Miller Elementary Weekly Update

Hello Miller Families!

We had such a fun day celebrating filling our PBIS POM POM JAR! Your Superheros and Princesses had a lot of fun and looked so adorable! Thank you for helping to make this a great day by finding a costume or making a cape. As I shared, Officer Tony Tritto and Officer Alex Libertucci also joined in on the fun to discuss the importance of safety during fall activities. You can ask your child what they know about stranger safety, having a flashlight, and asking adults about eating any treats. We appreciate our collaboration with the Aurora Police Department!

One of the deeply rooted practices that we honor at school is the idea that we focus on the process of learning and not just the end product. During this time of the year, many children are learning how to successfully put on their jacket and zip it up. This takes time and practice and we show children an example of the steps to follow to have success. They will experience a little bit of a productive struggle when that sleeve is stuck or the zipper won't zip, but it's important that we have them try, try and try again. This also includes helping them with packing up and zipping up their bookbag. They are learning how to do this independently at school each day so please allow them to practice this at home too! I know it is easier as a busy mom myself to help and get out the door, but remember to stay focused on the process of learning and not just the end product! This is the perfect time to start practicing for winter zipper season. Try sending your child with a zip-up hoodie that they have to zip up each day. Very soon, they will be independently zipping up their jacket and you'll be buzzing out the door on time, each day!

School pictures have arrived and all picture packages have been passed out to anyone that placed an order. Our picture retake day will be on Tuesday, November 14. This will be an opportunity for first time pictures as well as any retakes. More information about how to send them back or re-order will be shared closer to the date. The class composite will be sent home once Ripcho has all retakes wrapped up and every child can be included.

Finally, this is a friendly reminder that we are heading into a 4-day weekend with NO SCHOOL on Friday, October 13th and Monday, October 16th. We have our staff professional development day on Monday the 16th to continue to grow our skills that we can bring back to our classrooms.

Have a great weekend!

GO GREENMEN!

Maria Goodman

Miller Elementary Principal

330-954-2189

Email mgoodman@aurora-schools.org

October

• Wednesday, 10/11 - PTO Meeting at 10:00 AM - Aurora Conference Center
• Friday, 10/13 - No School - NEOEA Day
• Monday, 10/16 - No School - Teacher In-Service Day
• Thursday, 10/19 - Parent Teacher Conferences (Scheduled with Classroom Teachers)
• Tuesday, 10/24 - Parent Teacher Conferences (Scheduled with Classroom Teachers)
• Tuesday, 10/31 - Fall Festival & Costume Parade (More Information Forthcoming)

November

• Wednesday, 11/1 - PTO Meeting
• Thursday, 11/2 - K-3 Parent Curriculum Night - More Information Forthcoming
• Tuesday, 11/14 - Picture Retake Day
• Wednesday, 11/22- Sunday 11/26 - Thanksgiving Break - No School
• Monday, 11/27 - School Resumes

It is hard to believe how quickly the beginning months of the year are passing by! Each fall, we spend time connecting with families either with a parent-teacher conference or parent-school team meeting. Conferences will be offered on Thursday, October 19th and Tuesday, October 24th. There may be some additional days and times and your child's teacher will communicate more specific information. This year, conferences will be held at school with your child’s teacher, but if that does not work for your family schedule, you can discuss other options with your child's teacher such as a phone conference or virtual meeting. We are very excited to meet with each of you to share all of the successes your child has experienced since starting preschool or kindergarten and what we have in store for the months ahead!

This year, we want to celebrate the fall season with our students as well as enjoy the traditions of dressing up in costumes at school. We want to share some of the guidelines that we will be implementing for our Fall Parties so you can plan accordingly.

Preschool Fall Festival: Tuesday, October 31st, 10:15AM & 2:00PM

Kindergarten Fall Festival: Tuesday, October 31st, 10:15AM (AM Kinder) & 2:00PM (Full Day & PM Kinder)

• At Miller, we are asking that your child brings their costume to school in a bag and they will change before our party times. If your child needs to wear a portion of their costume (specific pants, leggings, or shirt) throughout the day, that is perfectly OK. Please advise that costumes need to be functional, school safe, no weapons can accompany a costume, and no full face coverings.
• We will be working with our PTO headroom parents to plan fun games or activities, and specific visitors will be allowed into our school for the Fall Festival Party. All visitors will be checking in and no other siblings or guests will be able to attend. Thank you for your cooperation.

• We will have a weather-permitting outdoor costume parade where you can come up to the school and view all your wonderful children! A specific map will be shared closer to the date of our party but you can expect it to start at 10:15 for AM classes and 2:00 for PM/Full Day classes. If the weather conditions are poor, the outdoor parade will be canceled and we will not hold an indoor event.
• The PTO will be supplying a sweet treat for our party and more information about the snack will be forthcoming.

Please advise that our costume guidelines may be different from the other buildings. Our children will not be wearing their costumes all day due to some challenges with restroom breaks throughout the day. We have learned from past experience that many costumes zip and snap in the back and children cannot manage this in the restroom independently.

We are currently accepting names of families interested in having their child be a part of our integrated preschool program for the current 2023-2024 school year. We still have openings in preschool and we will be holding screening days to meet potential children and explain more about our program. In addition, if you know of any families who might be interested in their child being a part of our preschool program, please feel free to pass this message along!

We have attached the preschool waiting list form below so we can collect the names of all interested families. We will reach out to families in the next week or two when we host our screening days. Children must be 3 years old, potty trained, have clear communication skills, and demonstrate age-expected social and emotional skills to be considered as a peer for our integrated program. If you have any questions, you can email Lauren Barker at lbarker@aurora-schools.org.

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

1- I'm happy/sad/tired/frustrated/excited - (help your child name their feelings.)

2- Can I play with you?

3- No, thank you.

4- I'll let you know when I'm done.

5- Can I have a turn with that when you're done?

For our children developing language skills, use short sentence structures:

1 - Help please.

2- Turn please.

3- My turn.

4- More please.

5- No, thank you.

Our PBIS skill is reinforced with a Greenmen Proud Pom. When we see a child "being a kind friend or using kind words" they earn a pom and help to fill our class bucket and school bucket. You can try this at home to encourage the skill of kindness at home too!

Welcome to October! As this month comes around each year, I take it as a sign that we are familiar with our school routines and beginning to become more comfortable inside our classrooms. It’s a great time to consider the way we and others feel inside our classroom. October is National Bullying Prevention month across our country. At Miller, we are focusing on how we can use kindness with our peers, especially during recess. Please consider using the Kindness Challenge at home as a talking point with your family. It’s a great reminder of small tasks we can complete to let those around us know we care. When we transition into Fall, as parents, we find ourselves moving from one activity to the next in order to benefit our children. It’s important to remember to take care of ourselves, too. Included is an article to remind all parents that self-care is key to survival. It’s what keeps us moving and at our best. The stress ball activity may be of interest to your family during one of our longer weekends coming up. Finally, during classroom guidance lessons, when focusing on how to be safe and have fun on the playground, the Kindergarteners and I discussed a few different things we could try when we weren’t exactly sure what to do on the playground. If you show them our playground visual below, they should be able to tell you all about it! This plan should work for any unstructured play time. Enjoy!

Kindness Challenge

20 Micro (Yet Mighty) Self-Care Challenges That Make Any Day Better

5 Easy Steps to Make a DIY Stress Ball

Plan for Play

Mrs. Lindsey Ambrosia

School Counselor

lambrosia@aurora-schools.org

330.562.6199, ext. 5414

Here are some important reminders to ensure the safety of our school community each day:

• Check your child each day for illness symptoms. If they begin to feel ill, please know she will assess your child and make contact with a family member when necessary.
• Students sent home with a fever or vomiting, may not return to school until they are fever or vomit-free without medication for at least 24 hours. This means if your child was sent home on Tuesday with a fever, he/she may not return to school until Thursday. If your child does return the next day, our school will be calling for you to come and pick him/her up. Please help to support our efforts in this area.
• We will use Final Forms to communicate any health concerns or communicable diseases that may arise in your child's class. Such examples include strep throat, pink eye, and COVID. This will allow you to closely monitor your child for any similar symptoms.
• Please make sure your Final Forms medical information is up to date. We will closely read the health sections to address any medical concerns.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email our school nurse Jackie Pawlowski at jpawlowski@aurora-schools.org.

Hello Miller Families!

Below are the AEPTO updates for this week:

1. Thank you to all who attended our AEPTO meeting this month. Our next meeting is Wednesday, November 1 at 6:30pm in the Aurora Conference Center (119 W Pioneer Trail). We hope to see you there!

2. Ol'Chefski's Community Event - Stop in on Sunday, October 15 from noon-3pm (or until sold out) and Ol'Chefski's will donate 20% of proceeds to the AEPTO!

3. The Giving Pump has ended! Thank you to all who participated. We raised a little over $1000!

4. Save the Date - Miller's Book Fair is November 6-10! Our Family Night is Tuesday, November 7th from 5:00-7:30pm in Miller's gym. More information is coming soon!

5. Save the Date - AEPTO's Princess Prom will be Saturday, January 27, 2024!

6. Box Tops! Another easy way to help out our schools. Just download the app and then scan your receipts to earn box tops.

7. Class "A" shirts arrived last week and were distributed throughout the week. We know there were some order issues and we are working closely with RDP to fix those. Please know RDP is working very hard to resolve all issues and get shirts to you ASAP. If you have an issue with your order and haven't reached out to myself or our President, Stacy, please do so as soon as possible.

Important Upcoming Dates

10/13 - No School

10/16 - No School

10/19 - Teacher Conferences

10/24 - Teacher Conferences

10/31 - Fall Festival & Costume Parade

11/1 - AEPTO Meeting 6:30pm

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Jen

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