The Messenger
March 10
Projects involving wind power and solar power, such as these homemade solar panels, were popular at the Aardvark Science Expo
From Scott Hardister, Head of Middle School
In September I wrote about the rhythms of the school year, and how, for “school people,” these rhythms are as circadian as night fall or the change in the phase of the moon. We are currently approaching a change in the “school season”. The sun is shining more frequently and for increasing hours, students want and need to get outside more often, lacrosse balls and sticks are now as much a part of Meyer Hall as laptops and books. Middle school students also feel this change in the rhythm of the school year. Often it is this time of year when focus can wane and physical energy increases. It might take them a little longer to get started on homework, and for some, it is difficult to maintain the intensity they started the new year with. Middle schoolers can see spring break just over the horizon. Now is a good time to enthusiastically encourage your child! Give them the halftime pep talk that gets them to a much-deserved spring break!
With the spring around the corner comes spring fashion. Please help us with the dress code by reviewing this portion of our handbook with your student.
Finally, our fourth and last activity was Tuesday. I heard many students exclaim, “What? This is our last week?” All in all students truly enjoyed this cross grade level opportunity.
Parent Happenings
| Friday, 03/12 | 6th grade celebrating Pi Day |
| Saturday - Sunday 03/13 - 03/14 |
8th Grade Musical Rehearsal 12 noon - 4:00 PM |
| Monday, 03/15 | 8th Grade Musical Rehearsal 3:00 - 7:00 PM |
| Tuesday - Wednesday 03/16 - 03/17 |
8th Grade Musical 7:00 - 9:00 PM, MS Commons |
| Wednesday, 03/17 | First day to donate books to the GOBS 7:30 - 8:00 AM Lower School covered walkway |
| Saturday - Sunday 03/20 - 03/28 |
Spring Break |
| Monday, 03/29 | Classes resume |
| Monday, 03/29 | 8th grade Promotion Meeting 1:30 - 3:00 PM, Guild Room |
| Wednesday, 04/01 | Auction Committee Meeting 1:00 - 2:30 PM, Morris House Conference Room 2:30 - 4:00 PM, Aardy's Tie-Dye Party |
| Friday, 04/02 | Good Friday - School Holiday |
| Saturday, 04/17 | OES Auction |
| Friday, 04/23 | Books & Breakfast 8:00 -9:30 AM OES Dining Hall |
Please note that new information added to the Messenger each week will be marked *NEW* Here's what's new this week. Scroll below for details.
** To families of 8th graders
** To families of 6th graders
** MS Track Information
** Yearbook 2010
** Auction 2010
To Families of 8th Graders *New*
A huge Thank you to the families who offered to host a student from Quebec in May. We are looking forward to a wonderful experience. Our guests from Saint Joseph de Beauce will be arriving on May 9th to stay with OES families, go to school for a couple of days with their hosts and go on pre-arranged day trips to explore our region. The OES French students will be visiting Quebec and staying in the Beauce region in late April for ten days. Please contact or at (503) 416-9331 if you have any questions.
Pi Day coming soon....
The 6th graders are celebrating Pi Day on Friday March 12th (March 14th is a Sunday). The 6th grade math classes will celebrate Pi Day by doing Pi activities, singing Pi songs, reading about Pi, having a Pi reciting contest, and of course eating pie! Parents are welcome to send a pie into school on the 12th.
Contact if you have questions
To Families of 6th Graders - Outdoor School *New*
Mark your calendars for Outdoor School, which is the 6th grade traveling spring trip. We will leave in the afternoon of May 9 and will return around 1:30pm on Friday, May 14. This is a well-known program, sponsored by Multnomah County, and as a private school, we are lucky to be given a week. The two coordinators of this trip are Benno Lyon, a former ODS counselor, and Lauran Pratt, who has led spring trips in the past. This is indeed education that replaces our curriculum for the week. The focus is on the environment, including plants, water, soil, and animals. It is also a culmination of the diversity and frames of reference themes from 6th grade humanities.
The Outdoor Supervisors for each of the two camps will give students an orientation at 8:15am next Wednesday, March 17th in the two humanities’ classrooms upstairs. Parents are welcome to attend, and your child will know whether they are going to Sandy River (near Corbett), or Camp Arrah Wanna (on the Salmon River, near Welches) before Wednesday. There is also an Open House for families Sunday, March 28, at each camp, Invitations and directions will be sent home with your student.
MS Track Information *New*
The MS Track team will practice next week on Monday March 15 and Thursday March 18. Practices will be from 3:15-4:45. After Spring Break practices will be on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. A detailed schedule of practices and meets will be given out next week.
Yearbook 2010 *New*
YEARBOOK is looking for your great basketball photos! Do you have two or three favorites shot over the season? Please, send them our way so we can get them in the book. You can e-mail them directly to
Looking for pictures of:
Boys 6th
Girls 6th
Boys D2
Boys B
Girls B
Questions? Please call the Yearbook coordinator, Carrie Cool, at 503.997.4902
2010 Great OES Book Swap
The 2010 Great OES Book Swap will be held in the Lower School Library on Tuesday, May 25th and Wednesday, May 26th , 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Clean out your shelves, find those boxes in the closet! The first day to donate books is March 17th. From 7:30 to 8 a.m., FOESL volunteers will collect books at the Lower School walkway. Please put your child’s name on your bags and boxes of books in order to receive book-swapping points. Points can then be used to purchase books in the Lower School Library on May 25th and 25th! If you’d like to volunteer please contact .
Auction 2010 *New*
Aardy’s Party- The Age of Aquarius- April 17, 2010
Lend me your ears and I will sing you a song, and I’ll try not to sing out of key, Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends, oh we get by with a little help from you.
Your donations have been groovy, what we need now are smaller items to help create packages and baskets: Sporting event tickets, performance event tickets, and restaurant and service gift cards. You can turn in your procurement forms even if the physical items are not yet secured, deadline is March 19th. Forms available at divisional offices.
We can use a few more hands, man! Paperwork, curbside collections, packaging, set up and more. There is much to be done behind the scenes to make the auction a success. Volunteers are needed on campus, to set up at the MAC and especially on the night of Aardy’s party. If you’re not planning to attend the party as guest, consider donating your time to make the night dy-no-mite! Contact volunteer coordinators or to find the perfect spot for you!
Tie Dye shirt a little faded? All are welcome to attend Aardy’s Tie Dye Party, Thursday April 1st, 2:30-4 PM At the covered US lot behind the dining commons. We’ll provide the dye and rubber bands; you bring your t-shirt or item you want to dye. LS students need to be accompanied by parent.
Call to the Wall of Wine. This year it is easier than ever to donate to one of our favorite parts of the auction. Call Erin at The Wine Cellar, 503-643-5655, Erin will help you and give you a 10% discount on any order. Your order will be delivered directly to the auction by our WOW volunteers. For other wine donations, there will also be curbside pick up at OES before and after school on Thursday, April 8th and Friday, April 9th.
Check our out new Job Shadow Packages on the auction website. This is your student’s opportunity to experience exciting careers up close and personal.
Next Meeting: April 1st, 1-2:30 PM, Morris House Conference Room, all welcome.
To volunteer, ask questions, or for general help contact auction coordinator
503-768-3156. Click on heart auction logo for link to auction website.
Aardy had a great time at the Science Fair, and is hanging ten at a new location on campus.
Volunteer to be Grade Rep next year
Want to be a MS Grade Representative??? Chair or coordinate a MS Event???
Just a reminder that now is the time to volunteer to be a Grade Rep or an event Chair or Coordinator for next year. We are currently taking names for MS Grade Rep positions in 6th and 7th grades (we also need a Grade Rep for 9th grade in US) and MS event chairs or coordinators (see list below). You can submit your name by using the online volunteer sign-up sheet (access the form through the Parent Portal or through the Volunteer Login on the OES website) or by contacting your current (or another) Grade Rep, Kim Jensen (MS Volunteer Coordinator) or Jan Massaro, Chair of Volunteers’ Common Link. The deadline for submitting your name is Friday, April 2. We would like to have all Grade Reps and Chairs/Coordinators for next year in place before summer break.
Grade Reps foster clear and open communication between parents and the administration, organize and run monthly MS PAL meetings on a rotating basis, plan community building activities for parents in their respective grade levels and for parents in the MS, and attend meetings with Head of MS and MS Grade Reps and monthly VCL meetings.
The other volunteer positions in MS that need to be filled before summer are: DEAR Baking Coordinator, 8th Grade Graduation Party Chair(s), 8th Grade Musical Coordinator, Teacher Appreciation Chair(s), Service Learning Coordinator, Team Parent Chair, Homecoming Liaison for MS, MS Volunteer Coordinator, and MS Treasurer (see the Volunteer section of the OES website for further details).
If you have any questions, please contact your Grade Rep, Kim Jensen, or Jan Massaro.
Community Diversity Link Announcements
DREAMS FROM MY FATHER: A STORY OF RACE AND INHERITANCE
BY BARACK OBAMA
Books and Breakfast: Friday, April 23, 8-9:30am, OES Dining Hall (NEW DATE!)
Our April book discussion will feature the autobiography of Barack Obama, our country’s first Black President. In this highly-praised memoir written before his political ascendance, Obama shares his emotional journey to understand his own family heritage and racial identity as the son of an absent Black African father and a white American mother. Obama is candid about racism and poverty and the story resonates with universal themes of love, obligation and loss while offering insights into the unusual life and unique multicultural background of our current commander in chief. Copies for sale in the Gallery Store for benefit of OES libraries.
START READING NOW FOR LAST BOOK DISCUSSION THIS YEAR:
HALF THE SKY: TURNING OPPRESSION INTO OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN WORLDWIDE by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Books and Breakfast: Friday, May 14 8:00-9:30am, OES Dining Hall
Contacts: Co-Chairs 503.292.6609 and 503.297.3593.
New in the MS Library
Be sure to stop by the Middle School Library blog: New in the Middle School Library. You will be able to look at video recommendations of books, keep track of what’s new in the library, see what students and faculty are reading, AND MORE. Check it out!
Lost & Found in MS
The MS Lost & Found is housed in the far left of the downstairs hallway. Please be sure to check for items from time to time. We will hold the items until the Friday before Spring Break and then bag unclaimed items away to charity. Please stop by.
After School Math Help
Ms. von Ofenheim and Mr. Chang will be available for math help after school in RGS (the math classroom) according to the following schedule:
Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00 p.m., Mr. Chang
Wednesdays, 3:15-4:00 p.m., Ms. von Ofenheim
Fridays, 3:15-4:00 pm - Ms. von Ofenheim
We are also available for help during study hall on Tuesdays
To submit information for the MS Messenger, please email in the Middle School office by Monday, for inclusion in that week's Messenger.