At Oak, we believe that building a positive school culture is everyone's responsibility, including our students! Our Cougar Ticket initiative is all about making Oak a place where every student feels connected, valued, and proud to be part of our community.

Throughout the school day, students have opportunities to earn Cougar Tickets for the little things that make a big difference in our school culture. This might look like greeting adults and fellow Cougars around campus, welcoming someone into a game at recess, helping a classmate without being asked, showing kindness to someone having a tough day, picking up litter to keep our campus beautiful, or simply going out of their way to make someone feel included. These everyday actions may seem small, but together they create a school where everyone feels they belong.

We also have a Wall of Fame in the school office, where we proudly recognize Cougars who are helping make Oak an even better place! Stop by the office and take a look at the wonderful students we're celebrating.

But here's the fun part: This isn't an individual competition! Every ticket contributes to a collective schoolwide goal. When one Cougar earns a ticket, our entire school gets a little closer to celebrating together. It's our way of reinforcing that each of us has a role in creating the kind of school we all want to be part of.

And guess what? We've officially reached our first milestone of 500 tickets! 

Our Student Leadership team was given the opportunity to choose how we would celebrate this achievement, and after voting, they selected Movie and Popcorn in the Multi during lunch! We will be enjoying the ‘Bad Guys’ movie next week during lunch!

What I especially love about this initiative is that it's about more than tickets and rewards. It's about helping students recognize that they have a voice in shaping our school culture. They aren't just following expectations; they're actively contributing to a community built on kindness, joy, belonging, and shared responsibility.

500 tickets represent hundreds of little moments that make Oak a wonderful place to learn and grow. And that's certainly worth celebrating!

Here's to our Oak Cougars and the culture we're building together, one kind act at a time!

Nikita

We're excited to welcome NED's Mindset Mission to Oak! This fun and engaging assembly inspires students to develop a positive mindset, embrace challenges, encourage others, and Never Give Up! These are wonderful reminders of what it means to be an Oak Cougar!

To support the program's pay-it-forward mission, we'll be holding a NED Yo-Yo Sale from Monday, November 16, through Friday, November 20.

Families interested in purchasing a yo-yo should complete the order form attached to this newsletter (extra copies are available in the office) and send it with cash or a check. Exact change is appreciated for cash payments.

Students may turn in orders at the office only during recess or from 3:00–3:30 p.m.

We're looking forward to bringing NED's message of perseverance, kindness, and a can-do attitude to our Cougars!

Oak's generous PTA gave staff a comfort break during recess today -- a stunning selection of pies (with ice cream) and coffee. 

It was a delicious break and a chance to relax in the middle of our busy morning.

Wonderful comfort food for a blustery day - Thank You PTA!.

Get ready to see the multi transformed into a gallery! Join us on November 18 at Covington Elementary from 5:00-7:00 pm for the annual LASD Art Showcase. Let’s celebrate our students’ creativity together. 

From colorful paintings and bold prints to textured collages and clay creations, there’s something from every grade, TK through 8th. It’s a great chance to wander and admire your student’s artwork alongside others. 

And this year, there’s a little mystery in the mix! LAEF is bringing a fun scavenger hunt to the showcase, with a chance to win exciting prizes.

From the Art Docents program in our elementary schools to art electives in junior high, our students learn about art appreciation as well as art elements, techniques, and so much more. And your donations to LAEF help fund it all. Thank you for supporting art education for all LASD students. 

What happens when students lead their own learning and dive deeply into a question that matters to them, and share their voices in powerful ways? Illuminate LASD invites students to become experts, innovators, and change-makers. 

Whether it’s researching a topic they’re passionate about, solving a problem that inspires them, or creating something to make an impact, students will share the artifacts that highlight the learning process. From TK to 8th grade, Illuminate LASD invites students to share what they now know and can do by sharing the process and products of their learning on Friday, February 26th from 4:00PM - 7:00PM. 

Register today to participate and submit an Intent Form by November 18th by visiting https://tinyurl.com/illuminateLASD. 

We invite you to share in this experience that connects student curiosity, creativity, and agency!

NED's Mindset Mission is a character education program that centers around three important messages that have lifelong relevance: Never give up, Encourage others and Do your best. 

During Monday's assembly, students will learn about the importance of these three life skills while also enjoying storytelling, magic, humor and yo-yo tricks. 

Library lessons this week included reading books about tying your shoelaces, hummingbird migration, the ocean, and a cat who thinks he’s a bird. We also covered lessons about the Nonfiction 700’s section in Kinder, did shelf marker practice in 1st grade, did fiction shelf order practice in 2nd, and did a guide word lesson in 3rd. In the upper grades, we read books about rubber ducks as part of the ocean’s trash and a biography about Marjory Stoneman Douglas, a protector of the Everglades. 5th grade played Dewey Decimal System Jeopardy and 4th grade took a Genre Personality Quiz.

Newly added to the student Clever library resources section is Mango Languages. If your student would like to learn a language, they can log in as a guest from their student Clever page.

We started a new mystery picture in the library! To encourage reading, I have the kids add stickers for books read to reveal a mystery picture at the end of the school year. For K-1st, any book read by the student or to the student qualifies for a sticker to put on our picture. For 2nd and 3rd, the student needs to read a 100+ page book. For 4th-6th, students need to read a 250+ page book. This is just another way to encourage more reading.

You can still sign your students up for Birthday Book Club via the Oak Classroom Parent website: oak.classroomparent.com. Look for the tiny store icon along the top bar.

Go to this link: https://www.destinydiscover.com/aasp/ui/pick/picked

Choose California, type in Los Altos School District, and Oak Avenue Elementary School in Los Altos. There are multiple Oak Avenue Schools, so make sure you pick the one in Los Altos. This puts you directly into the Oak Library Catalog, which shows all the books the Oak Library owns. Click Go! You can browse the collection by topic, genre, grade level, etc. You can search for a specific book title or author. You don’t need to log in to do any of these searches. However if you do want to put a book on hold or read one of our ebooks, you will need to log in.

To log in, click on the login button at the top right. Enter this year’s google username and password that you use to log in to your school google account and submit. Search for the book you are looking for and put it on hold. Mrs. Forrest will pull the book for you and have it waiting for you in the library during the school year. No summer holds available.

All LASD students (unless parents opted out), have a student account through the Santa Clara County Library District, aka, the Los Altos Public Library. This student account offers access to eBooks, research resources, homework help, and much more.

To access the website, go to: https://student.sccld.org

It is Oak School’s mission to ensure high levels of learning for all students. Every day we respectfully collaborate to develop confident, resilient, joyful learners who care about the Oak School community and become responsible citizens.