Neshaminy School District

Walter S. Miller Elementary School Troy Bodolus, Principal

Office 215.809.6360 Nurse 215.809.6366 Guidance 215.809.6365

www.neshaminy.org

October 2016 Newsletter

ICE CREAM SOCIAL What a tremendous crowd we had at our annual PTO Ice Cream Social

on Friday, September 23rd! Our Miller students and their families

joined us for an evening of ice cream, with ALL the toppings, and

LOTS of dancing and fun! Of course, an event like this would not

be possible without the support of the entire Miller School Communi-

ty! Many thanks to the PTO, parents, staff members and students who

helped out!

All 4 first grade classrooms celebrated Johnny Appleseed’s birthday. In

honor of John Chapman, the students brought in sliced apples to make and

eat homemade, yummy applesauce! They also brought in a whole apple to

make math graphs and complete some creative writing projects and book

reports. It was a fun way to

learn about an American

pioneer! During the month

of September the students

have been reading stories

about Johnny Appleseed

and the legacy he left in

America!

The boys and girls who read and wrote over

the summer were invited to a celebration to

recognize their fine efforts. We had record-

breaking numbers of students participating in

the Reading Celebration this year. Thank

you to all the parents who supported their

child in this worthwhile academic endeavor.

Let’s hope this is a SUPER year for all!

Summer Reading & Writing Superheroes “I Read.” “I Write.” These are the Super Powers of many Walter Miller students.

Welcome to the new school year at Walter Miller

Elementary! The start of the new school year can

be a wonderful, exciting time for families. By this

time, most children are settled into the routine of

school. Establishing expectations and procedures at

home is often helpful with daily tasks such as

homework completion, checking the school/teacher

websites for upcoming events/information and bed-

time routines. Most of us have busy households

filled with activity schedules, chores, and errands.

Mealtime is an important time of the day when

families can connect and communicate. This is of-

ten the only time of day when everyone in the

house has the opportunity to sit down together and

talk. Try to use this time (even if it is only a few

times per week) to discuss topics that your child is

studying in school, explore his/her

interests, and to highlight your child’s accomplish-

ments you have observed that day or week. Just

communicating to your child that school is im-

portant to you, as parents, will encourage your

child to value what he or she is learning at school.

I hope that all of our Miller families are off to a

great start to the school year. If any of you have

any questions or concerns, please feel free to con-

tact me at 215-809-6365 or via e-mail at cconnol-

ly@neshaminy.k12.pa.us.

Mrs. Cynthia Connolly

Many of you might hear that your that your kindergarten through sec-

ond grade student was DIBELED. What is DIBELS you ask? DIBELS,

short for The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills are a

set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of early

literacy skills from kindergarten through sixth grade. They are de-

signed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly

monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills.

DIBELS are comprised of seven measures to function as indicators of

phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency with

connected text, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. DIBELS were

designed for use in identifying children experiencing difficulty in ac-

quisition of basic early literacy skills in order to provide support early

and prevent the occurrence of later reading difficulties.

DIBELS TESTING

WALTER MILLER SCHOOL—OCTOBER NEWSLETTER

Check out my website —

www.neshaminy.org. Go to

the Walter Miller School on

the dropdown menu. Then

click on “Staff”. Click

Krayer, Mr. Robert. The website has infor-

mation and computer activities for our stu-

dents. The games and activities are designed

as learning tools that are related to our pro-

gram.

It’s important that children come to physical

education class prepared to move. Sneakers

are a must. Please keep jewelry at home. If

a student cannot take physical education due

to illness or an injury a note must be sent in

to the nurse. The nurse will inform the P.E.

teacher.

WHAT ARE OUR STUDENTS DOING

THIS MONTH?

Our kindergarten and first grades are learn-

ing our movement themes such as hopping,

galloping, skipping, over, under, around, and

through. An important concept is to move

around the gym and avoid bumping into oth-

er people. Our game activities are using

these skills to reinforce our children’s learn-

ing.

Our second and third grades are being in-

troduced to the various activities that can

be played at recess. My goal is to have stu-

dents look at traditional activities on the

playground and change the game to make it

work for their situation.

Mini kickball instead of

large group kickball is

more productive and

provides more activity

for our students. Dodge

ball is no longer played

in Physical Education

and I discourage its use

at school.

The fourth grade is involved with our dis-

trict bicycle safety unit. Each year children

throughout the country are injured or killed

because of unsafe riding practices. Our

goal of the bike unit is to make our stu-

dents safe riders. Our bikers will know

proper hand signals while riding and know

how to follow traffic signs. Defensive rid-

ing is always stressed. It’s important for

you, the parents, to reinforce these expecta-

tions at home. It’s your child’s safety.

If you have any questions, please email me

at rkrayer@neshaminy.k12.pa.us. I can

either respond to your email or call you

back.

Students must wear helmets while riding bikes

to and from school.

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1

2 3

4 5 Day 3

6 Day 4 7 Day 5 8

9 10 Day 1 11 Day 2 12

Yom Kippur—

School Closed

13 Day 3

Burger King

Night 4-9 pm

14 Day 4 15

16 17 Day 5 18 Day 1 19 Day 2

School Store

20 Day 3 21 Day 4

PTO Pizza

Pumpkin

Night

(More Info

to follow)

22

23 24 Day 5 25 Day 1 26 Day 2

Roadies

2 p.m.

27 Day 3 28 Day 4

29

30 31 Day 5

Halloween

Parade (details

to follow)

Walter Miller Elementary School

October 2016

NOTE: Day rotations are subject to change if school is closed unexpectedly!

Rosh Hashanah—

School Closed

PTO Book Fair

PTO Book Fair

PTO Apparel Sale October 17—28

PTO Apparel Sale October 17—28