Things That Make OES Great

Oakton Elementary is such a special place.  The partnership between our families and school is truly unique.  We work together to provide our children with great opportunities to learn, perform, and have fun. 

This week we held our Winter Band & Strings Concert.  Students in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade performed for their peers, teachers, and parents.  Mrs. Azzarello (Band Director), Ms. Frank (Strings Director), and Miss Ludwig (Student Teacher) have done an amazing job with our students.  We were especially impressed by a trio performance which included two 4th graders and a 6th grader – they were fantastic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday night, the Oakton PTA sponsored PUZZLE NIGHT.  This annual event is always a highlight of the year.  Teams consisting of parents and children compete to see who can complete a 500 piece puzzle first.  Two teacher teams competed as well.  It is a wonderful evening of fun family time! -cg

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geography Bee

Oakton Elementary held its annual Geography Bee Final on January 10, 2012.   This nationwide contest is sponsored by the National Geographic Society which provides questions (and answers) dealing with cultural and physical regions of the world and physical phenomena. We’re proud of all of our student finalists who actively participated in this challenging competition.

 

 

 

Our School Geography Bee had many difficult questions in several rounds before Devan (5th grade) won with Nick (6th grade) as runner-up.  The next level of the competition involves Devan taking a written examination that will be submitted to the National Geographic Society which determines the finalists for the state and national bees.  Thank you to Ms. Mulcahy (5^th grade teacher) and the Geography Committee for organizing this event! -cg

OES Does It Again!

Oakton Elementary earned the 2012 Governor’s Award for Educational Excellence, a recognition of schools that exceed minimum state and federal accountability standards and meet or exceed a number of performance indicators.  Oakton is one of only 16 elementary schools in Fairfax County to earn this prestigious honor.  This is an outstanding testament to the long-standing dedication and commitment of the Oakton faculty AND to the partnership with our Oakton families which supports excellence in each and every child.  Congratulations Oakton!

Our teachers provide numerous opportunities for students to creatively explore the curriculum and demonstrate what they have learned.  The 3rd grade “Imagination Station” is one example of the many reasons Oakton earns top honors in the field of education.  This week, 3rd grade students were challenged to create new math games.  In cooperative groups, students used various materials to design a board game demonstrating their knowledge of time, measurement, and number sense.  -cg

 

 

 

Geography Bee & Reader’s Theater

This week, students in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade competed to qualify for our school’s geography bee.  Each class identified their top 2 qualifiers and on Tuesday these students competed for the final 10 spots.  Students answered tough questions about geographical regions in the United States and across the world.  Congratulations to our finalists pictured below!  These students will participate in the final competition in January.

Pictured:  Nicole  (4th), Devon (5th), Paul (4th), Bobby (5th), Greg (4th), Ryan (5th), Nick (6th), Jessica (6th), and Christian (6th).  Not Pictured:  Sagar (5th), Zoe (4th)

 

 

 

 

Also, this week, our 2nd graders presented their Reader’s Theater. They told several stories such as, “Brementown Rappers”,  “The Cheetah and the Sloth”,  “Goldilocks and the 3 Bull Frogs”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “The Emperor’s New Hair”, “Rafunzel”, and “Spinderella.”

Reader’s Theater is “theatre of the imagination”. It involves children in understanding their world, reading aloud, performing with a purpose, and bringing enjoyment to both themselves and their audience. Reader’s Theater provides children with the opportunity to improve their reading fluency and expression.  

The children spent time preparing and practicing for their performances.  As they prepared, the students discussed different story plots, characters, setting, and the importance of a well developed beginning, middle and end. 

We certainly have some budding actors and actresses in our midst! -cg

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Math Exploration

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Math is all about exploration and making real world connections.  Every day during math, kindergarten students  have the opportunity to participate in hands-on math activities.  They sort, count, make patterns, draw, sequence, complete puzzles, etc.  Students don’t even realize they are learning – to them it’s play!  The children seen here are in Mrs. Hunter’s kindergarten class.  They were excited to share their math knowledge and vocabulary with me when I visited, but they were even more excited to work with their partners on their “games.”  -cg

The Kissing Hand

 Claire, a 5th grade OES student in Ms. Lafferty’s class, recently had the honor of meeting Audrey Penn (best selling author of The Kissing Hand).  A year or so ago, Claire wrote a letter to Mrs. Penn about how much she enjoyed her book.  Mrs. Penn actually wrote back to Claire!  But by the time the letter had arrived at school, Claire had moved.  Mrs. Penn lives in Maryland, so when she found out that Claire had moved to Virginia, they scheduled dinner.  Claire had a wonderful time chatting with Mrs. Penn and learning more about her – she even asked Mrs. Penn to sign a copy of her wonderful book for Oakton!  -cg

50 Days!

Time flies when you are having fun and learning!  This Friday marked 50 days that we have been in school and Mrs. Enoch’s first grade class celebrated in style.  Students wore fashions from the 50′s to mark this fun occasion.  -cg

We Honor Our Veterans

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Oakton Elementary has a wonderful tradition of honoring our veterans on November 11.  We take great pride in our military families.  In a moving tribute, our Oakton students and staff recognized the brave men and women who have served in the military and have made tremendous sacrifices to protect our freedom.   Veterans from the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines, and the Coast Guard joined us and spoke to students in their classrooms about their love for our country.  We were even treated to the amazing voices of the Alexandria Harmonizers!  Our very own General Murray presented the keynote and reminded our students that school and their studies should come first (before video games!)  The students enjoyed meeting “Tripod.”  Tripod lost one of his legs while working with the troops in Afghanistan.  Thank you to Mrs. Marshall and the character education students for putting together this touching event. -cg

Hats On For Turkey

Evran, in Mrs. Brill’s 3rd grade class, rallied the help of his schoolmates, teachers, and community to raise money for Turkey.  On October 23, a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, causing many casualties and several buildings to collapse. At least 240 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured.  Evran’s family is from Turkey and he knew that the Oakton school community would come together to help this cause. 

Students and staff each paid $1.00 to wear a hat on Friday.  All the money collected will be donated to the relief efforts.   -cg

Learning with Pumpkins

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Pumpkins were plentiful at Oakton this week.  Second graders participated in a “Pumpkin Experience.”  Students used their math skills to estimate, graph, weigh, and problem solve with pumpkins.  The children loved digging out the seeds and “guts” to learn!

Third graders in Mrs. Robinson’s class also used pumpkins for learning this week by creating pumpkin globes.  Student globes included the equator, prime meridian, and continents. 

Kindergarteners rounded out the week with their storybook parade.  The children dressed up as their favorite book character and paraded around the school to the delight of onlookers!  -cg