Spring Celebration
The PTO’s annual Yard Sale will be March 21, featuring great deals on games, toys, books, clothing, household items, and more. Volunteers will collect hazardous household waste like paints and oils and recycle used electronics and batteries. Also on that day, Miner will welcome D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen for a ribbon cutting of the new playground and sports fields, which will be open to the public for a springtime play date. 

A Real Growth Period
Miner has formed a Green Team to lead its garden-related programming and to manage the school’s two recently renovated gardens: a large vegetable plot known as the Peace Garden and a smaller ECE pollinator patch known as the Discovery Garden. 

The Peace Garden will be replanted this spring after a long closure during Miner’s new playground construction. The Green Team will host community work days in March and April as well as a garden play date to celebrate the Peace Garden’s official reopening. It will feature tables, benches, an irrigation system, and composters acquired through a $35,000 grant from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, which has established and strengthened MIner’s garden programming over the past two years. 

Additionally, Miner is partnering with FoodCorps to have a full-time servicemember visit K–5 classrooms weekly to provide garden-related instruction and hands-on experiences. Miner also has a popular Garden Club open to K–2 students.

Yes to the Dress—and the Suit
Miner is collecting formalwear and dressy clothes, including shoes and accessories, for children pre-K to fifth grade, leading up to its Spring Dance on April 3. Donations may be brought to the school office.

Tomorrow, I Love Ya
Students have been rehearsing vigorously for the school’s spring musical, Annie Jr., with performances on May 28 and 29. Khloe Thomas will star as Annie, Kemontae Chaplin as Mr. Warbucks, and Nijayah Ross as Ms. Hannigan. Music teacher Stephen Chubb is directing.

A Heartwarming Valentine’s 
Parents and students showed their love for teachers by presenting them with roses on Valentine’s Day and distributing snacks and sweets during the month. And Capital Candy Jar supported the school by donating proceeds from a day of sweets sales to the PTO.

​The Miner Elementary School community has gotten back into a routine after its festive and heartwarming holiday celebrations. Many of the Christmas trees and wreaths enjoyed around Capitol Hill were sold by the school’s fourth annual Greenery and Bake Sale, this year in partnership with Amidon-Bowen Elementary and Eliot-Hine Middle School.

Students made every day count in December as each grade competed with each other in Attendance Wars. By the time school adjourned for winter break, the fifth-grade class had achieved the best on-time arrival rate and daily attendance numbers.

Also in December, students were treated to a gift delivery from D.C. United soccer player (and cancer survivor) Chris Odoi-Atsem as well as the team’s mascot, Talon the Eagle, and the Screaming Eagles supporter group. The group, in partnership with the D.C. Scores youth soccer league, donated more than 100 wrapped presents to Miner students. (Check out the video.)

Miner’s young athletes now are competing in basketball—including a new girls’ team this year. So far the Mighty Bears have faced off against H.D.Cooke, Van Ness, Ludlow Taylor, and West Elementary. 

The school’s family-support team offered two workshops for parents in January: one focused on “Healthy Body, Healthy Mind” and another session about Restorative Justice, a technique that seeks to repair the harm of crime by bringing the victim and offender together.

The PTO’s annual Yard Sale will be March 21, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the school. Clothing, toys, games, books, household items, and much more will be sold for bargains of $1 to $5. The PTO will also collect hazardous waste and e-waste the morning of the sale.