We are thrilled to be back from winter break and are excited about our students growth over this school year. In our second half of the school year we will be focusing on being the best Eagles we can be. Please support your students positive behavior at home by checking Class Dojo, communicating with your child's teacher and checking Teacherease for discipline reports. We appreciate your support in helping make Oak Grove a great place to be.

Mrs. Martin's 4th graders are working hard on their math "GROUP JAM" style. Mrs. Martin puts a problem on everyone's computer to solve. While students work out the problem on their whiteboard, the teacher and students can see the number of students who answered correctly without knowing exactly who it was. This allows us to prepare for assessments and relearn areas if needed. Our favorite part is we can earn Dojo points for working hard!

Mrs. Kumpf's class had a great time decorating trees at our holiday party! A huge thank you to our room parent, Amanda Strausbaugh for all your help to make this happen!

Now that we are back into the swing of things in 2024, we are hitting the ground running on getting students prepared for the upcoming IAR tests in March! Students are working hard to gain more knowledge about multi-digit multiplication, long division, adding & subtracting mixed numbers and learning about decimals.

There has been a lot going on in the world of art at Oak Grove lately.

• In December we made ornaments that were displayed on a tree for the Saxony Court and Accolade and Health Care in East Peoria.

• Over Christmas break I took a trip to Blick Art Supplies in Galesburg where I picked up a pallet of art supplies for the school that was donated to us by Blick Art Supplies. We received different types of art papers, paint, paint brushes, markers, multicultural colored pencils and crayons, sketch books, and modeling clay along with other supplies. We will make thank you cards and/or notes to send to them soon.

• In January we have been very busy working on posters to enter a contest for the state of Illinois Life Goes On program for organ donation. A lot of the posters students have created are really good. I will let you know if one of our students wins this contest.

• In December the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students finished up a project researching an artist and creating a painting in the style of their chosen artist. We are working on putting some of these paintings up on display in our hallways. We have some amazing artists in our school.

Ms. Taylor

Art teacher

The week of February 5 - 9, we are celebrating National School Counseling Week. Did you know there are school counselor standards I use because I want to help you learn? These are specific skills you need as you grow and gain maturity.

Through lessons we may do in class, in group discussions, or even one-on-one conversations, I want to help you learn coping skills, how to work well with your peers, how to make informed decisions and even how to take responsibility for your actions. These are all important skills that help us be good friends, family members and, someday, employees.

The essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters to what lies within us.” I hope I can help you cultivate what lies within you.

I get excited when I see you using a skill you’ve learned – whether you’re successfully working on a group project with other students or you’re resolving a conflict.

If there are some specific skills you’d like to work on, I’d love to help!

Have a great day, your school counselor - Mrs. Rademaker :)

The school office has had reports of safety concerns for parents dropping students off at the front door in the morning. As a reminder if you are dropping your student off for breakfast and there is a bus present please do not pass the bus.