Winter Games Live! » Miller School
Waldoboro, Maine | Lincoln County
Grades PreK-5
Meet the School
“When winter rolls around, the energy shifts in a magical way. The WinterKids Winter Games become a highlight of the season, sparking joy, excitement, and a sense of unity throughout the entire school.”
Weekly Updates
Week 1
Physical Activity
January 12-16, 2026
Moment of the Week
Reflections
The stopwatches were a hit! There are several grade levels doing a reading competition throughout January and are using the WinterKids stopwatches to track how much reading they’re doing at school and at home. That was neat to see and witness during week 1.
Students got to do a bonus activity during lunch this week with the lunch ladies which was spot the yeti. They had to find all 26 yetis around the cafeteria during lunch time and they loved it.
One thing that Miller School is working on this year is improving our school-wide attendance so an additional incentive that was done was any class that had 100% attendance got to have Stanley the cardboard yeti in their classroom for the day. It became a huge deal and there were many classes that had 100% so we had found yeti plushies so all classes who had good attendance got to have Stanley in their classroom. This will be happening throughout the 4 weeks and has definitely helped our attendance so far. Stanley and his friends are many of our students favorite part of WinterKids. They love when they show up to our school.
The Opening Ceremony was a success as we were able to get well over 300 staff and students outside including our students in our special education classrooms that may be in wheelchairs. It went very well and we also were able to get an amazing drone video of our ceremony. Now we cross our fingers for a good snow fall so our classes can go snowshoeing next week!
Week 2
Nutrition
January 19-23, 2026
Moment of the Week
Reflections
This week was a tricky week with the really cold temperatures. But, like Miller always does, we conquered the week and crushed being WinterKids! We were able to get a group of fourth graders out to go snowshoeing after getting 3 inches of fresh snow the night before. That was a great way for us to get our steps in with the pedometer. Liam from WinterKids joined us for snowshoeing capturing awesome footage of our students and made a few students feel like movie stars by interviewing them. We really appreciated him coming to our school and joining in on the fun!
It was difficult to have students sit down at all this week because they all wanted to get as many steps as possible this week. A funny comment from our Principal regarding the stopwatches was, “Students are literally timing how long it takes for the bus to pick them up and bring them to school.” So it keeps our bus drivers on their toes.
It was great seeing parents able to eat lunch with their kiddos this week. Our third graders were able to go to our local YMCA for a nutrition lesson this week! We had our fifth graders really think outside the box for our Moment of the Week challenge of the talking heart.
One thing I’ve learned from all my students is how much they love Hannaford’s snackpals! Students are obsessed with the theme this year and I keep getting videos of domino creations of hearts and snow creations of hearts as well as students spelling out WK with their bodies in the snow.
A bonus event we had during week 2 was our winter music concert that brought families and the community together on Friday and I think it was a great way to finish off week 2! Our music teacher always does a fantastic job organizing it every year! We are preparing for out big Family Night happening next week and are ready for the big snowfall about to happen!
Week 3
Family
January 26-30, 2026
Local Schools Get Outside With Winter Games
Two local schools are participating in the annual WinterKids Winter Games programs to promote outdoor winter activities and earn cash prizes for the winning schools.
South School in Rockland and Miller School in Waldoboro are two of 14 Maine schools in the 2026 Winter Games “competitive track” with schoolwide participation. >> READ MORE
Moment of the Week
Miller School Families Fund Fun, Face Winter With Joy
Snow-suited children crawled up a sizable snow bank and raced into the warmth of the Miller School gym to enjoy cocoa, a potluck dinner, a silent auction, and raffles in Waldoboro during a family night on Tuesday, Jan. 27.
Miller School hosted the event as a part of their participation in WinterKids WinterGames celebration. >> READ MORE
Reflections
This week was the coldest week of the games. Students were stuck inside for recess most of the week due to cold temperatures so when family night came around it was go time for kids to get outside. The snow banks were so high we couldn’t see the playground due to the storm this past weekend. That made playing in the snow extra exciting. The community really came together for our family night even with 4 other community events happening that same night. Some families even jumped from one event to another. Our students definitely slept good that night after playing in the snow for an hour! We had over 150 students, families, and community members show up to our family night to enjoy warm crockpot meals, hot cocoa, and to play in the snow. Something new this year for our Family Night was having two fundraisers happening to help raise money for our schools PTO. A total of seven raffle baskets made by each grade level were raffled off and over 60 items for our silent auction were sold. It was a very successful WinterKids Family Night for our school.
Due to being stuck inside many of the days this week we had to get very creative with our activities. Classrooms turned into relay race courses, morse code signals were practiced with the shades pulled to make it dark, kindness jars were made from construction paper, and of course dance parties had to happen with our flashlights. One of our Kindergarten classes had a dance circle to some hip hop beats where students shined the dance floor for each other and they had a blast cheering everyone on. A 5th grader who has participated in the games for the past three years mentioned how the flashlights were “upgraded” and much bigger from two years ago and he appreciated that.
Miller School has some very unique and fun events planned for the final week of WinterKids. We’re not stopping now from getting in the top three and our school’s energy is building as we finish strong in the competition!
Week 4
Winter Carnival
February 2-6, 2026
Moment of the Week
Reflections
Miller school turned into a Winter Wonderland for week 4. Teachers and staff members got really involved by decorating their classrooms/doors/walls/etc. for our big Winter Carnival parade event on Friday. Students got to discover that beach balls really don’t like the cold as some got popped during outdoor mini golf. But, that didn’t stop us from playing mini golf inside and also succeeding at “keepy uppy”. Students were very excited to get their beachballs and use them in class. Our 4th and 5th graders works very hard on making a heart mural to hang in our sunspace in the windows so the sun could shine on them.
Our lunch ladies went all out this week getting students pumped for the last day of WinterKids. They even changed the lunch menu to go along with their theme of the Superbowl for the parade on Friday. Chicken drumsticks, loaded potato wedges, and popcorn were served and touchdowns were made!
We had a special guest come to our school to film the magic happening. Our local TV station Lincoln County TV came and mentioned how amazing it was to see all the smiles and excitement happening. We had comments from teachers saying our school hasn’t been this “hyped up” in a while. On Friday students got to participate in carnival games on the playground and found that noodle tag was really fun with a bunch of students. At the end of the day students put down the pencils and stepped outside their classrooms to see all the decorations and participated in our final event….the Winter Carnival parade. They received a goody bag at the end to show how amazing they are as a WinterKid and received their WinterKids heart bracelet, snack pal stickers, a heart sticker, chocolate dipper oreos, and chocolate dipped marshmallows.
Now we wait patiently to see if our hard work payed off in the final leaderboards! GO MILLER!
The WinterKids Winter Games is a four-week outdoor learning challenge that inspires thousands of Maine elementary students to move, learn, and explore during the HEART of winter.
