Mrs. Miller's Kindergarten Class

Hello Families,

Happy New Year everyone! We welcomed 2026 with another amazing week in K1! On Friday we celebrated our 90th day together! As one student told me,“We are halfway to first grade!” I can’t believe how much time has passed this year.

Our theme this week was snow and animal adaptations in winter. We painted snowmen, created watercolor snowflakes, and wrote about what we like to do in the snow. We read many informational books about how animals adapt to their environment in winter, and sorted animals by their adaptations. Our Friday Fine Motor centered around cutting out snowmen and tiny pictures that related to the book, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

In Reading we worked on “slide power.” Our readers discovered that after they say the sounds in a word, they can use their finger and slide it under the letters and read a word. We are continuing to read lots of readers that focus on decoding simple CVC words. We worked with the “red words”; not, got, had, and on. We also worked a lot with short /o/ word families!

In writing this week we worked with the teaching point that a writer says a sentence in their mind and then writes it, writing word by word, even counting how many words to write. Writers then go back and reread their work to make sure it makes sense and that nothing has been left out. 

In phonics we worked on segmenting words into three sounds and blended sounds together to form words. 

In social emotional learning we continued to talk about our emotions and we focused on love. We read the book Heart Strings and the students wrote and drew a picture of people in their own lives that they have an invisible string tied to! Research has found that social-emotional learning can enhance academic performance, improve classroom behavior, decrease instances of depression and increase students’ ability to manage stress. Social emotional learning continues to be an important part of our kindergarten curriculum. 

In math we began our unit on addition, and we received shapes and described a shape by its attributes.

On Tuesday, our school counselor Mrs. G. came in and presented a lesson on friendship. The children had the opportunity to create a “friendship chain” and they learned a song about being a friend. She will be working with our class for the next 5 weeks!

I received this beautiful email from Hope Solutions the organization that we helped in December. Here is the email! Thanks everyone for paying it forward to families in need in our community!

“Good afternoon,

As the holiday season comes to a close, I want to take a moment to say thank you!

Because of your generosity and compassion, this year’s Spirit of Giving program reached more people than ever before. Together, we served 982 individuals—the most in our program’s history—including 261 families, 507 children, and 136 seniors. Each number represents a person who felt seen, supported, and cared for during the holidays because of you.

Your willingness to sponsor families and seniors brought warmth, dignity, and hope into so many homes. For the children, it meant joy and excitement. For families, it meant relief and reassurance. For seniors, it meant connection and knowing they were not forgotten.

This impact would not be possible without supporters like you who believe in the power of community and giving. We are deeply grateful for your kindness and trust in our mission.

Thank you for being part of something so meaningful. We are honored to share this work with you and look forward to continuing to make a difference together.

With sincere appreciation and gratitude,”

Sandibel Arnold

Volunteer and Donations Coordinator

Thanks for all the support in and out of the classroom. 

Have an enjoyable weekend! - Kathy