Oak Grove News

Hello! I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. I can't believe the holiday season is nearly upon us. Soon, I expect winter will arrive to stay, so I thought I would share the procedures

for canceling school, in case we have inclement weather ahead of us.

The area superintendents work together to make decisions about canceling school. I work closely with the D128 high school district superintendent as well as the three other

“feeder” school superintendents. Whenever bad winter weather is predicted, or occurs, we are in constant contact with each other. We also use up-to-date information provided to us by local weather agencies and county officials.

First, and foremost, it is our obligation to keep students safe as they wait at bus stops and travel to school. There are times when the area high schools choose to remain open,

but the elementary schools cancel. However, we do try to avoid this, if possible. There is no “exact” temperature, or wind chill factor that causes cancellation of school. We make

our decision based upon a myriad of factors, with each weather event being analyzed on an individual basis.

We are cognizant of your need to make supervision plans as we make our decision. If school is canceled, I will utilize our School Messenger phone messaging system first. We also will try to send an e-mail to you, as well as update our website. Please know that those methods take a bit more time, so please don’t rely upon them as your first source of information. If your phone contact information has been changed, please inform the school as soon as possible, so that we may update your contact information on the phone messaging system.

In my 36 years in education, the decision to cancel school, or not, can be one of the most difficult. Either way, people are disappointed. Experience tells me that the most important factor is student safety, so it will be the determining factor in our local decision to hold classes, or not. Hopefully, our winter will be mild and we will not have to cancel classes often.

Update on Winter and Valentine’s Day Party Procedures

In an effort to maintain safety and security, while still celebrating the holidays, we have decided to make a few changes to the volunteer sign-up process for parties at Oak Grove.

Thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation as we implement these changes:

1. We are limiting the number of volunteers to 8 per classroom. That number includes any room parents helping at the party (i.e. if you have 3 room parents, your sign up genius can only have spaces for 5 volunteers.)
2. There is no longer any floating between classrooms / parties. All volunteers helping at a party must be essential, and not “extras” who float. It’s wonderful that we have hundreds of K-4 parents who want to be involved with the parties, but for safety and security reasons we have to limit the number of visitors in the building.
3. We will continue to utilize Google Forms for advance registration of volunteers. This process greatly increases efficiency and safety of parents signing in to the building.

The deadline for the Winter Holiday Party is Monday, December 17th at 9am.

Thanks to the PTO for their collaboration, and thank you in advance to everyone who volunteers. Oak Grove would not be the school that it is without your support.

Andrew Fenton

Principal, Oak Grove School

Congratulations to Mrs. Savage’s P.E. classes for helping set a New Guinness World Record of 624,390 stackers!

Guinness thanks each of the 624,390 stackers, the 2,833 schools and the organizations from 25 countries who took part on November 8, 2018. It was a close one this year, but Oak Grove came through and helped to push past the previous Guinness Record of 622,809. Amazing!

On Friday, stay after school for some fun from 3:20-5:00 pm! All sixth, seventh, and eighth graders are invited to the dance that will help collect toys and raise money for Toys for Tots! Admission to the dance is a new, in the package toy donation for our toy drive. Please note that Toys for Tots does not accept stuffed animals. Can't shop? Then bring $10 to get in and we will do the shopping for you!

A DJ, dancing, and an open gym await you! You can also shop at our concession stand for pizza, pop, candy, and snacks. We will sell raffle tickets for an opportunity to win a gift card as well!

We hope to see you there!

The Oak Grove PTO proudly present Jordan Sonnenblick!

Oak Grove School is delighted to welcome acclaimed author Jordan Sonnenblick on Thursday, December 6th. Mr. Sonnenblick will talk with 6th, 7th, & 8th grade students about his career as an author and discuss his books. He will also be having lunch with a select few students and conduct a writing workshop with 50 students.

Parents, to order his books for personalization, please see the form in the Virtual Backpack.

Questions about book purchases should be directed to Mrs. Rappaport at rappaport@ogschool.org

PTO MEETING

Please join us for our next PTO meeting, this Wednesday December 5th @ 9:00am in the PD room near the Elementary Office. All are welcome to attend.

ATTENTION KINDERGARTEN & 1ST GRADE PARENTS

Save the date for the 2019 K-1 Social on Wednesday, January 16th from 1:30-3:30 pm at the Libertyville Sports Complex. Students have early release at 1:00 pm, so it is a perfect day for an afternoon of FREE activities including a challenge course, gaga ball, the climbing wall, relay races, various sports & snacks! Watch the Oak Grove News next week for additional information including where to RSVP and how to sign up to be a parent volunteer.

SAVE THE DATE

Attention Mothers/Female Guardians of 5th grade girls, please save the date for the 5th grade Mother/Daughter Tea. February 12 from 6:30-8:30pm in the Junior High cafeteria. Please be on the lookout for the Evite in the near future and some instructions for volunteering. Thank you. If you have any questions, please email Becky Rynes at bbbbbbecky@yahoo.com

HOLIDAY HALLS

Well, what a continued success! Our 7th annual Holiday Halls was our best ever! Hats off to all those who made it look so easy. Libby Catlina was out to impress with the best smelling bacon from OGS to Copeland! Thank you to Libby, her entire family and her amazing team of chef volunteers. It was the best pancake breakfast ever!

Susan Kurland had her entire crew in tow as well. Susan’s personal shopping was a year long process and I’m fairly certain your secret shoppers had the time of their lives sorting through all the beautiful and well priced treasures Susan acquired all year long. Thank you to Susan and her family and to all our volunteers who helped make the Secret Shopping Village perfect in every way! You are going to love what your rascals have awaiting you this holiday.

We want to thank all of our OGS vendors who make shopping oh-so-fun for the entire family. Tracey Schulze is possibly the most famous aunt of them all. She not only donates her time and talent to the Holiday Market herself, she secures new and repeat vendors to fill our halls each year. It is definitely a group effort and all hands were on deck.

We thank our personal shopping elves, our honor society and all the volunteers who helped setup, decorate halls and load many a vendor cart. Thank you to Mr. Farris and the choir that make the day even more festive and to Mr. Suarez and his staff for all of their support. Lastly, thanks to all of you who came out on a rainy Saturday to support our annual Holiday Halls!

It truly takes a village & we are very proud of ours!

Upcoming Band Dates

This Wednesday, Dec. 5th. Concert and Beginning Bands Fall Concert. Pat Patt Gym, 6:30 pm

Next Thursday, Dec. 13th - Jazz Café (Jazz Band and Jazz Combo) - Junior High cafeteria, 6:30 pm

Beginning Band

It's Concert week!

When: Wednesday, 6:30-7:15 pm

Where: Patt Patt Gym

Who: All Beginning Band and Concert Band students

What: Please wear your "Sunday best" for the performance. Beginning Band report to the band room for warm up at 6:00 pm Wednesday evening with your band book and instrument.

Beginning Band parents, in January, we will be starting our Beginning Band Olympic Unit. Get ready for some serious fun as your child competes to earn their own Bronze, Silver, or Gold Medal!

Concert Band

The concert week is here! Students should report to Mr. Farris’s room at 6:00 pm Wednesday night and parents can find their seats in the Pat Patt gym across the hall. Students should be dressed like they were going to a nice dinner. We will tune and then warm up and then come in at the concert time of 6:30 pm. It is going to be a great concert for us to show off all that we have been working on. Parents, please make sure your student has all their necessary accessories like reeds or valve oil. See you Wednesday night!

Symphonic Band

We are starting the new music for the winter concert cycle. Solo Ensemble is Saturday, Feb. 23rd. If your child takes private lessons, please ask your private teacher for song suggestions.

Jazz Band

Parents, It’s time to look forward to the most fun night of the year!

This year’s Jazz Café will be on Thursday, Dec. 13th, at 6:30 p.m. in the Junior High cafeteria.

Please contact me or Mrs. Lichter if you can help out in any way such as decorations, baked goods, coffee, etc.

All Band info is posted here: http://ogschoolband.weebly.com/

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to help at Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) this Friday, December 7 from 6 -7:30 pm. We still have some spots available. If you would like to attend, please register ASAP by clicking here.

If you can no longer attend, please log into the FMSC website and remove your name(s) from the list.

Please review these important instructions about the event.

Do...

• Come 15 minutes early
• Wear closed-toed shoes
• Feel free to bring your camera
• Follow FMSC's age requirements
• Leave all jewelry at home. See FMSC's jewelry policy

Don't...

• Come to pack if you're ill
• Pack if you have severe food allergies
• Bring children under age 5
• Wear any jewelry (rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, watches, etc). You will be required to remove them

Hello Oak Grove Community,

This week is the official Hour of Code. Oak Grove will take part in the Hour of CodeTM activities as part of Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 4-10). The Hour of Code activity is a global attempt started by Hadi Partovi to encourage over 100 million students from over 180 countries to learn the basics of computer programming. Tutorials are available for students of all ages from Kindergarten to adult. Besides the activities covered during school hours, we encourage families to visit www.code.org/learn to explore the wide variety of activities that work on computer browsers, tables, smartphones, or with no computer at all. There are even Moana, Star Wars, Minecraft, and Google Logo tutorials to try.

For parents who attended Parent-Teacher conferences this fall, we are interested in hearing your feedback. Please take a moment to respond to 7 short questions so we can use this information to consider improvements to our P-T conference process: Survey Link Please respond before December 12th.

7th Grade Service Project for PADS of Lake County

• Who: 7th graders supporting PADS of Lake County http://padslakecounty.org
• What: We are collecting new and gently used sweatshirts, new socks of all sizes and toiletries
  
• When: December 4 - 20th
  
• Why: We are supporting people in need and giving back to the community
  

Don’t Forget Penny Wars!

Is your homeroom up to the challenge?

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