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.

Pumpkin Carving Nights

Photography by Bev Iannucci

All Miller-Driscoll students will find a beautiful warm WELCOME to our Pumpkin Carving Nights as they walk past the window of the Outdoor Learning Center. The children are so excited when they are walking past the cheerful exhibit to their classes. Pam Nobumoto brought the wreath, mums, cornstalks, haystack, pumpkins, and boots to decorate the stage of the OLC. As always, the Key Club assisted the Tiffany Tecce Family and the PTA in cleaning out the pumpkins which some parents had ordered and were ready to be carved. Our families were asked to bring a cleaned out pumpkin, carving tools, flashlight , and a donation for the Wilton Food Pantry to replenish the Food Pantry shelves.

Debbie Lynch, Stephanie Gordon, Mimi Fredericks and Sarah Simmons planned the evening activities and represented the PTA. The PTA team of mothers planned to supervise each evening and orchestrate the serving of the Popcorn and Apple Cider.

Outdoor Learning Center

Kindergarten Students studying the Five Senses at the Outdoor Learning Center

Photography by Bev Iannucci

Our award winning Outdoor Learning Center was recently visited by a team of Ridgefield teachers and parents interested in developing an Outdoor Learning Center. The team was eager to see how curriculum lessons can be supported in a natural habitat, promoting authentic learning experiences. Our wonderful OLC volunteers; Jennifer Hulse, Laura Martins, Pam Nobumoto, Laurie Pierro, Janet Siegel and Nicole Thornbough spent a rainy day preparing for the visit by raking, planting and placing pumpkins and mums to welcome our visitors. Jen, Pam and Nicole then graciously participated in the presentation and tour of the OLC.
The OLC has been honored by being named as the BEST outdoor schoolyard habitat in Connecticut by the National Wildlife Federation. The OLC notably incorporates nature and the environment into the Miller-Driscoll curricula. Our Science Instructional Leader Jane Giresi uses the OLC when teaching Kindergarten students in experiments exploring the Five Senses.
We were all privileged when Erin Woolard, the original designer of the OLC, gave a presentation to the group describing the vision and early beginnings of the OLC. Erin beautifully detailed the purpose and the dream of providing a natural environment for learning for all our Miller-Driscoll students.
Our entire Miller-Driscoll community sincerely appreciates that this beautiful resource for our students is maintained all year by our generous OLC volunteers.