Oak Grove News

Message from the Principal

What a week! 
It was a wonderful week to be a Grover! We had beautiful weather, Fine Arts Day, and the Variety Show! Thank you to the students, staff, presenters and volunteers that made Fine Arts Day and the Variety Show such a success! Please continue to check the Oak Grove News and school calendar for all upcoming events. Take care, stay safe, and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Kindergarten Open House
Thursday, April 20, Kindergarten will be hosting an Open House from 5:00 until 6:00 pm. Please meet in your child's classroom.

Kindergarten New Parent/Guardian Night
For incoming students in kindergarten during the 2023 - 2024 school year. Meet in the Junior High cafeteria at 6:15 pm for an informative presentation on our kindergarten program. For those of you who have pre-registered your child, be on the lookout for an email that will include a link to view the meeting virtually. Please note, you can attend in person or virtually.

Preschool Screening
Preschool screening will be held at Oak Grove on Wednesday, April 19 from 12:30 - 3:30 pm. The screening is for three and four year olds who will NOT be entering kindergarten in the fall. The screening will examine a child's proficiency in speech/language and motor development, as well as assess pre-academic skills. Parents with questions or concerns about their child's development may schedule an appointment by contacting Julie Waehner at 224-424-4718. 

Special Education Meeting for Parents of Students who are in Private Schools and/or Homeschooled
Oak Grove School will host a virtual special education meeting on Monday, April 24 at 8:30 am. The purpose of this meeting will be to discuss the District’s plan to provide special education services to students with disabilities who attend private schools and/or are homeschooled for the 2023-2024 school year. Any parent of a student who has been identified with a disability and attends a private school and/or are homeschooled are encouraged to participate. Please contact Julie Waehner at 224-424-4718 for the meeting link or for any additional information.

Reminder
Early release day on Friday, April 21 at 11:30 am. 

Mental Health Minute
This month's topic is Reflection. A continuation for this month's topic on reflection is a list of literature per grade levels below. Also included are some suggested questions you can ask your child to help them reflect as they read. For more information, click HERE. 

SEL Update
This week we reviewed the problem solving steps and then we began to discuss the size of the problem. Does your reaction match the size of the problem? 
Say the Problem
Think of solutions
Explore the Consequences
Pick the Best Solution

The size of the problem needs to have a reaction that matches. When your child is upset, ask them what size problem it is that they would like to solve. 
TINY (Me) - tie their shoe, broken pencil, etc.
LITTLE (We) - rock paper scissors who goes first, what we play, etc.
MEDIUM (Help) - I need help from the nurse because I cut my knee. Something is high on a shelf.
BIG - Nurse called my mom to take me to the doctor because my arm is broken. Me, nurse, parent, doctor, (many helpers).
HUGE - Tornado sirens go off and we need help from everyone! 

Do we sometimes scream, shout or explode when it’s really a little problem? Are we asking our parents for help when it’s something we should try to solve? It’s important that we have a reaction that matches the size of the problem because if we can’t control our emotions we often make little problems into medium problems or bigger!

Teachers Select New Roles
Each year, when OGS experiences openings at grade levels due to retirements, leaves, or attrition, our existing staff have the option to consider these openings before they are posted to external candidates.
Please welcome the following teachers to new positions of their interest:
Mrs. Thoune - 2nd grade
Mrs. Zurawski - elementary special education teacher 
Mrs. Aimee Brown - middle school special education teacher
Miss Sarmiento - Kindergarten 
Mrs. Tazzioli - 5th grade 

Additionally, Miss Dugan and Mrs. Mosquera will be returning to their full time positions next year, as a reading interventionist and enrichment specialist respectively.

Important Dates
4/18: Track at Lakes Community High School, 4:30 pm
4/20: Kindergarten Open House 5:00-6:00 pm, Kindergarten New Family Night 6:15-7:15 pm
4/21: Early Release Day: Students dismissed at 11:30 am, Snow Flake @ LHS 5:00-9:00 pm
4/22: PTO Earth Day Clean Up 2:00-3:00 pm, Track at Libertyville High School 10:00 am
4/24: Stepping Up to Sixth Grade, 6:00-8:30 pm
4/25: Track at Lakes Community High School, 4:30 pm
4/25: COW @ 6:00 pm & BOE Meeting @ 7:15 pm
4/27: PTO Volunteer breakfast, 7:30-9:30 am

Curriculum Corner

iReady Testing
Spring diagnostic testing is taking place April 25-28.  The i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your child’s needs. Each item a student receives is based on their answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier ones. The purpose of this is not to give your child a score or grade but to determine how to best support their learning.

To help prepare your child for the i-Ready Diagnostic, encourage them to: 

• Get a good night’s sleep and eat a full breakfast the day of the assessment.
• Try their best on each question and try not to rush.
• Try not to worry about questions they do not know—remind them that it is expected they will only get about half of the questions correct.
• Be respectful of other students who take longer to finish.

Students who are absent will be scheduled for make-up testing the following  week. Please be sure your child brings a fully charged device to school and has working headphones for the test.

 Enrichment at OGS
This week, we would like to highlight enrichment opportunities at Oak Grove School. All students in grades K-3 receive weekly talent development lessons adapted from the Primary Education Thinking Skills (PETS) program delivered by the classroom teacher. The goal of talent development is to promote critical thinking skills and creativity in children. It also allows learners with different strengths an opportunity to shine. Every day, students in all grade levels K-8 engage in 30 minutes devoted to intervention and enrichment (IE). During this time, students work on iReady pathways which are differentiated and provide scaffolded lessons to both support and challenge all learners. Teachers meet with students in small groups or one on one to support all learners. Intervention and enrichment time is an important part of the school day.

Beginning in grade 4, daily replacement services are offered in English language arts, mathematics or both content areas. TAG ELA is offered through enrichment and TAG Math is offered through an accelerated pathway. Families of students entering grades 4 and 6 next year will receive letters via email with placement decisions in ELA and Math later this week.

PTO News

RSVP Now! Stepping Up to 6th Grade
If you have a 5th grade student, please plan to join us on Monday, April 24 starting at 6:00pm for “Stepping Up to 6th Grade”. We know everyone’s schedules are jam packed, so if you can only attend a portion of the event, that is ok! The first half of the evening will be brief mini-seminars and the second half will consist of snacks, open gym, board games. Please RSVP Here. Contact Elizabeth O’Neil with any questions.

“Keeping Dreams Alive” Was Amazing!
Congratulations to the entire cast and crew of the 2023 OGS Variety Show. The talented Eagles in this year’s show were creative, hilarious, innovative and all-around entertaining and we are so proud of you! The Variety Show would not have been possible without the organization and expertise of the team of directors led by Ashley Wilson and Christine Merrild and supported by Tabitha Rubash, Raabia Khan, Elena Dukhan, Mary Haas, Elizabeth O’Neill and Maren Spaulding. Thank you to Mr. Murray and all the teachers who helped during try-outs and production as well as those who performed in the show, to the Student Council for concession sales, to the parent volunteers who assisted throughout the process and to the custodial staff for their support as well. 

Earth Day Clean-Up
Please join us this Saturday, April 22 at 2:00pm by the junior high playground to clean up around the school for Earth Day. We’ll also “chalk the walk” with Earth-friendly messages. We will provide sidewalk chalk and trashbags. We recommend wearing gloves and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. If you can’t make it to Oak Grove, or prefer to clean up your neighborhood, please snap some pictures of your cleanup efforts to be entered into a drawing for all participants. Check out the OGS PTO Facebook page for more details. If you have questions, contact Jennifer Davis.

April 28 - 4th & 5th Grade Social
Don’t forget to sign up for the 4th & 5th Grade social on Friday, April 28 from 7:00-8:00pm. This event is limited to 75 students and a designated adult must remain on site (this can be one adult for a group of students). Sign up here - it’s sure to be an ultimate evening! Upon completion of the sign-up sheet be sure to also submit the Ultimate Ninjas waiver. Please reach out to Donna Bachman with any questions.

Save The Date for the BOGO Book Fair
The Spring BOGO (Buy One, Get One Free) Book Fair for grades K-8 is coming to Oak Grove School from Tuesday, May 9 - Friday, May 12. Family Night is Wednesday, May 10 from 4-7:30pm. Look for the class schedule, volunteer link and information on how to donate to your child’s classroom teacher in the next issue of Oak Grove News! Questions? Contact Kelly Epley.

Field Day is May 26 - We Need YOU!
We are so excited that Field Day will be returning this year!  It will be held on Friday, May 26, which is a 1:00pm early dismissal day, so it will be a fun morning for all K-8 students.  If your students have never had the opportunity to participate in an OGS Field Day, they can expect an awesome morning playing outdoor games with teammates from all grade levels from our unique K-8 school!  In order for this morning to be successful, we are going to need 100 parent volunteers ASAP to confirm the event!  Volunteers are needed from 8:00-11:30am.  Grab a friend and sign up for a station that sounds fun!  Please feel free to email Karin Pawlowski or Laura Reutzel with any questions.

Communications Survey Reminder:

Just a reminder to complete the Communications Survey by Friday, April 21.  We have received over 100 responses and appreciate those of you who have completed it.  The link for the survey was sent via email on April 10. If you have any questions or need the link resent, please email inquiries@ogschool.org.

Camp Invention Is Back!

We are excited to have CampInvention back at Oak Grove!! 
Don’t miss hanging out with MR. OESCH!!! JUNE5-9
Secure your  spot today for the ALL-NEW STEM adventures of Wonder this summer! invent.org/mylocalcamp