Elementary

Oakwood third grade students celebrated their completion of their first take home novel, The Boxcar Children. The activity started with a literature circle, where each student did a wonderful job taking on their role. The unit culminated with an afternoon "Boxcar Picnic." The students watched the The Boxcar Children movie while they noshed on many of the same tasty treats as the characters from the book (fresh bread and butter, blueberries, chocolate chip cookies and milk). It was a lovely afternoon where literature was brought to life.

Did you know that Oakwood students can now take a shuttle to school? Oakwood has partnered with Kidz Jet Shuttle Service to provide transportation to and from Oakwood for students in Los Gatos and San Jose. Kindergarten through high school students are utilizing this service and loving it. This alternative transportation is helping to keep the air clean while providing an opportunity to grow the Oakwood community.

The entire Oakwood campus gathered for a birthday celebration in honor of Oakwood's 20th anniversary. This was one of many events scheduled as part of the year-long anniversary celebration. Mrs. Hanson led students in a birthday song and everyone enjoyed cupcakes festively decorated in Oakwood colors. A special anniversary photo was taken by an Oakwood alum aerial photographer. Stay tuned for more about this special photo! Happy birthday, Oakwood!

Oakwood welcomed preschool through 5th grade students and their families for the 2018-2019 school year at the Lower School Kick-off event. Families gathered as Mrs. Helvey and Mrs. Shales gave the official welcome and introduced our wonderful lower school faculty. After dropping off their school supplies, elementary school students had the opportunity to talk with their teachers and socialize with their classmates over ice cream. Meanwhile, ECE students and their parents sipped some lemonade, talked with teachers, and had some play time with classmates before their official day of school on Tuesday.

Oakwood faculty and staff gathered in the library on Monday morning for a breakfast and meeting to kick-off in-service week. The upcoming week will be filled with meetings, trainings and getting classrooms ready in order to prepare for the start of the school year. Everyone is hard at work to make sure that the school year kicks-off right. We can't wait to see all of our students and their families back on campus next week!

A Groundbreaking Ceremony was held to commemorate and officially launch the Spreading Our Roots: Oakwood School Campus Expansion project on Thursday, May 10th as part of our Spring Open House and Art Show. All students and their families were invited to join us as we marked this special moment.

The event started with a few words from our Head of School Michelle Helvey, who shared what the school and this project meant to her and why the expansion was necessary, followed by remarks from Larry Kent of Kent Construction, who built the Oakwood high school building and is completing this important project for us. Ted Helvey spoke next about the history of our school and campus and how it belongs to all of us. The administration, along with some honored guests and students, donned hard hats and shovels and ceremoniously broke ground, while confetti cannons showered participants with colorful confetti. Attendees were given Spreading Our Roots: Oakwood School Campus Expansion seed packets at mementos of this historic celebration. Oakwood high school student Ashwin Viswesvaran took photos and videos of the event and we will share his finished compilation as soon as it is ready.

This campaign will be the first of its kind for Oakwood, and will mirror what other independent, not-for-profit schools employ to fundraise for projects of this magnitude. As we ramp up our fundraising efforts to complete Oakwood's new liberal arts building, gymnasium, and playfields, ultimately advancing our school's ability to provide enhanced hands-on learning opportunities and expanded extracurricular offerings for our current students as well as sustaining this excellence decades into the future, we will look to our entire community for support.

The Oakwood 2017 Thanks and Giving Celebration was an amazing event as usual. The 154 assembled Thanksgiving food bins were presented to Community Solutions. Over 1,117 books collected for the "Reading Hour" 2nd grade book drive were presented to the El Toro Clubhouse. There was singing, socializing, a video showcasing the things we are thankful for and pumpkin pie for the students – it was an Oakwood event that was truly a celebration of giving! Thank you to everyone for contributing and for showing our community your wonderful giving spirit.

Click here to view the "Oakwood is Thankful" video shown at the celebration.

Elementary art classes celebrated International Dot Day on September 15, along with more than ten million people from 169 countries! Classes read the book that inspired the event, "The Dot," by Peter H. Reynolds in which a caring teacher dares a doubting student to be brave enough to "make her mark." Watch our Hawks preparing to make their big mark in the world in the slideshow by following the "Read More" link.

The Oakwood first through fifth graders kicked off their school year with a delicious and fun ice cream social.

During art class Oakwood third graders learned about three-dimensional forms and drawing more realistically in space. They worked collaboratively to carefully consider how to stack forms and place them correctly according to the light source. Their work of art evolved into what appears to be a 3-headed, cyclops robot!