Oak Grove News

Creating balanced class lists that meet the needs of all students is a tremendously difficult job that takes many hours of thoughtful dialogue between classroom teachers, specials area teachers, specialists and the principal. We at Oak Grove take this process very seriously.

We welcome any insight you wish to share about your child. We will take into consideration pertinent information about your child’s learning style and needs received in writing on or before Friday, May 5th, 2017. While we welcome your input, specific teacher requests will not be honored. Please send your input to me by email at fenton@ogschool.org.

The following describes the process for creating balanced class lists:

• Classroom teachers consider the social-emotional and academic needs of each student
  
• Parent input is considered
  
• Grade level teams collaborate to form draft class lists that are balanced in terms of the academic, social and emotional needs as well as considering friendships and other factors
  
• Specialist Team members (social worker, speech, special education, etc.), the Fine Arts Team (Art, Music, P.E.) and the principal provide input as well during this process
  
• Class lists are finalized in August due to account for summer movement. We cannot make changes once this process occurs, as moving one child can disrupt the balance of a class, impacting all students
  

We strongly believe that this detailed and collaborative process creates learning environments that benefit all students. It is a delicate balancing act which takes much consideration and thought by professionals who know and care about your children.

Andrew Fenton

Principal

Hello Oak Grove Community,

This week, we would like to share information regarding an opportunity for our students in grades 4 and 5. We are looking forward to the Illinois Mathematics League Contest.

What is it?

The Illinois Mathematics League Contest is a 30-minute, multiple choice examination

Who can participate?

Any 4th or 5th grade student registered at Oak Grove

When is the contest?

Thursday, April 20th, from 3:45-4:15 p.m.

Where will the contest be held?

After school, in the Junior High library

What will be awarded?

*A Certificate of Merit to the highest scoring student at each grade level

*Highest scoring student will be awarded a book of math contests

Please see the Virtual Backpack for the contest registration form, to sign up. Registration forms are due by April 13th. Please, return the form to your child’s teacher or either office.

Are you still looking for summer fun options? We have something fun for all ages!

Students entering K-6

We are looking for creative problem solvers who can work in a team. The challenge? Become a Duct Tape Billionaire. Use your skills of risk-taking and imagination to invent, launch and present a product to investors. Team members will need to explore patents, consider real world application and practice their entrepreneur skills. To see the other activities we’ll be doing at Camp Invention June 12-16, click here. Questions? See the flyer in the virtual backpack for additional details, contact Mrs. Tazzioli at Tazzioli@ogschool.org or go to the Camp Invention website: www.campinvention.org

We are getting closer to having enough participants for before/after care the week of the Camp. If you would are interested in Extended day options in order for you child to participate, please click here to record your interest. Extended day options may be available based on parent need.

Students entering 7 - 9th grade

Sign up to be a Counselor-in-Training (CIT) at OGS Camp Invention this summer (June 12 - June 16). It’s a week of creativity and hands-on fun with additional leadership training and goal-setting skills built in. The site for CITs to sign up is campinvention.org/CIT

Students ages 15+

We are also looking for students aged 15+ to be Leadership Interns at camp. This is a volunteer position, but can count toward high school service credit hours! The site for leadership interns to apply is: invent.org/leadershipintern (for Oak Grove, Green Oaks, IL)

The cold winter weather is leaving, and it’s time to get rid of your worn out clothing! If you have any clothes to donate, please drop them off outside the Junior High and Elementary offices. This will last for two weeks from April 10 to April 21. Donations will go to the PADS homeless shelter of Lake County and Oak Grove families in need. Members of the Honors Society want to help our community and need your support, so please donate any old jackets, snow pants, shirts, pants, hats, gloves, etc.

Emotion Management has been the focus in SEL Kindergarten through fifth grade during the month of March. We will continue to build strategies for dealing with stressful situations in and out of school during April as well. Our 4th and 5th graders helped us by creating videos for our younger students. As our K-3 students learn the songs to reinforce our vocabulary and skills we will be singing along to Oak Grove's amazing role models! Thank you 4th & 5th grade!

One area that we have focused on in Kindergarten-Fifth grade is reducing anxiety and avoiding assumptions. Each fifth grader did an excellent job putting together a slide show about foods that were special to their culture or religion. They also shared foods that made them anxious because they were against their religion or families' cultural beliefs or caused allergic reactions. It was a great couple weeks as students practiced calming down and thinking before reacting in these stressful situations.

The steps are included in the videos, but please review these with your child when you see that they are anxious, angry, embarrassed or experiencing another strong emotion! Please check the DOJO weekly for your child's personal classroom updates.

STOP!

NAME YOUR FEELING!

CALM DOWN by:

• Belly Breathing
  
• Positive Self-Talk
  
• Counting
  

Enjoy a couple of our videos! A special thank you to Dr. Meltzer for turning our recordings into these great music videos for all to enjoy!

Anger Song: https://vimeo.com/209595697

Calm It Down: https://vimeo.com/209595725

The Calm Down Song: https://vimeo.com/209595764

Oak Grove had three students compete in the North Suburban Regional YBTCC competition on March 22. Out of 40 competitors, all three of our Oak Grove competitors made it through seven rounds of cuts to compete in the final round! Oak Grove ended up finishing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place overall. Nikhil Patel and Brandon LaCrosse will be moving on to the state competition on April 29th. Desigamoorthy Nainar will be the alternate. Congrats Eagle Scientists!

Congrats to Mrs. Koehler's class for making the TOP 10 in the National DreamBox Challenge! During the DreamBox Spring Math Challenge, over 5,000 classrooms competed to win 1st place in the nation. Just at Oak Grove, our K-4 students completed 14,000 lessons in 19 days with over 80% participation. That’s over 700 lessons per day!

As a big thank you to all the students who worked so hard, classroom prizes will be awarded to the following classes who completed the most lessons in each category during the competition:

• The K-2 classroom winner is Miss Poladian's kindergarten class.
• The 3-4 classroom winner is Mrs. Koehler's third grade class.

Thanks for playing!

PTO Meeting

This Wednesday at 9:00 am in the Junior High teachers' lounge. All are welcome.

4th/5th Grade Social, Thursday, April 13th 2:00 - 4:00 pm

All 4th & 5th grade students are invited to attend this free event sponsored by the Oak Grove PTO after our early dismissal on Thursday, April 13th. Kids will get to enjoy two hours of jumping in the trampoline park. Snacks, drinks and socks will be provided. Sorry, no siblings. If you have any questions contact Liz Howard: howard_liz@hotmail.com. Please RSVP by Monday, April 10th by clicking on this link: https://www.smore.com/73ju6

We Need You!
PTO is looking for people to chair the following committees next year. If you are interested or have more questions about a committee please email Katrinatreutelaar@me.com

• 5th Grade Father/Son Night
  
• Nominations
  
• Programs and Speakers
  
• Spiritwear
  

Variety Show

Congratulations to our 2017 Variety Show Emcees: Jane Arnold, Julia Hasler, Marc Michelotti, Jack Regan, and Oliva Sauers. ​We have some great acts this year; hope to see you all at the shows on April 21. Tickets are on sale now through RevTrak.

Variety Show rehearsals start today after school. Check the OGS website to see which days your act has to come.

Book Fair

Our Scholastic Book Fair is a reading event that brings the books kids want to read right into our school. It’s a wonderful selection of engaging and affordable books for every reading level. Please make plans to visit our book fair and be involved in shaping your child’s reading habits.

This is our annual Buy One, Get One FREE sale! For every item you purchase (book, poster, toy, etc.) you may choose another item of equal or lessor value for FREE!

• Book Fair dates: April 25th, 26th, 27th, & 28th
  
• Shopping hours: 8:15am-3:30 daily
  
• Special activities: Family Evening Event - April 27th, 6-8 pm
  

Join us for shopping, reading with family and a chance to win our gift basket full of new books and goodies.

We will be posting the schedule for classroom shopping times soon. Everyone is welcome to join their child while they shop with their class. If you would like to volunteer to help at the book fair, we will be posting a link next week with time slots for parents to sign up. Please see the Virtual Backpack for our flyer and teacher gift certificate form. This is a great way to help teachers build their classroom libraries.

Join your Oak Grove community at Panera on April 11th!

Schedule a breakfast, lunch and dinner date at Panera in Libertyville on April 11, 2017! Bring a hard copy or electronic image of the flyer, which can be found at http://www.ogsef.org/panera, and the Oak Grove School Education Foundation will get 15-20% of the proceeds. We hope to see you there!

The 2017 season starts today, Monday, April 3rd. Practice is from 3:30-4:45 PM. Athletes should change, have a quick snack, and meet in the Junior High cafeteria. All athletes must have a current physical on file in order to participate. Visit the Oak Grove School calendar and the track and field website for more information (http://ogstrackandfield.weebly.com/).

Contact Coach Edelson with any questions (edelson@ogschool.org).

Click HERE to view Board Agenda and Minutes

Email: boe@ogschool.org
Website: www.ogschool.org
Location: 1700 S. O'Plaine Rd. Green Oaks, IL 60048
Phone: 847.367.4120