Miller Elementary Weekly Update

Hello Miller Families!

Every year, I share that these days and weeks are such a fun and exciting time of year to be with your amazing children! We have been enjoying some extra projects, crafts, and activities that soon will come home and it has warmed our hearts to help your child be ready for the season of giving. We have enjoyed hearing about how you honor various holidays or traditions with your family over the past week. Our children have explored holidays around the world, heard stories from their friends, and we even had some special visitors last week and this upcoming week. Thank you for taking the time to help your child capture what is special for your family. We are looking forward to our final days of 2025 at Miller Elementary with some fun Winter Holiday Spirit days!

This upcoming week we will have our Winter Parties (Thursday for Preschool & Friday for Kindergarten) at 10:15 for morning classes and 2:00 for afternoon and full-day kindergarten classes. We want to thank all the volunteers who are planning a fun event and for coming to school next week. I have included the nutritional label for the sweet treat being served at our parties. They will offer a Rice Crispy treat to each child.

Finally, we want to wish a Happy Hanukkah to all the families that begin celebrating the holiday this Sunday! We hope your time spent with family is filled with joy and excitement. I will send out one final update next Friday filled with a bunch of pictures from our fun filled week ahead!

Warmly,

Maria Goodman

Miller Elementary Principal

330-954-2189

mgoodman@aurora-schools.org

12/12/25 Update - Our illness cases related to vomiting and upset stomach remained low throughout the past week with a few additional cases (5-6) being reported to our school nurse. Thank you for monitoring your children and keeping them home when displaying these symptoms. We watch for cases to double from day-to-day in classrooms and stay in close communication with Portage County Health District to determine any next steps. Please make sure you report the symptoms related to your child's illness in our attendance form. At this time, we are still monitoring and reporting with no further recommendations.

We have been greeted with a virus throughout our building causing a few children to become ill. Specifically, children are displaying stomach pain and vomiting. Although this is not a fun topic to discuss, this can be problematic in a building where young children are still learning how to properly wash hands and prevent the spread of viruses by touching surfaces and or their mouth, continuously.

Please be extra diligent in following our illness protocols. If your child is vomiting or has diarrhea, they must be free of symptoms for a minimum of 24 hours prior to their return. This helps to ensure your child isn't returning during the contagious period and thus continuing the spread. At school, we will be enhancing our cleaning protocols, continuing with proper hand washing routines, and spraying the classrooms with our Clorox Machine as necessary.

Can you believe the temperatures are getting cooler and snowflakes will be coming soon! Many families begin to have questions about our outdoor recess policy when it gets cold and the snow starts to fly. Our full-day students will continue to go outside if the feels like temperature is between 15 and 20 degrees or higher. We watch the weather closely as it is important for our children to get outside, run around, and enjoy some fresh air. The playground is a great place to practice social skills such as turn taking, problem solving as well as how to communicate with their friends. Plus, when the snow comes, it provides some fun experiences to build snowmen or use our sleds down our playground hills!

We recommend a warm coat, hats, gloves, snow pants, and boots (when necessary). We work with all children to help them learn how to dress themselves independently and in the correct order. (Snow pants, boots, jacket zipped, hat, and gloves are last). Please make sure all your child's items are labeled with their name. It is important that you check their book bag for an extra set of clothes and socks that match the new season. Children would rather wear their change of clothes if an accident occurs. Please have your child practice putting on their snow gear at home too!

It's that time of year when we begin to have students who meet the benchmarks of notifying families about excessive absences. If your child meets the threshold of missed hours, a letter must be sent from the school alerting you. Please also be reminded that it doesn't matter whether the absences are excused or unexcused. We have to track the hours missed regardless of the reason and communicate to you when benchmarks have been met.

This is also the time of year that planned absences often get scheduled. We have attached our planned absence form and policy. Please make sure you read through this important message and understand that planned absences and absences due to illness all count for missed hours. If you have any further questions, please let me know!

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DECEMBER

Thursday, 12/18 - Preschool Winter Celebration 10:15-11:00 & 2:00-2:45
Friday, 12/19 - Kindergarten Winter Celebration at 10:15-11:00 & 2:00-2:45
Monday, 12/22-Monday, 1/5 - NO SCHOOL (Happy Winter Break!)

JANUARY

Tuesday, 1/06 - First Day Back After Winter Break
Monday, 1/19 - NO SCHOOL (Happy MLK Jr. Day!)
Thursday, 1/29 - Miller Elementary Family BINGO Night - 6:00-7:00PM (More Information Forthcoming)

FEBRUARY

Thursday, 2/12 - Valentine's Celebration at Miller Elementary 10:15-11:00 & 2:00-2:45
Friday, 2/13 - NO SCHOOL (Staff Professional Development Day)
Saturday, 2/14 - Princess Prom
Monday, 2/16 - NO SCHOOL (Happy Presidents' Day!)
Tuesday, 2/17 - Kick Off to Kindergarten for Incoming Class of 26-27 @ 6:30 PM @ AHS (More Information will be Forthcoming in January)
Friday, 2/20 - Trimester 2 Ends
Monday, 2/23 - Trimester 3 Begins
Friday, 2/27 - GATHER Narratives for Kindergarten are LIVE for Trimester 2 (Parent Invite Letters will be sent home in February)

Hello Miller Families,

Our Kindergarteners have been busy these last months practicing expected behaviors and skills. In October, all Kindergarten classes did a wonderful job of reviewing bathroom procedures as well as practicing walking in the hallway from lunch to recess-both simple procedures, but beneficial to practice. Ask your Kindergartener how they can be a role model for others and what the expected behaviors are for each task! They’ll be sure to let you know they go, flush, wash, and leave when using the bathroom and use a calm body, walking feet, quiet voice and ensure they’re respecting the personal space of others when walking in the hallway.

November gave us an opportunity to learn about the difference between tattling & telling to encourage students to worry about themselves. In summary, Kindergarteners now know when they worry about themselves, they can focus on being responsible for their learning and FUN! Next, Kindergarteners participated in Personal Body Safety lessons provided by Townhall II.

This month, we will focus on identifying feelings and connecting what we know to the learn more about the ZONES of Regulation The ZONES of Regulation helps categorize feelings. As a Kindergarten student, your child will be able to identify how they feel and practice selecting a coping skill or strategy if they choose to feel differently. In class, we will learn that all feelings are okay! We will continue working on identifying feelings, learning new coping skills and discussing what “triggers,” or events, may cause us to feel a certain way. Please enjoy these read-alouds from The ZONES Book Nook to help your child practice identifying feelings.

Warmly,
Mrs. Lindsey Ambrosia
School Counselor
📞 (330) 562-6199, ext. 5414
📧 lambrosia@aurora-schools.org

In all our Elementary Buildings, we utilize a Google Form to report attendance, late arrival, early dismissal, and change of transportation such as switching from a bus rider to office pick-up!

To report an absence or change your child to a car rider or bus rider, please click the button below or scan the QR code magnet that we will pass out at Open House. This can be done from any device and your reply will be sent immediately to our secretary, Mrs. Toler.

If your child will be absent, you will use this form to report the absence along with the reason for the absence. We are working really hard to reduce the amount of phone calls, emails, or notes that we receive. We ask that you reserve those modes of communication for emergencies only. Thank you in advance for your help and let us know if you have any questions at all!

Click Here - 25-26 Attendance and Transportation Reporting

Alternate Bus Stop Form - Email to transportationinfo@aurora-schools.org

Click Here to View the School Lunch Menu

Click Here to Add Money to Your Child's Lunch Account

You can track your child's lunch account by setting up your profile using the login information from Open House. You may also send in cash or a check written out to the Aurora City Schools.