Oakleigh Owl News
October 2021
A Message from the Principal
Hello OES families,
Happy fall! We have officially completed one month of school! It has been wonderful to see so many families at arrival and dismissal as well as during our virtual back to school night. While things are not completely back to normal, we are pleased to have students back in the building and focusing on face-to-face instruction. I can’t thank you enough for your support as we have put procedures and practices in place to keep our students and staff safe.
I would also like to thank you for your patience as we have worked to ensure a continuum of learning for students who have been quarantined due to a potential Covid exposure. Teachers are working to be sure that if a student is absent for any reason, that are able to make up work. Please remember, if you child is not feeling well, please keep them home.
As a reminder, students must wear a mask to school daily and on the school bus. Please be sure your child has a mask that is suited for them. We know there will be times that students forget, and we have some extra masks. However, their own mask that fits properly is always the best way to protect them as well as others.
As we return to many of our typical instructional practices, students will engage in multiple assessments in order to determine reading and math levels. Students will need their computers for some of this testing. We are asking that devices and chargers be sent to school and left at school for the time being.
The PTA is resuming activities and is planning Trunk-or-Treat for October 14th! We are excited to provide this to our families as it has been a well-attended event that brings out the whole community! Details will be coming soon from the PTA.
We are looking forward to a fantastic school year!
Mrs. Metheny
Preschool 3's
This month we will be learning the rules and routines of our classroom. We will learn how to make new friends. We will practice sharing and taking turns at our tables and during centers. We will also be learning about colors and shapes! We are going to read many stories that teach about colors. We are going to practice sorting objects by color. We will do several art projects that go along with our color theme.
Pre-K
Our Prekindergarten scholars have been learning about routines and following directions. They are doing an amazing job walking quietly in the hallway to show respect to other learners. In Math, we have been working on naming, matching and sorting shapes. In social studies, our friend Shubert is teaching us how to regulate our emotions. In ELA, we have been working on identifying the letters in our first name and learning about fall.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten has been hard at work learning classroom routines and commitments such as listening ears, safe hands, and watching eyes. We have also focused on creating a school family that encourages and supports each other's learning. Students have developed strategies for regulating their emotions in a safe and calm manner.
We have begun reviewing our letters and will be introducing sight words and sounds soon. Please read the decodable books with your child that are coming home and reviewing the sight words sheet in their folders. Please keep these decodable books in a safe place to refer to when reading at night. In math, we are learning how to use our math tools to help us learn. We are exploring with cubes, polydrons, geoboards, pattern blocks, etc. Students are practicing how to write numbers 1-5 and to support your child's learning. We are very exciting for this year and look forward to seeing all the growth that will be happening!
1st Grade
2nd Grade
Second grade has been working hard on creating routines and following them within the classroom! In Language Arts we are reading narratives and identifying story elements (characters, setting, problem and solution, and the main events). We have also been working on creating story plot maps based on the events in the story. In math we have been focusing on representing our problem-solving strategies using number racks, number lines, and math tools while we are solving addition and subtraction equations. We are enjoying getting to know all our classmates more each day and building new friendships!
3rd Grade
Third grade has been off to a great start! We are really getting into our routines and working on meeting school/classroom expectations. We have focused on addition and subtractions strategies and patterns, building healthy relationships at school and finding the main idea of texts and using text features to support non-fiction texts. Our texts have focused on endangered animals, so we are closing this month out with researching some endangered animals on our own! We can’t wait to show off our projects soon!
4th Grade
5th Grade
5th grade is so excited to be back in-person this year! The month of September involved getting back into routines and getting to know each other. We concluded our first unit of health, titled “A Healthy Return to School,” where we discussed topics like communication, nutrition, and sleep. In ELA, we began to answer the question, “What is literacy?” Students have read multiple texts explaining the importance of literacy here and around the world. Students are also finding ways to support their ideas with factual sources, which will help them become better writers. In math, we love to review our prior knowledge using our daily Number Corner books. Our first unit was titled “Expressions, Equations, & Volume,” where students practiced using a variety of multiplication strategies. Please be sure to practice basic multiplication facts with your child every night so they can solve problems accurately and efficiently. The 5th grade teachers thank all our wonderful families for their support in keeping our students healthy, safe, and engaged in learning.
FALS
Spotlight on PE
Oakleigh has a new sensory path located at the Merry Little Playground Square! Local Eagle Scout Ryan Moran from Troop 130, a student at Perry Hall High School, created this path as part of his eagle scout project. He worked with Councilman David Marks and Loch Raven Optimist Club to get this project completed. Students started using the path on September 27th! It is a huge hit!
Social Work Corner
Welcome back!!! We are so happy to have our students back in the schoolhouse with face-to-face instruction. School Social Workers work in collaboration with school administration, staff, students, and parents. School Social Workers provide Social Emotional Learning (SEL) lessons to our students. SEL is the process through which students, parents, and school staff learn and apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel, and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
In the next few months, we will identify the tenets of Social Emotional Learning in this newsletter.
I look forward to working with students, parents, and staff to strengthen our school community during this school year!
Ms. Kersey, LMSW School Social Worker (mkersey2@bcps.org)