Miller Elementary Weekly Update

Hello Miller Families!

Can you believe we have successfully finished another week of school? We appreciate your flexibility as we changed our Autumn Assessment Days after our recent storm. I'm sure your family is adjusting to the busier days and nights all while helping your child through the adjustment period of getting out the door on time each day and managing nightly routines. When your child arrives home, they might need some quiet time, maybe another snack, or possibly watching one of their favorite shows. Just like at school, you can create an after-school routine that includes the needed downtime before taking on nightly routines. If you need help with any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to reach out at any time!

This is a friendly reminder that all attendance and pick-up changes need to be communicated through our Attendance and Pick-Up Form found below which comes to Mrs. Wolf in the front office. If you email your child's teacher, they may or may not get to their email and then the office is unaware of specific details. As illness symptoms are starting to set in, please remember that if your child is feeling ill, they must be fever free for 24 hours without medication and please report their absence to the school using our form. This policy ensures they are feeling their best to be in school and it stops the spread of illness to others.

Finally, this upcoming week is Homecoming Week in the Aurora Schools! We will be having an Aurora Spirit Day on Friday, September 8th! Your child can wear their Aurora spirit wear or green and white! This is a final reminder for you to purchase your child's class t-shirt from the PTO. We will wear these shirts for special events and it's a great way to start your Greenmen T-Shirt collection!

I hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Go GREENMEN!

Maria Goodman

Miller Elementary Principal

330-954-2189

Email mgoodman@aurora-schools.org

September

• Monday, 9/04 - NO SCHOOL (Labor Day)
• Friday, 9/08 - Last Day to Order Class Shirt
• Friday, 9/08 - Aurora Spirit Day for AHS Homecoming- Wear Aurora Spirit Wear
• Wednesday, 9/13 - Miller School Picture Day

Our fall picture day is quickly approaching! All children will have their picture taken by Ripcho Studios that will be used for our school yearbook. Your family has the option to purchase a picture package using the online ordering form or a traditional form.

Please be on the lookout for a paper form that will be sent home next week or use our online link found below. If you need assistance, you can also call Ripcho's Customer Service Department at (216) 631-0664 Ext 28 or Toll Free (800) 686-7427 Ext. 28 if you have any questions.

Our Miller Elementary Code is: PD1590mill

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

This is just a friendly reminder about appropriate use of wearable devices such as Gizzmo's and Apple Watches. It is important that your child communicates with an adult at school if they need immediate assistance and refrain from reaching out to a family member during school hours. We can help them right away and we will reach out to you if there is an immediate need. We also ask that you refrain from texting or calling your child during school hours so they can remain focused throughout the school day. If we see that your child is trying to play games or is distracted by their device, we will have them place it on the teacher's desk and wear it home each day. If you have any further questions, I'd be happy to help in any way!

As students begin their educational journey, there are some state-mandated checkpoints and assessments to ensure that we are monitoring your child's growth and development. To accomplish these activities, it's best if we bring small groups of children to school to work on these various assessments.

The dates listed below show the various windows of time we will be conducting assessments.

AIMS Web Benchmarking - A 3-minute kindergarten universal screener to check your child's incoming knowledge of letters, sounds, and phonemic awareness. (August 23rd & 24th)

Speech & Language Screening - Kindergarten Students (Week of August 29th)

Your child will work one-on-one with one of our speech and language pathologists to conduct a speech and language screener.

Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA-R) - Kindergarten Students (Aug. 28th & Sept. 1st)

This assessment looks at your child’s readiness for engaging with instruction aligned to the kindergarten standards. These assessments are completed through observation in the classroom and via an interactive assessment on an iPad. Here are the skills that are checked:

• Social Foundations- including social and emotional development
• Mathematics
• Language and Literacy
• Physical Well-being and Motor Development

Vision & Hearing Screening - All Kindergarten Students (Month of September & October)

Our school nurse will conduct a vision and hearing screening on all students.

Ohio English Language Proficiency Screener - (Week of September 5th) -

Students whose families speak a 2nd language in the home as reported in Final Forms will take a language proficiency screener. This assessment is given by Mrs. Levey or Mrs. Flannery our English Learner educators.

We will communicate any results that require follow-up or reach out to you if we have any further questions. We are looking forward to getting to know your child a bit more!

There are times that young children need more time developing skills to keep a safe body and safe hands. It is important that we use consistent language at school and at home to monitor these behavioral actions. With consistent reminders about the appropriate expectations and time to practice these skills the right way, the more successful students will find using their words instead of using unsafe hands. If we reach out to your family about practicing safe hands, please remember we are all working together to help remind your child about ways to communicate and treat others. We will also share all the great choices they continue to make while at school. We have included some tips below for you to use at home.

Hello Miller! It has been such a treat to welcome your capable, adorable and kind Kindergarten and Preschool students to our wonderful school! I am honored to introduce myself as the school counselor. I am available to support students and families with needs in social emotional learning, academics and believe it or not- career exploration. Focusing on student strengths and learning about careers that help our community would be an example of how the career standard is covered in Kindergarten.

The 23-24 school year will be my nineteenth year in education. I have spent the previous years working as a classroom teacher, middle school counselor, and an elementary school counselor. Helping students is what I love to do! When I am not at school, you can usually find me at a sporting event for one of my three children: Dominic (12), Daniel (10) and Elle (10). We live right around the corner in Hudson with my husband, Brian and goldendoodle, Lila.

I encourage and welcome open-communication. During the school day, I provide individual counseling, small group counseling and classroom guidance lessons. Classroom guidance topics will be shared as they are introduced in this newsletter. Should your child be recommended for a small group or individual counseling, I would notify you in order to obtain your consent. Initially, I will ensure that all students continue to transition from summer break to their school day with ease.

This school year, I will be at Miller three days each week. Those days will typically be Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. When I am not at Miller, I’ll be very close at Leighton Elementary working with the third, fourth and fifth graders.

Next week will be a longer one for your child, so I thought it would be beneficial to share a resource this Separation Anxiety.pdf should your child experience any uncertainty when getting on the bus or out of the car. While I know it’s useful, my hope is that you can simply file this resource and not have to utilize it!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me at any time. I look forward to an excellent school year!

Mrs. Lindsey Ambrosia

School Counselor

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. Join the AEPTO! It is super easy! All you need to do is visit https://auroraelementarypto.org/join The deadline to join is October 1.

2. Our FIRST AEPTO meeting is Thursday, September 7 at 6:30pm at the Aurora Inn & Conference Center (30 Shawnee Trail). Please join us for appetizers and to discuss the upcoming school year. We hope to see many new and returning members!!

3. Class "A" shirts are now available to order online using the link below. These shirts are optional. Your child's teacher may ask your child to wear this shirt on special days. Deadline to order is September 8th! Shirts will be delivered to the classroom about 2-3 weeks after the deadline.

https://rdpsports.com/product-category/aurora/aurora-class-shirts

4. If you ordered a Class of 2036 shirt during kindergarten registration and were not able to pick it up during Meet & Greet, I dropped them off at school on Wednesday. If you ordered one and have yet to receive it, please let me know.

5. Our Mumkins fundraiser has started! Visit https://www.fundraiseit.org/ and click on the green "Online Shopping" button, and then enter your child's name and school's name to generate your order link. Make sure you enter "Aurora" for the school.

The sale ends on September 6th. You will pick up all orders for your child on September 17th in the Aurora Board of Education Office parking lot (102 E. Garfield Road).

6. The Giving Pump! When you need to get gas, make sure you use pumps 5 or 6 at the Shell gas station in Aurora! Shell will donate to the AEPTO to help our students. This is for a limited time, so look for the "Giving Pump" signs!

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

Important Upcoming Dates

9/4 - Labor Day, no school

9/6 - Mumkins sale ends

9/7 - AEPTO Kickoff Meeting 6:30pm @ Aurora Inn & Conference Center (30 Shawnee Trail)

9/8 - Class "A" shirt sale ends

9/13 - Miller Picture Day

9/17 - Mumkins pick up (Aurora Board of Education Office)

10/1 - Last day to join AEPTO

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