Welcome back, Miller School families! 

We hope everyone had a wonderful summer and is ready for another exciting year of learning, growing, and making memories together. Our halls are once again filled with smiling faces, new friendships, and the energy that makes Miller School such a special place to be!

This year, we are excited to take our learning Around the World in 180 Days! 🌎✈️ Throughout the school year, we will explore different cultures, places, traditions, and experiences while celebrating the many things that make our world—and our Miller School community—so unique. We can't wait to see where our journey takes us!

As we begin our adventure, our September Skill is Relationships: Building Friendships & Inclusivity. We will focus on welcoming others, making new friends, showing kindness, and making sure everyone feels that they belong. What better way to start our journey than by building a strong and caring Miller School community?

We are also looking forward to seeing our families at Back to School Night on Wednesday, September 30th at 6:30 PM! This is a wonderful opportunity to meet your child's teachers, learn more about the year ahead, and connect with our Miller School staff. We can't wait to see everyone there!

Here's to a fantastic school year filled with curiosity, kindness, friendship, and adventure. Let's make every day count as we travel Around the World in 180 Days!

Welcome back, Miller School! Let's SOAR into an amazing year! 🌎💙

Warmly,

Jim Battersby

Miller School is kicking off a new school-wide positive incentive plan that connects perfectly with our theme, “Around the World in 180 Days!”

Each homeroom teacher will receive a Miller Passport for their class. Homerooms can earn passport stamps from Administration for demonstrating our SOAR expectations—Safety, Ownership, Accountability, and Respect—and for achieving perfect attendance.

As homerooms fill their passports with stamps, they will reach exciting destinations along the way! Once a passport is completely filled, the class will earn a fun event or special prize together.

It’s all about teamwork, positive choices, and celebrating our students for doing their part to make Miller a great place to be.

Dear Miller Families, We are proud and pleased to announce that it's time to sign up for Miller Choir! Joining our Miller Choir will give students who love to sing an extra opportunity to perform! Choir rehearsals will be scheduled during the school day. Members of the Miller Choir must meet the following requirements: -Love to sing and always try your best!!!! ♫♪♫♪♫ -Signed Permission Slip/Google Form (by a parent or guardian) -Exhibit excellent behavior (poor or disruptive behavior will not be tolerated) -Have a solid academic standing (Classroom Teacher must sign off on this) -Follow the Miller Choir Rehearsal Schedule Please scan the QR code and fill out this permission slip to AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. 

Students in Mrs. Andrews and Mrs. Keiner’s classes are raising monarch butterflies!  In late August and early September, Mrs. Andrews paid a visit to Miller School GT teacher Miss Hunt’s house because she has milkweed plants in her garden.  Milkweed is the host plant for monarch caterpillars, and it is a vital food source for them.  In past years, Mrs. Andrews has collected caterpillars from Miss Hunt to raise and release with her classes, but this year, Miss Hunt’s milkweed yielded close to 70 caterpillars of various sizes!  

Mrs. Andrews brought the caterpillars into school, and the students have been able to watch them munch on milkweed and then continue with their life cycle and form chrysalises right in their classroom. Unfortunately, only a few emerged from their chrysalises so far though. This is because of a beneficial garden insect called the Tachinid Fly.  These flies are actually a natural pest remover in your garden. However, they do not differentiate between beneficial or harmful garden insects, so many of the monarch caterpillars fell prey to them.   

So far, though, the students were able to release three butterflies to send them on their 3,000 mile migration to Mexico.  These butterflies will stay in Mexico for the winter and begin their return flight sometime in March of next year to begin the next generation of monarchs.  Hopefully, more will emerge and will be able to be sent on their way as well!

Every week, Team 4 participates in a Day 4 Team Building activity that gives students the opportunity to build relationships with peers from other classrooms. Sometimes we head outside, sometimes we stay inside, and sometimes we work together on a community service project. This week, with the weather looking a little unsettled, Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Keiner, Mrs. Iannelli, and Mr. Baldwin’s classes gathered in the cafeteria for mindful coloring, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Dot games. These simple activities gave students time to talk, laugh, and connect with one another. Most importantly, our Team 4 activities help students practice communication, sportsmanship, teamwork, and friendship!

The students in Ms. Ims's and Ms. Franco's math class had a hands-on learning experience while practicing place value. Flip charts and board games sure make learning math more fun!

Mrs. Scheibein's classes have been working on place value, teamwork, and error analysis. The groups got a stack of cards with two different student responses. They had to work together to figure out which student was incorrect and discuss what they did wrong. We have also been working on place value. The students each had a number then had to build that number with correct placement, as well as the commas. 

Mrs. Wenner's student teacher Ms. Corson from Rowan University is holding a 5th grade GaGa Ball Tournamennt. It is a single elimation tournament where each homeroom will play an elimation round with one winner to represent their homeroom. The winners will then move on to the next round. The students have really been enjoying the competitive nature of the tournament. Many students stick around after they get out to cheer on their classmates. 

SOARing Beyond The Classroom

We are excited to launch a new initiative at Miller that celebrates the amazing accomplishments our students achieve outside of school! Our students are involved in so many meaningful activities in our community, and we want to recognize those moments that reflect dedication, perseverance, leadership, and growth.

This recognition is intended for significant accomplishments, achievements, or awards—such as earning a notable honor or being recognized by an organization, team, or program. Please fill out the SOARING FORM form below by the end of the month for the student to be recognized the following month.

Selected accomplishments will be highlighted on our TVs located throughout the building to help us celebrate our students’ hard work and successes. Thank you for partnering with us to lift up these special moments and help our Eagles continue to soar!