Oak Hills Newsletter
Week of January 8, 2024
Message from the Principal
Dear Families,
It was a smooth week last week! Thank you for helping your children ease back into their evening sleep and waking up routines.
Please pay close attention to the school calendar below in January and February as there are "No School" days coming up for national holidays, staff development work days, and Grading Day. Thank you for your attention to that.
On Wednesday, we invite you to join our PTO/Padres Unidos Meeting at 7pm. We will be planning the Global Fair and touch base about exciting future events at Oak Hills. Please review the PTO updates below for more information.
Have a wonderful week!
Ms. Do
Club Schedule Reminders
This week:
Monday, 1/8 Little Otterbots; Rose City Chess Club (new session)
Tuesday, 1/9 RecTennis (New session--see information below); Chill Chess Club Lunch Club; After School Chess Club
Wednesday, 1/10 World Champion Taekwondo (Note: Registration is full)
Thursday, 1/11 Kids Yoga
Next week:
Monday, 1/15 No School
Tuesday, 1/16 No School
Wednesday, 1/17 World Champion Taekwondo
Thursday, 1/18 Kids Yoga
Library News from Ms. Larsen
Return Library Books: We have over 300 overdue books because of winter break. Please help your child find and return their library books, or renew them during Open Library. Thank you!
OBOB
OBOB Battles will begin this week barring no snow or ice.,
Jan 11th for 3rd, Jan 23rd 4th, and Jan 30th for 5th grade
If you are interested in volunteering for the battles, please sign up HERE. We would love to see more dads volunteer!
Click HERE for some new practice questions to practice at home.
At home, please practice memorizing the titles and authors, enjoy reading the books aloud as a family, create some fact flash cards, ask fun questions about details in the books, have a family OBOB (practice) night, listen to audio books, and attend an online author visit. Keep the joy of reading a fun activity at home!
Check out these OBOB resources:
OBOB Website: https://www.oregonbattleofthebooks.org/
Cedar Mill Public Library: https://library.cedarmill.org/kids/obob/
Washington County Library: https://www.wccls.org/obob
Author Pronunciation: https://www.wccls.org/sites/default/files/OBOB/2023-2024%20author%20pronunciation%203-5.pdf
Facebook Page: Oregon Battle of the Books
Roundabout Books Author Visits: https://www.roundaboutbookshop.com/oregon-battle-books-obob-events-and-titles
Chromebook Passwords
Students in third through fifth grade set up a new password at school on their Chromebooks. We will no longer be able to access these passwords at the district level. I would suggest asking your child what new password they selected and storing that in a safe place at home. You will need this new password to log into your child’s Library Account and student Gmail at home.
We still have access to K-2nd grade passwords. Contact Ms. Larsen and Mrs.Vallee for your child’s password.
OBOB Hall of Fame
If your 3rd - 5th grade child is interested in reading all 16 OBOB books and becoming a part of the OBOB Hall of Fame, here is a LINK to the website page with where you will find the OBOB Hall of Fame link to complete and submit. Once submitted, your child will get a certificate, a free book and their picture in the newsletter! Submissions are accepted all school year!
Questions about the happenings in Library? Check out the LIBRARY WEBSITE for:
Helpful Library Links for students and parents
How to View Your Library Account (Slides 1-7), View the Library Catalog (slide 8), Putting Books on Hold (Slides 9-10), Renewing books (slides 11-12), Paying Library Fines (Slide 13)
OBOB Information
Ordering Books From Scholastic for your home collection
Donation
If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to Ms. Larsen at leilani_larsen@beaverton.k12.or.us
News from the PTO
Happy New Year everyone! We hope that everyone can join us for our BIG PTO/Padres Unidos meeting this Wednesday at 7pm in the gym. The first part of the meeting will be dedicated to the principal's message and introducing the exciting events and volunteer opportunities the PTO is planning for this winter/spring. The latter part of the meeting will be dedicated to further organization of the Global Fair coming up in February. If you are planning on participating in the Global Fair (or would like to!) please try to come to this meeting so we can figure out some logistics together. We will have treats! We will have childcare! We would really love to see you there!
5th Grade Celebration Fundraiser event at Society Pie on Jan 22nd! Please see the infographic below.
Lunch Recess Clubs: Chill Chess Club is underway on Tuesdays until Feb 13th. We have opened it up to anyone who would like to join during the lunch recess. We will also be adding Friendship Bracelet Club (2nd grade) and Origami Club (3-5th grades) as other options for lunch recess starting on Jan 23 (for 4 weeks). Space is limited, but no registration required. We are working on a system so that anyone who would like to, can attend the new clubs at least once. If you are interested in volunteering for any of these clubs or have other ideas for lunch clubs, please email pto@oakhillspto.org.
The PTO would like to be the popcorn fairy for the school again this Friday, but we need volunteers to make it happen! Please consider signing up by using this link - it's a lot of fun! Popcorn Friday - This Friday Jan 12th
Volunteer Coordinator Updates
Welcome to 2024 Otters! Thank you so much for helping us finish 2023 with a bang!
Our volunteers are Awesome. Last Quarter, our volunteers served over 2075 hours in 350 volunteer shifts. Our volunteers helped our students with their reading and math skills, and helped around the classroom and the school workroom. You helped introduce new concepts and techniques through the Art Literacy program, challenged their comprehension skills in OBOB, chaperoned the students as they explored new activities like Chill Chess, Run Club, and Little Otterbots. And of course, a big thank you to all of our PTO Board members, who have spent countless hours of their time, working with the school staff, teachers and parents.
Let’s continue to build on our efforts this year. If you want to become more involved, please reach out to any of us with your Ideas, Suggestions, the One hour you have to spare at your lunch hour, or if you’d like to occupy your time in a setting that enriches your heart, while enriching the minds of our students at Oak Hills Elementary School.
We Thank You!
Reading Help
All volunteers are welcome - aunts, uncles, grandparents, and community members are encouraged to apply. Come help our students get up-to-speed or transition from “Learning to Read” to “Reading to Learn”. Your help is crucial this year! (Video Tutorial is available in MyImpact under “Reading Help”).
Find your classroom reading schedule Here
Art Literacy Training
January 30 7pm - Louis Comfort Tiffany (February/March)
Thursdays and Fridays
On The Move is another great opportunity for our students to get moving. Come help during the lunch hour.
Thursdays and Fridays - Weekly Workroom Help
Teachers need consistent reliable workroom/copying on Thursdays and Fridays. MyImpact lists the needs in two shifts: Thursday AM, Thursday PM, Friday AM. This is at the top of the list of needs for our teachers.
Paper Volunteer Interest Forms
Hopefully you saw a volunteer newsletter/interest form that was either given to you at Conferences, or in your child’s backpack. If you haven’t seen it yet, please click on the link(s) below. Please take a little time to look it over and return it to the office or to your classroom teacher.
Kindergarten Second Grade Fourth Grade
Global Fair Updates
We are planning a Global Fair on Feb 9th from 6-8pm! We are looking for people who would be willing to sponsor and organize a table representing their country of origin/ancestry. This could be done by an individual family or a group of families working together to showcase the country. Ideally, each table would have some items to display (pictures, books, traditional dress, etc.) and have one or two of the following activities:
- a small craft
- a little game
- sample a traditional food or treat
- learn a new word
- see a little demonstration (dance, art, music, etc.)
- collect a recipe to try at home
Please contact pto@oakhillspto.org for more info or sign up on the spreadsheet if this sounds like something you could help with. If anyone has any connections to cultural performing groups, we would love to be able to have a program of different presentations throughout the evening. There's a place to indicate that on the spreadsheet as well.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pPOP0fg9TZcduFbyTsdgl8AyG0jvVzODKbS9rJxRd7c/edit?usp=sharing
Important Dates-Mark Your Calendars
Wednesday, January 10 PTO/Padres Unidos Meeting 7pm--Global Fair Planning
Friday, January 12 PTO Popcorn Friday
Monday, January 15 No school for students; In observance of MLK Day
Tuesday, January 16 No school for students; Staff Development Day
Friday, January 19 Kindness in the Classroom Schoolwide Assembly_ Theme: Inclusiveness
Friday, January 26 No school for students; Grading Day
Friday, February 9 PTO hosts Global Fair 6-8pm
Tuesday, February 14 Friendship Day/Valentine's Day & Spirit Day
Helpful Website Buttons--Report Absences and Going Home Plan Changes
Absences and dismissal changes can be reported to us via the Oak Hills website. There are buttons where you can click and report an absence or changes to how your child will be going home.
For dismissal, please do your best to report the changes before 1:00pm since this is when we will be delivering the information to our teachers and students. If it is after 1pm, please call the main office to report the change and not the website button.
Thank you in advance for utilizing this communication tool. It will free up our phone lines for families, staff, and community members who urgently need to get in touch with the office.
Oak Hills website:
Thao Do-Gwilliam
Email: thao_do_gwilliam@beaverton.k12.or.us
Website: https://oakhills.beaverton.k12.or.us
Location: 2625 Northwest 153rd Avenue, Beaverton, OR, USA
Phone: 503.356.2410