Oak Grove News

Picture Day Reminder

We are excited that we will be having picture days this week. Remind your child to smile brightly for their pictures.

Wednesday, November 4th

During the school day @school students - Kindergarten through 4th Grade

3:45-5:00 - @home students - Last names A-L

Thursday, November 5th

During the school day @school students - 5th - 8th Grade

3:45-5:00 - @home students - Last names M-Z

Early Release Day - November 13th

Next Friday, November 13th will be an early release day for ALL students. Our @school students will start dismissal at 12:30 PM. All @school students will eat lunch before they are dismissed for the afternoon. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to an administrator and we will assist you.

No School Reminder

Please remember that there is no school tomorrow due to election day.

Health and Safety

Our families and students have been doing an amazing job in helping to keep themselves and those around them healthy during these uncertain times. Please remember that if your child is not feeling well to keep them home. This will help to keep everyone safe and healthy. This is a crucial piece and we appreciate each and every family.

The Mental Health team at Oak Grove, consisting of two School Social Workers, two School Psychologists, and the Social Emotional Learning Coordinator, will be providing you information on several social emotional topics throughout the 2020-21 school year. Twice a month, we will provide you with a brief overview of a topic as well as at least one resource for additional information. Please feel free to reach out Ryan Murray, SEL Coordinator, if you have questions or need help finding more information.

This week's topic is Stress. Although it may seem like children’s lives are much easier than adults’, children still experience stress and its negative impacts. Children are very observant to what is happening around them and often pick up on when the adults are experiencing high levels of stress. Especially given the current circumstances of pandemic, it is important now more than ever to start to teach your child(ren) how to handle stress so they learn how to manage these feelings early. Having these skills developed when stressors are smaller will be good practice for when problems are bigger as they grow. Every person experiences stress across their lifetime, so know that there is no shame in asking for help if it is needed.

Here are some things you can do as an adult to help your child in times of stress:

• Help them label their feelings
• Model deep breathing to slow the body down
• Listen and acknowledge without judgement, minimizing, or trying to fix the problem for them
• Practice stress reduction habits in your own life
• Brainstorm solutions together that empower them to fix the problem for themselves
• Make time for shared activities you both enjoy together

Additional Resources:

• Kids Health 1
• Kids Health 2
• 12 Tips to Reduce Your Child's Stress

There are lots of articles and books out there about mindfulness and social emotional learning. Some are better than others but the trick is to find resources that help you support both when working with students and that’s what we do here at school. Your first question may be, what is the difference between the two?

Let’s start with SEL (Social Emotional Learning). SEL is considered an outside-in approach where the teacher or parent focuses on teaching skills that the student can use outside of the lesson. Things that they could apply when faced with real-life situations. Ideas like recognizing emotions and using I statements when sharing feelings, etc. These are valuable lessons and give students a tool kit of resources to use when they find themselves in challenging situations. Mindfulness is considered an inside-out approach. It focuses on the ability to build relationships with qualities of empathy, kindness, and regulating their own emotions. Together, these lessons can create a great impact on our students as learners.

Here are five skills that work to embed SEL and mindfulness together in order to support positive relationships between peers and adults, ultimately helping our students become positive leaders in the world:

• Self-awareness: SEL lessons help students become more self-aware when focusing their attention and actively using self-compassion with others.

• Self-management: Students who use SEL strategies are able to enhance their ability to resolve conflict more creatively and express their feelings in a balanced way.

• Social awareness: By developing a growth mindset, students can regulate their emotions rather than becoming emotionally overwhelmed when facing a difficult situation. This will help them notice when another person is suffering and needing support.

• Relationship skills: Mindfulness increases compassion so then when they implement their SEL strategies, they focus on creating a win-win situation when engaged in a conflict.

• Decision-making: By focusing on cognitive flexibility, students can think of more creative ways to respond in challenging situations.

Original article written by Linda Lantieri and Vicki Zakrzewski, 4.7.2015

Public Act 101-0012 of the 101st Illinois General Assembly allows local school districts an opportunity to create an emergency e-learning program. Having an approved e-learning plan allows a school district to use an e-learning day in lieu of an emergency day (ex. snow day).

If approved, in the event of an emergency a district may choose to:

• A - Use an e-learning day and keep the intended last day of school, or

• B - Use an emergency day and add an academic day at the end of the school year to make up for the lost instructional minutes. Attached is the link to the to the Oak Grove Proposed E-Learning Plan.

Please note that we are required to give notice to our parent community regarding this plan, and you are welcome to share any input you may have with Dr. Sarah Cacciatore prior to Nov. 12th. The e-learning plan will go before the Board of Education at the Nov. 17th Board meeting and a hearing will be held on that same evening for any further input from parents. We will also post this information on our school website.

Click Here To Download our e-learning plan draft, and feel free to offer your input to Dr. Sarah Cacciatore, or consider attending the Nov. 17th BOE meeting. Thank you!

PTO MEETING

Please join us for the November PTO meeting, this Wednesday at 11:30am. Zoom meeting details below. Please review the meeting minutes from our last meeting for approval.

10/7/2020 PTO Minutes HERE

11/4/2020 PTO Agenda HERE

Join 11/4/2020 PTO Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81675950618?pwd=NGozcExKc1EwOWVFejN5OVJxSUp1QT09

Meeting ID: 816 7595 0618
Passcode: 537482

One tap mobile

+13126266799,,81675950618#,,,,,,0#,,537482# US (Chicago)

Dial by your location
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

FANNIE MAY CANDY FUNDRAISER

This is the last week to order Fannie May candy! Order forms are due no later than November 4th; return order form with your payment made out to Oak Grove PTO in the pink bin on Carlene Lichter’s front porch (1055 Sunrise Rd, Green Oaks.) Do not send the order form to school.

Orders will be ready for pick up the week of November 16th. Contact Carlene Lichter 847-414-0497 or carlenelichter@gmail.com with any questions. FREE CANDY to the person with the highest sales!

BROCHURE

ORDER FORM

VIRTUAL HALLOWEEN PARADE

A pandemic could not stop the OGS Halloween parade and K-4 party tradition! A huge thank you goes out to our K-4 Grade Level Coordinators: Lynsey Wolfe, Corinne Harrington, Emily Savino, Jen Davis, and Elisabeth Cobb who organized the K-4 parties. This team of volunteers planned festive crafts and games, adhering to all the COVID-19 safety procedures at school. Plus, they bundled party packs for each of our Eagles@Home. At the start of the year, we were uncertain we would be allowed to make these parties happen; thanks for your creativity and dedication!

For the Halloween parade, thank you to all the parents who submitted photos and patiently worked through any technology glitches. The PTO would like to thank Dr. Meltzer for teaching parent volunteers how to create each step of the process. A special thanks goes out to our team of video creators: Christine Merrild, Jeff Barry, Anupama Varshney, Jaspreet Gill, and Srishti Agrawal. The PTO would also like to thank Bethany Williams, Jill Giovannetti, and Ying Yang for being involved in this project. Without Beth Zender’s leadership and dedication, this virtual parade could not have happened! Thank you, Beth!

SOARING EAGLES 5K WINNERS!

Thank you again to everyone who took place in the Soaring Eagles 5k! We heard lots of great feedback from participants and hope we can make this a new Oak Grove tradition. Thank you again to sponsor Elan Landscaping and to Sports11 for donating gift certificates. And the “winners” are:

1st Place: The Lund Family ($75 to 847 Running & $5 to Rocky Mountain)

2nd Place: The Mishra Family ($50 to 847 Running & $5 to Rocky Mountain)

3rd Place: The Siwinkski Family ($25 to 847 Running & $5 to Rocky Mountain)

4th Place: The Fahy Family ($20 to Sports 11 & $10 to 847 Running)

5th Place: The Wechselberger Family ($20 to Sports 11)

Congratulations to our four Symphonic Band members selected to participate in the ILMEA District 7 Band Concert!

Students selected to participate submitted virtual auditions on a wide range of materials they have been preparing since early spring. Thank you to Dr. Meltzer who mixed and edited the videos for uploading!

This year's District 7 representatives from Oak Grove are:

7th Kai Chamnankit - French Horn

8th Jessica Hedlund - Bass Clarinet

8th Dakota Olson - Flute

8th Mary Tunney - Alto sax

GO EAGLES!

Parents will no longer receive OGS messages via SchoolMessenger. Starting today, all email, phone and text "blasts" will be done through BrightArrow Technologies. We will have lots of information for you in the near future to make sure you can stay in touch and stay informed.

Please click HERE to view the flyers in our virtual backpack. Flyers are updated weekly, so please check back often so you won't miss any of the events going on in our community.

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