Halloween with Team OMS!

Halloween was a "Spooktacular" event with our little ghosts and goblins parading through the Olive-Mary Stitt neighborhood.  It was so great to see so many parents, grandparents and siblings out on the parade route.   The classroom parties, organized by our fantastic room parents were also greatly enjoyed by everyone!   The entire OMS Team is so appreciative  to work in a community where our parents are so invested in planning innovative and fun activities for our children.  We hope you enjoy this brief snapshot of our Halloween adventures!  Go TEAM OLIVE!

Olive Branch - October 2012

Click HERE to view the Olive Branch!

Owl Tribune - Volume 1

Please join us as we celebrate the first edition of the Owl Tribune!  More than twenty-five fourth and fifth grade students joined the Olive Junior Journalism Club and worked together to create this wonderful 15 page newsletter.  Please be sure to share this student created newspaper with your children!

Click HERE to view the Owl Tribune!

Halloween Is Almost Here

Plans for our Halloween celebrations on Wednesday are well underway. I want to thank all of the room representatives for their efforts to make this a special day for our students. Although it may be a bit chilly, the current weather report calls for sun. We will make every effort to have our parade outside, so please send your children with warm weather gear that can somehow be incorporated into their costumes. If you would like to watch the parade, please join us on the following route or at the school: OMS to Greens Park, south on Douglas, west on Oakton, north on Belmont, and back to OMS through our playground area, beginning at 1:30 pm. 

Please help your child choose a costume responsibly, understanding that we wish to promote safety while having fun.  Please be sure that students do not bring weapons (real or fake) to school or wear costumes that include blood or depict violence.  Please also exercise caution in selecting a mask, as students will not be able to wear them during the parties and may be asked to remove them if they make walking in the parade unsafe.

Students going home for lunch will be dismissed through the regular doors that they normally exit from at the end of the school day at 12:15 pm and then return at 1:10 pm to their morning line up locations. We will have extra supervision in place on Wednesday. We also ask that our parents be extra vigilant in all safety procedures around our school on this day as extra traffic, excited students, and rushed parents can result in a very dynamic parking lot. Thank you in advance for your respect of the dismissal procedures at lunch and at the end of the day. We want to make sure that all of our super heroes, princesses, etc. have a safe and fun-filled day!

FAQ on Head Lice

The following link will direct you to an annual letter from our nurses regarding head lice. The letter does not pertain to a particular situation at school, but rather it is an informational piece of literature. If you have any questions about the information contained in the letter, please feel free to contact one of our nurses.

http://oliveweb.sd25.org/pages/Olive-Mary_Stitt_School/For_Families/School_District_Communications/October_General_Lice_Letter_20

OMS PTA Rocks!

At the Illinois PTA District 37 Northwest Cook Region Annual Meeting on Monday night, the OMS PTA was recognized with a Gold Record for outstanding efforts in PTA membership recruiting during the 2011-2012 school year. Congratulations to the 2011-2012 PTA executive board and co-presidents, Carrie Hill and Amy Lumsden!

What's Happening at Olive?

Open House
We are looking forward to seeing Olive-U this Thursday, 6:30-8:00 pm for our Open House. For more information about the evening please see the October 12th blog post (archived posts are listed on the right-hand side of your screen). Parents will be able to sign up for fall and spring conferences during this evening.

Please note an important change for parent/teacher conferences: Parent/Teacher Conference sign-up sheets will not be in the gym. We have learned that the district's gymnastics equipment will be used by our students and in our gym during the week of Open House. Where all of this equipment takes up the entire gym, we are going to move all of the parent/teacher conference sign-up sheets to just outside classroom teachers' doors.

Coffee & Conversation with the Principals
New this year, Mrs. FitzPatrick and Mrs. Perri will be hosting a series of informal coffee meetings for parents, the first of which will be Friday, November 9th, from 9:30 am to 10:30 am. The purpose of these meetings is to give parents a chance to informally ask questions and discuss topics with Mrs. FitzPatrick & Mrs. Perri, as well as others in the school community. In addition to time with the principals, each meeting will include a presentation from someone in our community. The following is a list of the topics that will be presented this year. Each meeting will start with an open Q & A period, followed by the presentation. Come join us for a cup of coffee and some insightful discussion!

11/9/12 - Cyber Safety with Office Aiello, School Resource officer  - Officer Aiello will review ways parents can recognize the dangers of the Internet, situations to avoid; and will offer advice on how to "surf safely." Also, he will discuss social media sites such as Facebook.
1/25/13 - Fiction/Nonfiction Book Pairings with Nancy Brown, Olive LMC Director
2/22/13 - Anxiety in Children with Mary Moore, School Social Worker
4/12/13 - Common Core State Standards with Dale Truding, Assistant Superintendent, Department of Teaching & Learning

Annual Fill the Nest Food Drive
We are so excited to launch our annual Fill the Nest food drive, sponsored by the PTA Character Counts committee with the help of the OMS Service Learning club! Bags will go home with your children today, Friday October 19^th. We will be collecting food all next week (October 22nd -26th).  Please have your child bring in your donation of non perishable food items any day next week. All donations will go to the Wheeling Township Food Pantry. Thanks in advance to the OMS Community for your generosity in making this food drive a great success!

Be sure to scroll down to view past blog posts and 

click Here to view the 10-19-12 Twig!

Fifth Grade Field Trip

The Olive fifth graders enjoyed their field trip this week to the Aurora Sci Tech Hands-On Children's Museum.  The body presentation at the museum was a good review for the fifth graders and made a great connection to what they have been studying in class about joints. The children loved the outside activities that demonstrated Laws of Motion and Lever and Fulcrum. The students also enjoyed the air pressure, weather activities, building magnetic bridges, and much more.  A favorite activity of the boys, though, was finding out their baseball pitching speed. (Mrs. Dunlop shared that hers was only 28mph- so she is going to work on that!!!!)  The students found this to be an engaging and exciting learning experience!

OMS K at AHFD

Our kindergarten students visited the Arlington Heights Fire Department today. Firefighters discussed 911; smoke detectors; a family meeting space; and stop, drop, and roll. Our students then toured the station, which included an opportunity to climb into an ambulance and a fire truck. Thank you to our fire department for the tour and for keeping us safe!

 

Student Accident Insurance

Student Accident Insurance is offered as an option for all students through Gerber Life Insurance.  They offer both School Time and 24-Hour coverage.  More information can be found on the Arlington Heights School District #25  website under  the  Families sections.  Click HERE for a direct link. 

Historical Reenactment Photos

Thanks to the generosity of the ABC/25 Foundation, all District 25 fifth grade students had the opportunity to travel back in time to the year 1776 last Friday at our historical reenactment. Students rotated through different stations, such as wig maker and surveyor, to learn and experience what life was like in colonial America. The following are some pictures of Olive students enjoying the experience.

Important Dates

PTA Meeting:
There are two important events coming up in the next few weeks here at Olive. A general PTA meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 15 at 9:30 a.m. If your schedule does not normally allow you to attend the evening meetings, please consider joining us. The meeting will be held in the Olive-Mary Stitt teacher's lounge.

Open House:
Our Open House is scheduled for Thursday, October 25 from 6:30-8:00 p.m. With your child as your guide, you and your family are invited to our classrooms to learn about the dynamic learning experiences that abound at OMS. The format of the evening is truly an open house—so feel free to join us anytime between 6:30-8:00 p.m. This is a wonderful opportunity for your child to showcase his or her outstanding efforts so far this year. On a first-come, first-served basis, you will also have an opportunity to sign up for parent/teacher conferences. As has been the case in the past, we ask that families only sign up for one evening conference to allow more individuals to access these times. Schedules for the fall and spring conferences will be posted in the gym. (Per the 10.19.12 "What's Happening at Olive?" blog, the location of the conference sign up sheets has been moved to just outside of classroom doors). An exciting addition to our Open House this year will be a musical performance by our fourth grade students.  Please stop by the Commons at 7:00 pm (Mrs. Muhr and Mrs. DeMille) and 7:30 (Mr. Edstrom and Mrs. Grimm) to share in this musical celebration!  As always, anytime the entire OMS community is together it is always a great occasion. We look forward to sharing your child’s educational journey with you at this event!

Halloween:
The  Halloween celebrations at Olive will be on Wednesday, October 31. Students that will be going home for lunch on this day may do so at 12:15 p.m. and then return at 1:10 p.m. to their morning line-up locations. Students that stay at school for lunch will have an opportunity to change into his/her costumes at 12:55 p.m. A lunch permission slip will be coming home with your child today.  Please indicate on this permission slip if your child will be going home or staying at school for lunch.  Permission slips are due back to school no later than Monday, October 29th.  If the weather cooperates, we will have our annual parade through the neighborhood beginning at 1:30 p.m. The parade route is as follows: OMS to Greens Park, south on Douglas, west on Oakton, north on Belmont, and back to OMS through our playground area. Our kindergarten classes will be proudly leading the parade, followed by 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades.  Class parties will begin at the conclusion of the parade. If the weather decides to rain on our parade, we will move the fun indoors to the Commons. Students in our first lunch session (1st, 4th and ½ of 3rd grade) will parade around the commons beginning at 1:30 p.m. Students in our second lunch session (2nd, 5th, and ½ of 3rd grade) will be a part of a costume parade beginning at 2:00 p.m. Parents are welcome to congregate in the Commons to view these indoor parades beginning at 1:30 p.m. We are looking forward to a spooktacular afternoon…let’s hope for sun!

Be sure to scroll down to view past blog posts and 

click Here to view the 10-12-12 Twig!