Miller Elementary Weekly Update

Hello Miller Families!

We had a fun week at Miller with Right to Read Week, Donut Days, Preschool Music & Literacy Night and everyone visited Camp-Read-A-Lot to celebrate filling our school wide Pom Pom jar! We want to thank our PTO and volunteers for helping to make our Donut Days such a success!

We also had a great time celebrating the love of reading with all our classmates throughout the week! Thank you for helping your child come to school with a fun outfit, stuffed animal or even a beach towel! I also want to thank all our volunteers who helped at Camp Read-A-Lot where children had a chance to fish, make a craft, and enjoy a tasty treat by the campfire! What did your child enjoy the most from this past week?

I want to remind everyone that we will have our Kindergarten Music Performances on Tuesday, April 9th during the school day! Please see the schedule below so you know what time your child will be performing.

We hope everyone has a safe and fabulous spring break whether you are staying at home or traveling far away! As a reminder, we will return on Tuesday, April 2nd!

Warmly,

Maria Goodman

Miller Elementary School - Principal

330-562-6199

Email mgoodman@aurora-schools.org

According to the 3-21 foundation, together we can create a single global voice advocating for the rights, inclusion, and well-being of people with Down syndrome in our community and around the world! Every year, on March 21st, people all around the world come together to celebrate World Down syndrome Day by wearing brightly colored, mismatched socks. March 21st is symbolic because people with Down syndrome have 3 copies of their 21st chromosome. Socks were chosen because the karyotype of DS chromosomes actually looks like mismatched socks.

Check out how we "Rocked our Crazy Socks" to support children, adults, brothers, and sisters who rock the extra chromosome and teach us all about inclusivity, diversity, kindness, and friendship. We proudly support inclusive classrooms in the Aurora Schools that benefit all children! Check out some of our crazy socks to celebrate 3-21 day!

March

• Monday, 3/25-Monday, 4/1 - NO SCHOOL (Spring Break)

April

• Tuesday, 4/2 - School Resumes After Spring Break
• Monday 4/8 - Eclipse Day - No School
• Tuesday, 4/9 - Kindergarten Music Concerts - (Schedule is Listed Above)
• Week of April 15th- Kindergarten Screening During AM/PM Preschool Times
• Friday, 4/26 - No School

With the warmer temperatures this week, our students enjoyed some messy recess time! Although we make parts of our outdoor play areas off-limits, little children seem to find the mud from time to time.

1: Please make sure your child has a change of clothes in their backpack. This includes extra socks and underwear. They often feel more comfortable in their own clothing.

2: Our clinic is running low on pants. If your family has a pair of girls or boys pants that your child has out grown and you would be willing to donate to our school, we would appreciate any donations. Please send in washed items labeled "Extra Clinic Clothes" and we will put them to good use. Thank you!

Happy March, Miller Families! These past few weeks at school have been filled with classroom guidance lessons focused on personal body safety, diversity, and coping skills. “Miss Becca” from Townhall II delivered an age-appropriate lesson to our Kindergarteners that participated to teach and remind them about safe body choices. You likely saw her letter travel home in your student’s green take home folder to use as a talking point. In addition, during our next classroom guidance lesson, we listened to the read-aloud, The Judgemental Flower by Julia Cook, to focus on celebrating diversity. I absolutely love reading this book with Kindergarten students as they are most certainly always the first to include, help and care for their classmates. It’s a nice reminder this time of year that our differences are what make us special and should be celebrated. Please enjoy this link to K-2 Diversity & Inclusion Literature for Families where you can access books from the library for your students to enjoy! Finally, we are still mastering our coping skills! This week or next, your student will be sharing coping strategies that work best for them. They’ll be bringing home a sheet of coping skills they have selected to try to use when they experience big emotions in hopes they can become a bit smaller. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or if I can help support your student in any way!

Lindsey Ambrosia

Miller School Counselor

330-562-6199, ext. 5414

This is a reminder that we are using our Miller Attendance and Parent Pick-up Form as an easy communication tool to report your child will be absent or you need to pick them up from school early. You still need to use the Alternative Bus Stop Form linked in this newsletter if you need your child's bus to change. You do not need to report if they will not be riding the bus in the morning due to an absence or illness on this form.

If you want to change your child from a bus rider to a parent pick-up, please scan the QR code below or click the button to fill out our Google form. This can be done from any device and your reply will be sent immediately to our secretary, Mrs. Wolf.

If you need an alternative bus stop or a change in busing, we also have attached the transportation forms to change your child's busing information. These forms need to be completed and sent to our transportation department at transportationinfo@aurora-schools.org

As a reminder, you can send in cash or check made out to the Aurora City Schools and we will add any amount to your child's lunch account. Please send in money in a clearly labeled envelope so we know to add this amount to your child's account!

We wanted to be sure to let our families know that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has changed the guidelines for dealing with COVID-19. In short, they have dropped the five-day isolation period and requirement to stay at home followed by another five days of masking. Instead, they are encouraging everyone to stay home when they are sick until their symptoms are improving and they are fever-free for 24 hours.

This change aligns to our expectations for keeping your child at home when they are ill until symptoms are improving and they are fever-free without fever-reducing medication for 24 hours. Going forward, we still need parents to call their children off of school if their child is going to be absent from school and to let us know if the child has COVID-19. We will continue to follow our policy of notifying parents in PreK-5 classrooms if a communicable disease such as COVID, pink eye, strep throat, etc. is present in their child’s classroom. The difference will be that a young person will not be required to stay home/isolate for five days if they do have COVID-19 and will not be required to mask upon their return for five days.

Thank you for your cooperation over the last four years to help us to provide a safe learning environment for all. We will continue to keep the lines of communication open with families if health concerns arise, but with these new guidelines from the CDC we will modify our approach concerning COVID-19. If you would like more information on this change please click on the links below.

About Preventing Spread of Respiratory Virus (CDC website)

https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/prevention/precautions-when-sick.html

CDC Drops 5 Day COVID-19 Restrictions (NPR Article)

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/01/1235340502/covid-cdc-isolation-5-days-masks-ventilation-hand-washing

Hello Miller Families!

Below are your AEPTO updates.

1. Wednesday, April 3rd - Our next AEPTO meeting is at 6:30pm at the Aurora Conference Center (C&I Building, 119 W Pioneer Trail). We hope to see you there!

2. A BIG thank you to our Donut Days Chairs, Jennifer Busch and Tara Motheral, for planning this amazing event!! Also, thank you to all the parents who volunteered to help us pass out donuts and clean up. We appreciate all the help!

3. Thank you to all the families who purchased flowers for our spring fundraiser. We raised $5,943! Flower pick up will be Saturday, May 4th. More information to follow.

4. Wednesday, March 27th 2:30pm-4:30pm - The AEPTO is excited to announce our next family event at Akron Children's Museum! Please see the flyer below for event details. Tickets are on sale now through Schoolze or our website at https://auroraelementarypto.org/fundraisers. All proceeds raised at this event will go directly to Miller Elementary. All of our elementary school families are invited!

5. April 25th - AEPTO's Mother Son Event at Fun 'n' Stuff from 5:00pm-8:00pm! Tickets are on sale April 2nd.

Important Upcoming Dates

3/27 - AEPTO Akron Children's Museum Event

3/25 - 4/1 - No school, spring break

4/2 - Mother Son event tickets on sale

4/3 - AEPTO meeting 6:30pm

4/8 - No school

4/25 - Mother Son Event

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Jen

auroraptomesvp@gmail.com

mgoodman@aurora-schools.org

Principal

Vicki Wolf

vwolf@aurora-schools.org

Secretary

Email: mgoodman@aurora-schools.org
Website: aurora-schools.org
Location: 646 S Chillicothe Rd, Aurora, OH 44202, USA
Phone: 330-562-6199