OAK GROVE GREENERS HARD AT WORK ON GREEN UP DAY.

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PRINCIPAL:

Dear Parents and Families,

This week at All School Sing I got to share something very special with the students and Oak Grove community.  Two students received a very special honor for the art work they have created this year.  The artwork of these two students was selected by a group of adults to be framed and hung in our school.   The honor was a surprise for these two students, Imani and Jodie, but we did tell their families so they could be there to celebrate, too.

This is part of a new tradition that we are beginning at our school.    Each year we will select two pieces of student art to be professionally framed and mounted to become part of a permanent gallery collection in our building.  It is another way to highlight the many strengths and talents of the students at Oak Grove.  Please stop by to check out the latest additions!

Sincerely,

Jen Hemmingson

SPIRIT WEEK – MAY 21^ST TO THE 25^TH

Monday:              Multiples Day

Tuesday:             Garden/Earth Day

Wednesday:      Teacher/Mentor Day

Thursday:            Color Day

Friday:                  Fairy Tale Day Big kids with Little Kids

We are doing this week using RESPECT as our focal point.

Lunch Menu

May 14^th to the 18th

Monday:  Shepherd’s pie, ham and cheese sandwich, Greek chicken salad

Tuesday:  Spinach salad with chicken and bacon, turkey sandwich, summer chef salad

Wednesday:  Italian sub, egg salad sandwich, ranch chicken salad

Thursday: Turkey and gravy, hummus wrap, BCLT salad

Friday:  Cheese pizza, tuna sandwich, tuna dill salad

Oak Grove School Family Picnic – June 1^st 5:00-7:00 PM on the playground at school.

This is truly a community wide event.  Student Council, with FROGS help is setting up an end of the year party that will include face painting, a bouncy house, games, cotton candy, music and much more.   Student Council will provide hot dogs and FROGS is doing fruit and veggies but we can use your help in providing the rest of the meal.  We are asking that individual classes participate in the following way:

Kindergarten will provide the condiments:  catsup, mustard and relish

1^st grade will provide the hot dog rolls

2^nd grade will provide chips/dips

3^rd grade will provide gallons of water or non carbonated drinks

4^th/5^th grade will provide salads or side dishes

6th grade will provide napkins, plates and cups

These items can be dropped off at the school office during the week of May 28^th.  Please mark this date on your calendar and plan to attend.  We are all looking forward to it!

This is how we know it's May!

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PRINCIPAL:

Dear Parents and Families,

It is hard to believe that it is May already!  This time of year just flies as activities and events start building up on our calendars.  This can be a hectic time of year for adults and students, but it is an exciting time as well.  Please stay tuned to the Update and our website for up to date events.  There will be plenty!

A terrific event happening this Friday in our Brattleboro community is the annual Diversity Day Celebration.  Several of our students will participate in events and performances downtown, including some music and Spanish presentations.  We hope you will be able to attend!

Jen Hemmingson

THIRD ANNUAL COMMUNITY DIVERSITY CELEBRATION ~ FRIDAY, MAY 4th, 2012

Downtown Brattleboro: 5:00pm - 8:30pm

Arts Organizations, area businesses, food vendors, and community organizations join us in sharing the diversity of our Greater Brattleboro community

Performance Stage in Harmony Parking Lot: SCHEDULE:

5:00    NEYT: Theatre Adventure Adult Troupe: Song "Stagestruck" by Tony Barrand

5:10    NEYT AcTour Troupe: "Rock Your Boat"

5:30    Andy Davis and Oak Grove School

5:55    Guilford School Chorus

6:15    Mahalo Arts Center: "Songs for Peace & Vitality"

6:30    New England Center for Circus Arts

6:50    Brattleboro School of Dance: Belly dance & modern

7:00    Nina Kunimoto: Flamenco dance

7:10    Northfield Mount Hermon African Percussion Ensemble

7:35    Vermont Jazz Center: Latin Jazz Ensemble led by Julian Gerstin & Eugene Uman

8:00 Headroom Stages

8:00 Poetry Slam10:00 "Fenibo" Afrobeat funk

 Pliney Park

6:00 Hip-Hop with "Lil'man

"Snaz": Area youth rock band

Brattleboro Museum & Art Center Lawn

River Garden

Art Installation by Brattleboro Area Middle Students

Food Vendors Cai's Dim Sum House, Simply Savor, Megan Luces, Taste of Thai

Lunch Menu

May 7^th to the 11^th

Monday:  Cheeseburger, ham and cheese sandwich, Greek chicken salad

Tuesday:  Chicken quesadilla, turkey sandwich, summer chef salad

Wednesday:  Spaghetti with meatballs, egg salad sandwich, ranch chicken salad

Thursday:  Potato leek soup with a cheese quesadilla, hummus wrap, BCLT salad

Friday:  Pepperoni pizza, tuna sandwich, tuna dill salad

Dear Oak Grove Community,

Thank you to everyone who made a donation and/or purchased something from our bake sale to help support Foyer Evangelique Orphange in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti.  Our bake sale raised approximately $360 which was used to buy food for the orphans and to help pay the salaries of the teachers at the orphanage school.  It costs $25 per day to feed the 37 orphans who live at the orphanage and the teachers who works with the orphans are paid $90 per month, so the  donation from Oak Grove School went a long way.  We also brought cash donations from other sources (including a generous donation from St. Michael’s Episcopal Church and another from local children’s book author, Karen Hesse) and mountains of donated clothing, shoes, toys, bedding, school supplies, etc., which were all gratefully received by the orphanage director.

My experience volunteering at the orphanage was amazing.  Life is very hard in Haiti and when we arrived the children were only eating one meal a day because that was all they could afford, the teacher was working without pay and the students had no paper or pencils to do their school work with.  In spite of all this poverty, there was also a clear sense of gratitude for the little that they have and I witnessed a tremendous amount of love that the adults and children had for each other.  Perhaps the most powerful example of that love was the way that the older children cared for the younger ones, helping them to bathe and dress for school each day, doing their laundry, hugging them and comforting them.  As I reflect back on my week, I keep hearing the words of the Raffi song we sang at Oak Grove’s All School Sing last Thanksgiving, “All I really need is a song in my heart, food in my belly and love in my family.”  The people at Foyer Evangelique Orphanage have a song in their hearts and they have love in their family so all they really need is food in their bellies on a consistent basis.  I feel like this trip was just the beginning of my efforts to help these amazing children and their caregivers.  Now comes the hard work of looking for grants and microloans to support projects they have drafted which will generate steady income for the orphanage and help them to become sustainable.

If any of you are interested in visiting the orphanage, I know that they would welcome you and take very good care of you while you were there.  I would highly recommend it as a place to spend time making a difference in the world.  If you would like to learn more about Foyer Evangelique Orphanage, we have set up a facebook page to keep people informed about our work and to facilitate donations.  That page can be found at http://www.facebook.com/HelpMariamAndSheilaHelpHaiti.  Mariam has also been putting together a website for the orphanage which is http://orphelinatfoyereengelique.org.

If you had intended to make a donation before we left but didn’t have time to do so, we are still accepting donations of cash and clothing, school supplies, shoes and bedding that we will ship down in a few weeks.  I will leave the donation box in the school lobby in case anyone has more things to send.  Also, here is a list of suggested donations which I compiled after speaking with everyone there:

Clothing for teenage boys/girls                                belts                                                                      sandals of all sizes bathing suits                                                                underwear for all ages                                  make up and lip gloss barrettes and ribbons                                       soccer balls                                                        chalk and erasers pencils and sharpeners                                            paper                                                                    art supplies         children’s books                                             DVD player                                                         DVD movies for all ages beads and beading supplies                      electric piano/keyboard                                               drums

Again, thank you so much for all you have done to improve the lives of the 37 children at Foyer Evangelique Orphanage.  I will be giving a slide show of photos from my trip to the first graders and their fifth grade buddies this week and I plan to organize a community presentation of my photos sometime in May.  I look forward to sharing more about my experiences with all of you.

Warmly

Sheila Humphreys

Paradeducator, First Grade