Oakwood's youngest students celebrated the 100th day of school this week with 100-themed activities throughout the day. Our Junior Kindergarten classes celebrated by stacking 100 cups, and coloring festive hats! The Kindergarten students wore shirts, all with 100 items attached. It's always fun to see our students' creativity and excitement on special days like this. Happy 100th day of School, Oakwood!

Oakwood Freshman Melanie Chipman had an idea to connect the Oakwood high school community. She was inspired by a play she had watched about Sadako Sasaki, a radiation victim from the Hiroshima bombing. Sadako was diagnosed with cancer and decided to fold 1,000 paper cranes (or orizuru, as they're called in Japanese) to wish for world peace. Melanie's thought was, "...with all that has been happening in the world with the virus and political unrest, it might be neat if we as a school folded 1,000 paper cranes.

Dr. Sean Wilmot, Oakwood Science Department Chair, gave a presentation at the High School Assembly on January 22 to discuss the science behind the new RNA vaccine technology being implemented by Pfizer and Moderna versus SARS-COV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19. Dr. Wilmot also provided historical context on the development of vaccines and the enormous health benefits they provide. The intention of the talk was to delve deeper, celebrating the Science, and encourage as many people as possible to get vaccinated as early as possible so that we can all do our part to protect our community. To see the presentation click here.

Our remote Oakwood high school chemistry students rose to the challenge of finding resources for a hands-on science experiment in their own kitchens. These sophomores created density towers by using liquids found in their homes (honey, corn syrup, dishwashing liquid, milk, water, olive oil, rubbing alcohol, etc.). After creating the towers, the students tested the density of household objects (ice cube, marshmallow, soda cap, cherry tomato, pistachio nut, eraser, paper clip, gummy bear, etc.) by dropping them into their density towers and estimating their denseness based on whether the objects float, sink or settle within or between different liquid layers. This experiment illustrates how our remote students are continuing to delve deeper into science.

Thanks & Giving is Oakwood's school-wide community service project, which encompasses our educational goal of being Community Contributors through Respect, Service, Cooperation, and Good Citizenship. This meaningful event recognizes the opportunity to reach out to those in our community who are less fortunate. This year we asked families to donate funds that were used to purchase grocery store gift cards. These gift cards were then presented to Community Solutions who will distribute them to local families in need.

It was a pleasure to honor High School Senior Lydia Sattler class of 2021 as she signed her National Letter of Intent and committed to Stephen F. Austin State University as a 2021 Women's Soccer Team Goalkeeper. Lydia has been an exemplary Oakwood Hawk during her time at our school, and we look forward to following her journey and all that she accomplishes in the coming years at SFA. We enjoyed being able to celebrate with our in-person high school students today in the Oakwood Athletic Center Gym, while the rest of our upper school joined via Zoom for this momentous occasion. Congratulations to Lydia on this wonderful achievement! Click here to read The Morgan Hill Times article.

History came to life on Friday, November 6th, for Oakwood fourth and fifth-grade students. Both in-person and remote students learned and celebrated the Medieval and Renaissance periods. To bring the era to life, teachers and students alike wore costumes seen during the Middle Ages, dressing as knights, pirates, or those you might see spending time at court.

Oakwood School's third-grade students have had a great time creating a virtual musical this fall, "Super Happy Awesome News!" These students have so much to be proud of, and we want to congratulate them on their abilities to adapt and thrive! The students have now had a chance to watch their show, and soon it will be shared with their friends and families to enjoy!

Elementary students have been putting their creativity to the test this week while decorating pumpkin in a very novel way! Each year teachers in grades one through five assign their students to do a pumpkin book report. Each student reads a book of their choosing, then writes a book report. Then focusing on the traits of a character from their chosen book, they then decorate a pumpkin. This year students will be sharing pumpkins virtually or displaying them outside of their classrooms on Halloween! This project teaches students to be critical thinkers and effective communicators, all under the guise of a fun Halloween activity.

During the first trimester of middle school drama, students are learning the art of character development. They are working on a project where they discover more about the behind-the-scenes roles in the theatre world. Each young performer took on an artistic profession, such as director, choreographer, set designer, etc. During one of these exercises, each student came using items from their closets to dress up as a persona they created to interview professionals in their field. They had to answer questions and talk about their role and artistic ideas for putting on a show and then filming each scene. Will this be merely a fun classroom exercise, or will these parts come together into a student-written play? Only time will tell! But either way, our Oakwood faculty have created a fun project allowing students to obtain a more in-depth understanding of what it takes to develop a character.

Ms. Hare's 7th Grade US History classes are currently learning about the American Revolution. They have learned about the various taxes and grievances that the British imposed on the colonists at that time. As part of this lesson, the students delved deeper into the subject by participating in a virtual protest. They each created protest signs in reaction to either the Sugar Act, Tea Act, Stamp Act, or the Intolerable Acts (including Quartering Act).

Welcome to the first day of school for the 2020-2021 school year! Whether on-campus or remote, we love seeing our students' smiling faces!

Ms. Mallette and Mrs. Pappa's second-grade classes experienced a distance learning version of our beloved Camp Read-A-Lot on the last day of the 2019-2020 school year. Students set up tents or forts in their living rooms, bedrooms, or even their backyards, and dressed in camping attire ready for a fun last day together. The excitement began the day before as Ms. Mallette and Mrs. Pappa packed their cars and headed off to each student's home to make Camp Read-A-Lot deliveries. Our second-grade teachers were deeply moved by their warm welcome from each student and family and somewhat overwhelmed with emotion at being able to see each student in person after 66 days apart. On Friday, each student "Zoomed" from their tents equipped with a flashlight, goody bag, and the most exhilarating energy. Just as in previous years, the classes heard stories from our "Reading Rangers," Mrs. Shales and Mrs. Helvey, all while snacking on camp treats. The 2nd graders also enjoyed some camping review lessons. They ended the day with awards highlighting all of the special qualities each teacher found in our extraordinary group of resilient second-grade students.

Oakwood faculty and staff had so much fun delivering surprise packages to each of our 32 graduating seniors on Saturday. The Class of 2020 was greeted with a celebratory yard sign, as well as a care package containing their cap and gown, a mug with the class of 2020 names on it, a custom cookie created by an Oakwood faculty member, a senior class photo, a "Virtually the Best Senior Class Ever!" t-shirt, a book of "High-Fives" from Oakwood Kindergarteners, and much more to commemorate an unforgettable final year at Oakwood. We're grateful for their resiliency and dedication and wish them the best in their future endeavors! Congratulations Class of 2020!

As the school year comes to an end, some of the annual events we were looking fondly towards are not on the calendar due to the shelter in place order. One of these events is the "A Little Song and Dance" performance. However, Mr. Potter has a little surprise to share with his amazing students and the entire Oakwood community. He has created an incredible video of his students performing "Tuxedo Junction."