8:45.

End of the day pick up is between 3:45 and 3:55. Please display pick up tags! For safety reasons, please commit to staying in your vehicles and using the drive up process. We want to avoid students and parents walking all around and through our vehicle line. After 3:55, any late pick ups will be walked back to the office to await their pick up.

We understand that schedules change and you student may need to be picked up early. All requests for end of day pick up must be made to the office NO LATER THAN 3:15pm. Requests made after this time may not be able to be accommodated.

Students are expected to be in class by 8:45am each day. Students will be marked tardy if they arrive after this time. PLEASE NOTE: Students who arrive to school AFTER 9:00am are marked HALF DAY ABSENT.

Students are expected to complete the school day which ends are 3:45pm. If the need arises for a student to leave BEFORE 3:30pm, they will be marked HALF DAY ABSENT. Students who leave between 3:30pm and 3:45pm will be marked AFTERNOON TARDY.

If your student needs to miss school because of illness, or necessary appointment, please contact the office at (269) 792-2281. If you call outside of normal business hours there will be an option to leave a message. If we don't hear from you, your student will be marked unknown and you will receive a follow-up call from the school.

Parents who wish to enter the school for any activities, volunteer opportunities, or field trips, must have an active ICHAT background check on file. ICHAT background checks are good for 1 year from submission date and cover schools in the entire district. That means if you have students in multiple buildings across the district, you only need to fill out ONE ICHAT form. ICHAT request forms can be filled out on our website, www.waylandunion.org. Click Parents/Students > Parent Quick Links > ICHAT Request Form, or simply click the button below to get started!

Did you know that Steeby Paper Gator gets funding for the paper that we collect for our school? Please start saving your paper at home and bring it in to the Gator, it will help us to earn money for Steeby!! Anyone in the community can deposit the items listed below in the Paper Gator. The Paper Gator is located behind Steeby in the wooden fenced in area. The Paper Gator will be the green dumpster.

Here is a list of what we CAN take in the Paper Gator:

-Newsprint
-Catalogs/Magazines
-Junk Mail
-Phone Books
-Office/School paper
-Hard and soft cover books
-Paperboard (Grocery Item boxes, NOT cardboard)
-Standard staples & paperclips are ok
-Shredded paper (preferred in CLEAR plastic bags)

Here are some of the community flyers. See more information at https://wayland.revtrak.net/

Steeby Elementary

435 E. Superior St.

Wayland, Mi 49348

(269) 792-2281

Principal: Karri Bailey

baileyk@waylandunion.org

Secretary: Amy Mohr

mohras@waylandunion.org