Oak Grove News

8th Grade Families

Every year we work with LHS on the transfer of our 8th graders to the high school. This year is no different. The link below will take you to Libertyville High School's registration timeline for your 8th-grade student. If you have any questions about registration please reach out to Ole Stevens at LHS - ole.stevens@d128.org

8th Grade Registration Timeline

Halloween

Oak Grove has a tradition of our elementary students wearing their costumes at school for Halloween and participating in our Halloween parade. Unfortunately, this year students will not be able to wear their costumes at school or for us to have our parade. The fabulous PTO is working with Dr, Meltzer to create a digital Halloween parade that will include any student, Kindergarten through 8th grade! They will be sending out information soon on collecting pictures of students in their costumes for the digital parade. We are blessed to have a creative and dedicated PTO working with us. Parties will not look the same as they have in previous years but the PTO is going to be supplying crafts and socially distanced games for the teachers to use in their rooms with the students.

A HUGE thank you to the PTO for their continued support of our staff and students.

You will find in the Virtual Backpack on the district website some guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health on safe at-home activities for you and your family. Please take a few moments to check them out.

Red Ribbon Week

Red Ribbon Week is Oct. 26th through the 30th. We will be having a fun spirit week for all staff and students to participate in during the week - please be on the lookout for the spirit week's information that will be coming to you soon. The PE team will be sharing out their videos on healthy lifestyles and healthy choices. It will be a fun week for all @school and @home staff and students. Make sure you share your pictures with us so we can all celebrate together!

Would you like to help our local veterans just in time for winter? Join us & The Village of Green Oaks in collecting old, slightly worn, or new winter coats and other seasonal outerwear, which will be provided to our local veterans and their families.

This special coat drive is being conducted through the GLMV Chamber of Commerce, T-Mobile-VH, Shurway Movers, local businesses and municipalities, for Midwest Veterans Closet, a not-for-profit charity that provides free clothing and other items to our former soldiers.

Donations can be dropped off at: Green Oaks Village Hall, 2020 O’Plaine Road, in Green Oaks, Monday through Friday, 9am to 2pm through November 16th. Oak Grove has always held a special place in our hearts for our veterans and hope to help them this coming November.

Oak Grove has partnered with Lambs Farm for the past 18 years to acknowledge and honor the National Day of Service. On September 11, people across America volunteer in their local communities, to honor the people who lost their lives, or were injured, and the many others who sacrificed during the tragic event of 9/11. If this was a typical school year, we eighth grade students would have gone on the annual Lambs Farm field trip. On this trip, previous eighth grade students helped Lambs Farm with fall cleanup, painting fences, the gift shop, and the animal center. Obviously, we can’t do that this year. Instead, we are going to perform acts of service in our community, individually. These acts of service can include mowing the lawn or walking a dog for a neighbor. Raking leaves or babysitting are also great ways to do service. The Lambs Farm Service Project is the way we, as eighth graders, are going to honor the National Day of Service this year. This is also our way of helping Lambs Farm. Like many other small organizations, they had to close down temporarily, causing them to lose money. Lambs Farm helps those with developmental disabilities, and we want to help Lambs Farm make that possible again. With each act of service, we will ask for a donation to Lambs Farm. Our goal is for each eighth grader to earn $20 each, through service, to donate to Lambs Farm. The fund to donate is through RevTrak and this project is cashless. The end date for the project is October 30. We hope to achieve our goal, honor the Day of Service and help Lambs Farm. --written by Aayushee Patil, 8th grader

While this article in the Harvard Business Review was intended for the office, they offer a few tips that are helpful for us at school too. A growth mindset is helpful regardless of the environment and allows adults and children to evolve and grow as people. The article focuses on six tips to help develop a growth mindset while in a crisis. Here’s a shorter version:

1. Be patient: Learning new routines and systems takes time. We are still adjusting to our “new normal” and all of the ramifications that accompany those guidelines and routines. Give yourself and others grace as we are all evolving together.

2. Model a growth mindset: As parents and teachers, if we can talk positively about our mistakes and what we learned from those errors, we are showing that making mistakes is a natural part of the learning process. In a crisis, it's more important than ever to model that change can be uncomfortable but important to progress as a thinker and a learner.

3. Reset expectations: A crisis is a great time to review current practices and to make improvements to routines and procedures. One way to do that is through providing constructive feedback. A good way to give a child constructive feedback is to start with kind words so your child knows the feedback comes from a loving place then provide a guiding question. Two examples may include, “Maybe you should read the directions again?” or “Do you think that is your best work?”

To read the business version of the article with all six tips, click the link above by Susan J. Ashford, Maxim Sytch and Lindred L. Greer.

SOARING EAGLES 5K

The PTO would like to thank Elan Landscaping Co. for their sponsorship of the Soaring Eagles 5k! The team at Elan Landscapes proudly support the Oak Grove Eagles.

T-shirts and medals will be door-drop delivered by our awesome volunteers. If you registered for the 5k, watch your e-mail for updates on delivery.

If you didn’t register for the 5k, you can still participate. Anytime the weekend of Oct. 23-25 throw on your OGS spirit wear, pick a 5k route and have some fun! Don’t forget to share your photos with us by tagging @oakgrovesd68 and #oakgrovestrong.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN CARAMEL APPLES

Please remember to pick up your caramel apple orders on Friday, October 16th or Saturday, October 17th between 10am-9pm at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Libertyville (541 N. Milwaukee Ave.). If you have any questions, please contact Jill Procop at jprocop@sbcglobal.net.

VIRTUAL HALLOWEEN PARADE

The Halloween costume parade has been a favorite OGS tradition for years, and although COVID-19 prevents an in-person parade, the PTO will create a virtual parade. This year, we are excited to include 5th-8th grades in the parade. Be on the lookout for an email requesting a photo submission of your child dressed up for the parade. We need these photo submissions no later than Monday, October 26th. Thanks for your help making this virtual parade possible!

PTO CALENDARS

2020-21 PTO calendars were distributed last week. If you did not receive your pre-ordered calendar, contact Francine Klotz at Francine.klotz@gmail.com.

HOLIDAY HALLS

Due to current circumstances with COVID-19 the PTO has decided to cancel Holiday Halls. We truly appreciate all our volunteers’ support and commitment to Holiday Halls, including the Secret Shopping Village, Vendor Market, and Pancake Breakfast. We looked into several possibilities including online sales or breakfast fundraisers; but at the end of the day, Holiday Halls is such an amazing in-person event that we simply cannot replace it virtually. We can't wait to have the best ever Holiday Halls in 2021!

It’s been a great start of the year and we appreciate your patience as we worked though traffic at our new start and end time. We have received some feedback about traffic within Saddle Hill subdivision. We realize that some parents use the circle in Wickham Court as a drop off and pick up spot for your children. While we encourage everyone to drop off and pick up at school via O’Plaine Road, if there is a situation where Wickham Court is your only option, please do not park there, for either drop off or pick up. Families who live on and around Wickham are experiencing difficulties driving through the neighborhood.

Another change in traffic we have noticed is an increase in the number of students walking and biking to school. We are happy to see our students out enjoying the fresh air. We want to remind all our walkers and bikers to be safe as they travel to and from school. Being safe includes moving over to the side of the road when cars are driving on the road. Many of our students are biking and walking two and three across the roads within Saddle Hill. Please remind your children to move over to the side of the road to ensure their safety as they walk or bike to school.

One final reminder is that cell phone usage, hands free or not, is prohibited while you are driving in a designated school zone.

Thank you again for your help keeping our students safe and minimizing traffic within Saddle Hill.

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