Mustang Memo
December Newsletter Q2 Week 8
Dear Mustang Parents, Guardians, and Community
We are so thankful for our Mustang Community!
As we move into the last few weeks of our Semester, I would like to extend a huge thank you to our community! I hope you spent time with your families over this Thanksgiving break and had time to relax and enjoy some downtime. This year, Thanksgiving came late, leaving us with only three weeks left in the quarter. We have some exciting, engaging activities planned and cannot wait to celebrate the season with you all!
We will work through this week preparing our students for end-of-the-quarter district benchmarks, family engagement opportunities, and a continuation of our Attendance goal. Please look at our December calendar and the rest of the memo for all the exciting things happening on our campus! We hope to see you at all things Miller! Let’s make the end of our first semester a fantastic and engaging experience for all as we RIDE respectfully together to success!
Katherine Sabel M. Ed
Principal
Miller Elementary School
(520)908-4204
“Teaching and learning should bring joy.”
~Rita Pierson
TOY DRIVE
We are collecting new un-wrapped toys. Now through December 20th!
We look forward to helping our community with our 2nd annual Santa's Workshop. This is a space where our Mustang Families in need can come "shop" for Christmas and spend time finding joy in the holiday season wrapping their gifts for under the tree.
Miller Community Food Bank
Thank you to all who donated! Our Mustang Community is AMAZING! We had an amazing turnout for our Student Council Food Drive. Every grade was asked to bring in non-perishable items from November 12th through the 22nd. Our Mustangs did not disappoint with 1897 cans donated!!!
We now have a Miller Community Food Bank set up for any families in need! If you need support during this holiday season please reach out to our office for support at (520)908-4200, Ms. Dianna our school community liaison is here to help you and your family's needs,
Miller Mustang Booster
Our Miller Mustang Booster Parent Group is up and running!
Thank you to our Board Members:
Mr. Joseph Perreault
Mrs. Bryanna Rodriquez Alvarez
Mrs. Dianna Rodriguez
We are excited about the many opportunities this group will bring to enhance our Miller Community. If you signed up as a member to volunteer or an active paid member, you can expect an email update and volunteer opportunities! If you haven't signed up and would like to, please pick up a Booster member form in our front office, it is never too late!
Our next meeting will be January 7, 2025 3PM in the Library. We hope to see you there!
Attendance BMX Incentive
Quarter 2 is all about setting goals to move and grow as we prepare for the BIG GAME in the spring. We are focusing on attendance, which is crucial for student success. Our goal is 90% attendance for the year. To meet this goal, students must be present for the entire learning day from 8:20 AM to 2:30 PM and should not miss more than 18 days throughout the entire school year. From 8:30 to 9:00 AM, we hold school-wide interventions. This is an essential time when students are grouped to address learning gaps or enrich their learning experiences. Please ensure your child is present for this critical learning period. We have our Blue Horseshoe challenge. Our classes are trying to earn Blue Horseshoes by having the whole class at 90% or better each week. For the months of October, November and December we have a BMX bike raffle and assembly incentive. Any class at 90% will be entered to win our BMX bike given away at our December BMX show. Make a goal to be at school, ON TIME, EVERYDAY!
Now Accepting Paint Donations
Our after-school STEAM Beautification is underway and we are planning some amazing interactive murals as our first big project! We will need paint and our amazing Culture and Art teacher Ms. Renee has done some research. She will be repurposing paint for this project.
If you have any old paint cans or painting materials hanging around please consider donating them to Miller!
After School STEAM Beautification Program Registration
We now have classes to offer each hour and there is still time to sign up. This is an opportunity for families to sign students up for specific STEAM based classes to enrich their learning experience at an individual cost. We hope to offer something for each of our students to enrich their Miller experience.
2:30-5:00
Monday: Folklorico All grades!
Tuesday and Thursday
- Culture and Art: Learn about our community and be part of the Miller STEAM Beautification Project. Project One: We are creating an interactive Mural for our Play area Ramada! Other projects consist of Portable Murals, Desert Terrarium and Garden, Courtyard sensory walks, STEAM Reading Garden and more.
- Math and ELA help
Friday
- STEAM Based learning
- Math and ELA help
Happening This Week
Interventions begin at 8:30 AM Monday through Friday
Monday
Basketball Practice:
B team 2:30-3:30
A Team till 5
Tuesday
Grades 2, 3, and 5 Writing Benchmark
Basketball Game: @Sam Hughes begins at 4PM
Wednesday
3rd Grade Parent Opt-in Gate Testing
4th Grade Writing Benchmarks
1:30 dismissal
Thursday
Basketball Game: @ White begins at 4PM
Friday
Weekly Rockstars
Basketball Practice:
B team 2:30-3:30
A Team till 5
Mark Your Calendar
December TOY DRIVE
Quarterly Benchmarks
December 10 ELA Benchmark Grades 3-5
December 11: ELA Benchmark 2nd Grade
December 12: Math Benchmark Grades 2-5
December 9-13 World Kindness Spirit Week
December 10: Winter Wonderland Family Science Night 5:30-7:30
December 11: Santa Picture Day
December 19: BMX Assembly and Bike Raffle
December 20-January 6 Winter Break NO SCHOOL
January 7 3PM Booster Club Meeting
Boy Scouts and our STEAM Beautification Program Work together
We have a new Tortoise Terrarium! Boy Scout Nico Romano partnered with Miller's STEAM Beautification program to build a Tortoise Habitat in our courtyard. Our students will now apply with Desert Museum to adopt a Tortoise in the Spring.
November Mustang of the Month
Miller Hoops
Basketball
Basketball is underway. We had over 30 students tryout! Our coach and volunteer coaches didn't want to cut and decided to run two teams. One will be a practice team (with some scrimmages) and the other will be our competitive team. We try to instill the meaning of student- athlete in all of our Mustangs. To be an athlete that competes for Miller, you must RIDE to success respectfully on and off the court: good sportsmanship, school behavior in and out of the classroom are just a few characteristics that makes a Mustang Athlete. Please know many thoughtful conversations went into who will be rostered for the Competition team but both teams are equally important. As a member of the B squad you can always be asked to participate as a member of the A squad based on your effort and the need of the team. Equally, as a member of the A team you can always be asked to play B if you are not participating in a positive productive manner.
Practices and games will be posted each week on class dojo!