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Belltower
6300 SW Nicol Road
Portland, OR 97223
(503) 246-7771



© 2007 OES
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&Wednesday Express
May 7, 2008
(You may download a printable PDF here)


 
No Uniforms again this Friday, 5/9!  

Students should wear comfortable athletic wear for the walk-a-thon.

 

 

A Note from Chris O'Toole...

Service Learning in the Beginning and Lower School

Beginning and Lower School students are actively engaged throughout the year in age-appropriate service learning projects. This is especially true in the spring, around Mt. Hood Climb Service Day, when the school community honors the memory of the Portland community’s generosity.

Many of these service projects happen quietly, behind the scenes. You know about the projects going on in your child’s class, but might not know about service projects in other grades. Here’s a sampling of projects going on in the Beginning and Lower School.

Looking ahead to Mt. Hood Climb Service Day

•Beginning School through Second Grade students lovingly decorated snack bags for the Upper School volunteers to take on Mt. Hood Climb Service Day.

•Third Graders will pack these snack bags with a piece of fruit and cookies wrapped in biodegradable wax baggies. We’re getting away from plastic baggies and water bottles!

•Fifth Grade volunteers prepared and performed Project Second Wind skits at Lower School, Middle School and Upper School Chapels last week.

•Children will fill the Project Second Wind Food Drive collection boxes in classrooms and collection areas in the Beginning School, First and Second Grade common area and the Fourth and Fifth Grade common area! Look for a reminder note in your child’s Wednesday Express envelope if you need tips on what to donate.

Service Learning Projects on Mt. Hood Climb Service Day

Second Grade: Litter Project
•Second Grade students will collect trash around SPARC, the dining hall and the dorms. Later they will sort, analyze and document data (its weight, what was recyclable trash, non-recyclable trash, etc.) using graphs. Look for a newspaper article in Wednesday Express or the Aardvark News reporting their findings. Later in the month students will create signs encouraging campus visitors to keep our campus clean by using recycling and trash bins.

Wetland Restoration
•Third and Fourth Grade students and teachers will work on wetland restoration projects with Middle and Upper School students and teachers, pulling ivy and other invasive species, maintaining trails and collecting trash. Third Graders will focus on the Nicol Road wetland and Fourth Grade will focus on the SPARC wetland.

Brownies Donate and Plant Apple Trees
•The Second Grade Brownie Troop 1060 will donate and plant two Golden Sentinel Dwarf apple trees on the Beginning School playground. Thank you, Brownies!

Other Service Learning Projects

•Beginning School friends are tending their new raised beds located on the far side of the building closest to Nicol Road. Check them out! Students look forward to sharing most of their first harvest with Neighborhood House, our local community agency in Multnomah Village.

•First Grade students and teachers are learning how to care for the planet Earth through recycling, reducing waste and conservation of our natural resources.

•Fifth Grade students have been working with Peter Langley in the OES greenhouse planting and caring for vegetable seedlings. Students will donate their young plants to community gardens later this spring.

Living the Mission
Students, teachers and parents collaboratively plan and implement service learning projects. We deeply appreciate the time and energy you devote to service and the example you set for our children. We couldn’t do it without you!

OES Mission
The purpose of OES is to prepare students with promise for higher education and lifelong learning and to enhance their intellectual, physical, social, emotional, spiritual and artistic growth so that they may realize their power for good as citizens of local and world communities.

 

 

Mount Hood Climb Service Day

For the past 21 years, on the second Wednesday in May, students and faculty from Oregon Episcopal School have engaged in service projects throughout the Portland area. This is our Mount Hood Climb Service Day, a day when the OES family joins together to offer our tangible appreciation for the community surrounding us.

The 2008 Mt. Hood Climb Service Day takes place next Wednesday, May 14th. It begins with a brief all school gathering around our Belltower at 8:30 am. All members of our community are welcome to attend! Throughout the school, classes will dismissed and modified for the day. Students, faculty and staff from all divisions will work in small groups both on and off campus. OES representatives will visit over forty different agencies throughout the greater Portland area. In helping these agencies we extend a helping hand to children, animals, the elderly, the environment, and to people living in poverty, in hunger, or without homes. On campus projects will include environmental work with the OES wetlands and other areas needing care.

The Mt. Hood Climb Service Day is recognized as the cornerstone of our service learning program. It is clearly an important day to the OES community and an appropriately long-standing tradition of the school. For more information, feel free to contact Head Chaplain .

 

 

Information for Choir Participants

There are many great Choir Events coming up. Please click here for details on all choir events.

Thursday, May 8, 7pm--LS Spring Concert

Wednesday, May 21--Workshop and Perfomance with the Portland Jewish Academy

 

 
Discovery Day 2008

Attention Primary, 1st and 2nd Graders - Are your registration forms turned in for Discovery Day? If not, you need to get them in by this Friday, May 9th to get a chance to choose a workshop you’re interested in. Have you tried to challenge yourself athletically? Want to learn more about Japan? Act with some friends in a fun play? Fill out your form now and turn it into the LS office!

Extra forms are available in the office.

 

 

All School T-Shirts--Orders due this Friday!

Click here for an order form or pick one up in the office. Youth and Adult sizes, XS-XL. Short sleeve: $10 Long Sleeve: $12

Order forms due Friday, May 9th!

 

 

Teacher Appreciation Day Letters

Deadline Friday, May 16!!


Only 9 days left to turn in your cards for Teacher Appreciation Day!!! Wouldn't it be wonderful for your teachers to receive a full gift bag of cards, notes and pictures to enjoy?? Cards come from both parents and students so make them together with your children. Please turn in the cards to the big yellow mailbox in the Lower School office or email your letters to . Please remember to include the teacher's name on the letters and don't forget to include the specialist teachers and staff (chaplaincy, art, music, PE, Spanish, science, library, office staff, EC). For 1st-5th graders, there is one last lunch recess card-making session tomorrow (Thurs, May 8) - please stop by the 1st/2nd grade wing where we will have all kinds of fun card making supplies. Thank you so much for your participation!

 

 
Only Two Weeks Until GOBS – Are You Ready??!

The 2008 Great OES Book Swap will be held in the Lower School Library on Tuesday, May 20th and Wednesday, May 21st , 7:30 am to 4 pm.

The last day to donate books is NEXT TUESDAY, May 13th. FOESL volunteers will collect books at the Lower School walkway from 7:30 to 8 am. Please label your bags and boxes of books in order to receive book-swapping points.

Points are assigned by book types – 1 point for children’s paperbacks, 2 points for children’s hardbacks and adult paperbacks, 4 points for adult hardbacks – and credited to individual student, parent, or staff member. For purchasing, points are redeemed one-for-one for your first 25 points. If your book donations total more than 25 points, redemption for your 26th through 100th point is at 1/2 value. And, if more than 100 points are donated, those points beyond 100 are worth 1/4 value. (Need clarification? Please contact , 503-238-6209 - or other GOBS volunteers.)

On the first day of GOBS, you may only purchase books by redeeming points. On Day Two, points or cash may be used. Prices are set by book types: 25 cents for children’s paperbacks, 50 cents for children’s hardbacks or adult paperbacks, $1 for adult hardbacks. Happy Swapping and Shopping on May 20th and 21st!

(GOBS is a biennial event brought to you by FOESL, especially to encourage summer reading, and to raise money to support OES libraries, bring guest authors to school, and promote reading within the extended OES community.)

 

 
Soccer Classes

No soccer after school next week! Our teacher, Scott Corris, will be assisting our 5th graders at Camp Hancock. He will do makeups the first week in June. If your child attends on Tuesday, their last day will now be June 3 and if Thursday, their last class will be June 5. Please call the EC office (503.416.9249) if this changes your child's after school plan.
 

 

Summer Programs

Camps are quickly filling, but there are some great camps with room for your child. With 100 camps to choose from- there is something for everyone! We encourage you to sign up soon so your child can participate in the fun and learning that takes place at OES over the summer. Looking for what to do? There are openings in Creating Your Own Web Page, Fun With Fondue, Junior Crime Scene Investigator and many others. The website is updated daily with camps that are full. Check it out at www.oes.edu/summer. Our menu for summer lunches has now been posted as well.

 

 

Interested in Cub Scouts?

If you have a boy who is seven years old, or starting in first grade next year, and is interested in the Cub Scout Program at OES, there will be an informational meeting on Thursday, May 15 in the Lower School Common Hall from 6:30 to 7:00 PM. You and your boy are welcome to stay for the Pack Meeting that follows at 7:00 PM. We will discuss the activities planned during the Summer and next school year, recognize the boys who have earned awards and have some fun.

 

 

Log in your Volunteer Hours!

As the school year draws to a close, please don’t forget to log in your volunteer hours!
Go to the Lower School website, click on “Volunteers” and follow the simple tutorial. Click here for a direct link.

Volunteer hours are taken into account when OES applies for grants. Take a moment to update your hours, every hour counts.

 

 
From Previous Issues...  

 

4th and 5th Grade Music Informances


Here is a chance for parents to see their children learning. Come to the Music Informance for your 4th or 5th grader and witness what they are doing in music class. Both grades will demonstrate songs, games, learning activities and recorder. 5th graders will also demonstrate dulcimer.
Music Informances take place in the Common Hall.

Dates are as follows:
5th Grade Music Informance: Friday, May 9th, 8-8:45 am

4th Grade Music Informance: Tuesday, May 13th, 8-8:45 am

 

 
Volunteer Celebration! Fun, food, frivolity, door prizes!

OES treasures all our incredible volunteers. If you have volunteered at OES this year, even for an hour, come for breakfast, fun, door prizes and a great time with other volunteers, on Tuesday, May 13, at 8:15 am in the Dining Hall. We hope to see you there!

 

 

All-School Musical, The Music Man

In November of 2008 Oregon Episcopal School will produce its first ever All-School Musical, The Music Man by Meredith Willson. There will be six performances in the beautiful World Trade Center Auditorium in downtown Portland. This great American classic will be directed by Stephanie Mulligan, along with music and drama faculty from all three divisions of the school. Stephanie has directed several OES upper school productions and is the Literary Manager and Artistic Associate at Artists Repertory Theatre. The cast and orchestra will consist of students of all ages. We are very excited about this unique opportunity and hope you will join us in making this a great community event. Click here to get all the information you need about this all-school production. Questions? Please contact in the OES Theatre Department.

 

 

Music Man Auditions for K-11

May 5th-9th and May 12-16

Auditions for next year’s All School musical, “The Music Man” will be held for grades K-11 on the following dates:

Vocal Auditions: May 5th-9th, in the Chapel
Acting Auditions: May 12th-16th, in US BDH room 57
Band Auditions: May 12th-16th, in the Chapel

All auditions are being held from 3:30-6pm on the above dates.

For more information about what to have prepared for the auditions, and performance dates, visit: http://www.oes.edu/arts/music-man.html.

 

5th Grade Music Man Auditions

Because the 5th graders will be at Camp Hancock during the auditions, we are planning on making a list of all 5th graders who are interested in auditioning for the All School Musical. This is the process:

Call our main Front Desk coordinator, Arleene McCabe 503.246.7771.
Arleene will take your child’s name and phone number.
Jack O’Brien or one of the Audition committee members will then call you back and set up an appointment for your child to audition for the ASM.

 

School Closure Info

Occasionally, weather conditions necessitate closure or delayed opening of school. School closure may take one of three forms:

No School: News media will be notified by 6:00am. School will resume the following day, unless announced otherwise the next morning.

Delayed Start: If it appears that conditions will ease, school will convene two hours late. The media will broadcast this plan. Please continue to monitor reports, as unanticipated worsening of conditions may necessitate closure.

Early Closure: Should safety-threatening conditions develop during the day, students will be sent home early and media will be notified. Parents of Lower and Middle School students will be notified by telephone, and students will be supervised at school until they are picked up. Please be sure that the school offices have all of your correct contact numbers so you can be easily contacted in these situations. Upper School students will be responsible for making their own arrangements, but may stay at school until they can be picked up.

Closure Announcements: OES is a member of a school closure network that automatically contacts radio and television stations once our information is posted. Please monitor one of the major local stations or check http://newsbridge.net/Oregon_Episcopal/. The television stations' web sites all provide links to school closure announcements. In addition, closure messages are left on OES' telephone system-call 503.246.7771.


To submit information for the Wednesday Express, please email in the Lower School office by 3:00pm Monday.
 

Mail Login
 

 

Fifth graders

are performing

A Midsummer Night's Dream this week.