KINDNESS COUNTS

Our Kindergarten, First and Second grade students enjoyed the first in a series of outstanding programs entitled "KINDNESS COUNTS" on September 7, 8 and 9. The program was funded by our generous PTA. A team from the program "One Caring Adult" read a story and led a discussion with the students encompassing the themes, "BeKind, Be Wise and Be a Friend." The presentation culminated with all the students happily singing "Kindness Counts" led by a guitarist and written by the program originator Marta Koonz.

M-D YEAR AT A GLANCE 2010-11

"UNITED WE STAND"

2010-2011

The first year of Miller-Driscoll as a united school propelled students to new heights in social and academic learning. Thank you to our teachers who collaborated at every grade level to ensure equality of opportunity and the strength of the curriculum. Our end of year assessments in Literacy, Math and Science continued the trend for excellence in the achievement of our students. Socially, the concept of the cottages have unanimously received high praise from students and teachers. Students do feel a sense of belonging to their own group. Our new design with the South Kindergarten wing, the First Graders in the North wing with Second Grade centrally located made excess to students and faculty members efficient and safe. The North and South Pick-Up areas still need some creative thinking (maybe benches or some sort of cover). The schedules for the North and South cafeterias have worked well for students and teachers. Many thanks to our interns, para-professionals and parents who supervised and helped keep our children happy and safe.
We were so appreciative and motivated by the support of our parents and the outstanding contributions of our wonderful Parent Teacher Association. Thank you!

We are all looking forward to our new school year continuing to accent our united motto for the 2011-2012 school year.

"Hand in Hand, Together We Can."

2011-2012

Happy New Year "2011"

Welcome to our link with your Ed-Line News from your teachers. This is an exciting month as we anticipate new Kindergarten students registering for Fall 2011.

• Our current Kindergarteners in the Ladybug, Caterpillar and Firefly Cottages will be hosting their Parents as Reading Partners morning with the Reading Department.
• Our Principal coffee will explore the topic, "Allergies." The session will include the participation of our wonderful school nurses, Loretta Ertl and Babara Schum.
• We will read the history of Dr. Martin Luther King and observe his birthday on January 17.

Celebrating Writing at Home

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."

William Wordsworth

• READ, READ, READ great books aloud
• Be a great audience-show interest in what your child writes.
• Build on strengths-find something specific to celebrate in your child's writing
• Provide a place and tools for writing
• Look for easy, low-pressure opportunities for writing (e-mails, postcards, thank notes, etc.)
• Give your child a diary, book, notebook, magazine subscription.
• Play story-telling and word games(Scrabble, Boggle, Scattergories)
• Write something personal and share it with your child. Let them see you writing.
• ****Make a scrapbook of family stories and events.

Veteran's Day Assembly

Our Assemblies to honor our Veterans were held at 9:30 a.m. and at 2:00 p.m. The picture above shows our wonderful Music teachers, Melina Arcano, Karen Mattera and Jennifer Judge-Thiemann singing the Stat Spangled Banner in Harmony. The beautiful voices of these outstanding young musicians quieted the students and touched the hearts of all the teachers. Our Instructional Leader for Social Studies Salvatore Giaimo planned the assemblies in collaboration with our Music teachers.

The entire assembly fervently said, the Pledge of Allegiance and the children sang; "Grand Old Flag," "This Land is Your Land", "Yankee Doodle" and a rousing "United We Stand." The highlight of the show was the message that Sergeant Ray Roche of the U.S Marines gave to the students. Sergeant Roche had many medals but he told the students that he was most proud of his GOOD CONDUCT medal. We were honored to hear Sergeant Roche and gratefully show our appreciation for his service to our country.

Thank you to Beverly Iannucci for the great pictures.

Daily Wilton/BETTER SCHOOL BONANZA

Photography by Bev Iannucci

Tiffany Tecce and Jeffrey Busch represented the parents of the Miller-Driscoll PTA as they accepted a generous check from the President of Mainstreet Connect (A National Community News Company) and Thomas Cain, the Director of Communications. The Co-Presidents were thrilled that the Miller-Driscoll community gained over 100 votes to win the $500.00 prize from the Daily Wilton. T.J. Buzzeo was on hand to congratulate the school. Cheryl Jensen-Gerner, Leslie Pearson, and Sheelah Brown are grateful for all the community support of our Wilton school children.

Grade 2 PARENTS AS PARTNERS

Our third annual "Parents as Reading Partners," was held on October 20 and 21 for our Second Grade students. The Administration, the Language Arts Team comprised of Reading Specialists; Nancy Bernasek, Sandy Little, Susan Schroeder and Barbara Quist, as well as our Library-Media Specialists: Barbara Clancy and Joyce Torres and our Writing Language Arts Resource teacher Erica Tucker gave a short presentation about reading. Parents were reminded that reading is a gift and making reading enjoyable is KEY and will promote a love of reading.

Parents were invited to join their child in his or her classroom and have the fun of reading together in school. Seeing the parents and students reading together was a joy for the teachers and forged one more link in our parent-teacher partnership.