Miles ELC Newsletter
January 2024
Monthly Site Council and PTA Zoom Link
Location: 1400 East Broadway Boulevard, Tucson, AZ, USA
Phone: 520-225-2200
Facebook: Miles Exploratory Learning Center K-8 | Tucson AZ | Facebook
Instagram: Miles ELC (@miles_k8) • Instagram photos and videos
😀Parents, please enter your child's absence via ParentVUE😀
Upcoming Events
Monday, January 15th- Martin Luther King Jr Day -No School
Wednesday, January 17th- Tuesday, January 23rd- Scholastic Book Fair
Tuesday, January 23rd- Curriculum Night- 6:00-8:00 PM
Wednesday, January 24th- Professional Development- No School
Saturday, January 27th- Garden Work Day- 1:00-3:00 PM
Principal's Corner
Welcome to 2024, Mustangs!
I’m excited to begin the new year with all of you and continue with a great school year full of wonderful teaching and learning opportunities
We kick off this new year with one of our event favorites…..the Scholastic Book Fair! The Book Fair opens on Wednesday, January 17th. Ms. Paloma is eager to share new books with the students and remind them of the classics that have stood the test of time. The culminating event to the Book Fair is our Curriculum Night on Tuesday the 23rd. Classrooms will host literacy themed activities for you to drop in and enjoy. The Book Fair is open 30 minutes before and after the classrooms. More details are included later in the newsletter so read on!
As always, it is important for our school community to understand our need for tax credit donations. Follow the link below and select Miles for your tax donation today!
Have a great second semester Mustangs.
With Appreciation,
Principal Andrea Steele
Curriculum Night is coming up on January 24th from 6:00-8:00 PM.
The library will be open for book fair purchases from 6:00-8:00 PM, this is the final night of the book fair so make sure to stop by. All students who put their name in the raffle can win up to $25 worth of goodies from the book fair!
Classrooms will be open from 6:30-7:30 PM and each classroom will offer a different literacy focused activity. This event gives families the opportunity to see just how hard their child has worked this year and show them all of their progress.
As always, we hope to see you there!
Miles Book Fair is Back!
An eWallet is a new, digital payment option that gives students a secure, cash-free way to shop the fair. Parents can pre-authorize a spending amount online, which can be looked up or scanned at checkout. Scholastic.com/fair then look for Miles.
There is an on-line shopping website for the book fair from Jan 16th-29th. If you missed purchasing a book or couldn’t make it to the fair this is another alternative. This also allows for out-of-town relatives to purchase books for students. All online orders will be shipped directly to home. The library will receive scholastic dollars for all on-line purchases. The link is https://www.scholastic.com/bf/milesexploratorylearningctr1 . You can continue to shop throughout the year at this website and the library will receive a small portion of the sales.
We accept cash, gift cards, major credit cards and tap to pay cards. Please e-mail Patty.Mitchell@tusd1.org or Paloma.Gasque@tusd1.org if you have any questions or if we can help in any way. Thanks for your support of the library and your children
Counselor's Corner
Hello Miles Parents,
It has been a pleasure to see how much work you have all been putting in for the success of your child. They worked so hard, and they could not have done it without the wonderful guidance of their teachers and parents. It has been a wonderful and challenging year for everyone and it is so exciting to see what is in store for us for the new year. As we start the new year, we often reflect on the short-term and long-term goals we want to accomplish for the new year. When we log on to social media during this time, we see our peers/family create New Years Resolution, or we commonly see the phrase "New Year, New Me." This can mean many things such as working harder in our careers, or embarking on a path to a healthier lifestyle, or spending more time with family and friends. Sometimes we can get frustrated when our "old" and "current" self does not align to our new self, or the ideal self that we hope to become by December.
As we grow and change, we can always improve the qualities of ourselves we want to attain. Sometimes if we think that we are not "good enough", we may need to figure out where that core belief is coming from and embrace the challenges and qualities in us it takes to achieve them. Sometimes, we take our failures, and make them about who we are as a person, rather than looking at the choices and actions taken that led us to that destination. Maybe it is not us that is the problem but the tools that we are using that may need some adjusting. This will lead us to unconditional acceptance of ourselves, with the desire to enhance the wonderful aspects of who we are that already exists.
At Miles, we teach our kids to have many tools in their toolbox to solve problems they face. Some tools work more than others. If a child is upset about something at school, they just may need us to use the listening tool rather than the fixing tool. If we find ourselves afraid of trying something new or accomplishing a long task, we may need a construction blueprint of what the task looks like before we find what appropriate tools will be used. New Year, New Gear!
This month, we will be focusing on Honesty. Having honest conversations with ourselves and with each other. Social media can be a dark place of misinformation, fiction and miscommunication. This can put us at a state of unease and uncertainty. A great goal we could work on this year is to foster open communication. This creates a supportive environment where everyone feels valued and motivated to contribute something meaningful to the family haven. Try having regular family meetings to discuss your child's progress, address challenges and celebrate the great achievement the family has together. This level of clarity and honesty will help pave the adventurous wavery path to the destination we yearn to make in this journey.
We wish you all the best and have a happy new year!
Warmly,
-Alex 🙂
Garden News
Gardening is a year-round activity here in Tucson, and especially at Miles. Middle school PE and Health students celebrated the end of 1st Semester by making fresh lemonade. Elementary students returned to school from vacation excited to see growth in cilantro, radishes, and other winter veggies, plus the grapefruit finally ripened. Thank you, parents, for sending kids to school with warm clothes in which to explore safely outdoors during our cold spell. Next, watch for seeds coming home and advice on when they can grow for you at home.
The chickens stayed safely at school during vacation too! An extra thanks to staff and parent volunteers who took turns caring for our feathered friends while school was out.
Our next Garden Work Day is Saturday, January 27, 1:00-3:00 p.m. It will be an afternoon of light construction projects, winter weeding, and turning trash into treasures.
See you in the garden!
Community Liaison News
Hi Miles families! I am really excited to be back and see all of your smiling kiddos.
I am here to support families and students in many ways, provide support, connect you with resources, and more. Feel free to reach out to me anytime!
Below I have added a calendar of different classes offered at our TUSD family resource centers, contact me or any of the resource centers with any questions.
-Grace
FREE Student Enrichment Classes
The 4 Family Resource Centers in TUSD are now offering FREE classes for students. These classes are after school, and all supplies and registration are completely free.
Classes include book club, arts and crafts, computer literacy and more!
Class size is limited so register soon.
You can call your desired center to see a class list or view them with the provided link.