Ocean Avenue Friday Notes

• 4/4: Fifth Grade Exhibition Day
  ~ 9-9:15 AM: "The Exhibition Experience" introduction by students, in the Cafeteria
  ~ 9:25-11:40 AM: Exhibition teams present to family and friends, Fifth Grade Wing

• 4/5: Grade 4 PLAY Stage Performance in the OAES Cafeteria/Stage, 10-10:30 AM

• 4/5: Happy Wheels PTO Night, 5-7 PM
• 4/8: Solar Eclipse 2024 ~ We have purchased glasses for every student. We will be sending them home since the eclipse starts at 2:17 PM (after dismissal).
• 4/9: OAES PTO Meeting in the Library, 5:30 PM
• 4/11-4/19: April Break/Recess ~ NO SCHOOL (School resumes on 4/22)
• 4/22 - NEW CONFERENCE DATE FOR CANCELLED 3/25 CONFERENCES: Student Led Conferences ~ Dismissal at 11:10 AM (All conferences that were originally scheduled for March 25th have been moved to the same time on April 22nd. You should have received an email with this information. Please contact your child's teacher or the Main Office at OAES if you have any questions.)
  
• 4/22: Afterschool Learning Works and Jewish Community Alliance (JCA) Center CANCELLED Due to Conferences; Boys and Girls Club will also not be picking up at early release on these two days. The club will open at 2 PM.
• 4/23: Sparks Ark Presents to 1st Grade, 9-10 AM
• 4/25: Community Meeting in the Gym
  
  

Portland Public Schools uses assessment data to help inform our practices at the district, school, classroom, and individual levels for our students. Each year the Maine Department of Education issues a report for each district and each school. These reports summarize state assessments and other achievement data about our students. The report also contains information about teacher qualifications. The ESSA Data Dashboard at the Maine Department of Education allows you to review report cards for schools and districts across the state. The ESSA Data Dashboard has recently been updated with information from the 2022-2023 school year.

At Ocean Ave School, we hunger for data as it comes out each year. You can find some in our school success plan each year. The data points help us understand where we are growing and improving. It can show students' milestones for celebration. It can also show where we might want to focus next or what we should stop doing. Our approach to the big picture at OAES is one of continuous improvement. To that end, later in the spring you can expect me to share a draft of our school plan with families for feedback before we finalize it.

Does your child talk about being in the 'green zone' or 'yellow zone'? We thought it might be helpful to provide more information about how we use The Zones of Regulation framework to make it easier for children to talk about, think about, and regulate their emotions.

As you can see from the graphic below, The Zones of Regulation organizes our feelings, states of alertness, and energy levels into four colored Zones – Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red. We encourage students to identify what 'zone' they are in, their feelings, and their energy levels. We then support students in developing strategies to regulate their 'Zones' to effectively engage with learning and support their overall well-being.

In the next few weeks, we will share some strategies, such as specific breathing exercises, that we teach students to support them to be in the 'green zone' and ready to learn!

At Ocean Avenue Elementary School, fifth graders are readying their presentations for family and friends on Thursday, April 4! Teams are conducting inquiries on issues they care about and want to help change. Each team is creating a presentation to EDUCATE and ENCOURAGE ACTION around their issue.

Ms. Nika, Ocean Avenue's Environmental Literacy teacher, helps to connect classroom learning with the environment, which we know is vital at this time on our planet. This work in the living schoolyard helps students build relationships, reciprocity, respect, and responsibility for our Earth in a shared learning experience.

See Ms. Nika's Nature Notes for March 28, 2024!

Come share your thoughts, ideas, and questions with members of the School Board! The meeting schedule is in the attached graphic below. There is only ONE MEETING LEFT ~ April 4th. WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

We are in need of boys 5-6, 7-8 and 8-10 sweatpants for our school clothing closet!!

If you have any new or gently used boys sweatpants in this size, we will gladly take them.

Thank you for your donations!

• Bring your friends and family for Ocean Ave's private skate time!
• $11 per person.
• Rentals included or bring your own skates.
• All the classic games -- hokey pokey, chicken dance, corner game, and more!
• For financial assistance, please contact board@oapto.org to obtain community passes at no cost (rental skates included).
  

You're invited to join other parents, guardians, and staff for the next monthly meeting of Ocean Avenue's Parent Teacher Organization! Each meeting takes place in the school library on the second Tuesday of the month at 5:30 PM. Come for an update from our principal and stay for as long as you'd like.

Enjoy a Friday night out with other parents from Ocean Ave! Meet up at Rising Tide Brewing on Fox Street for:

• LIVE MUSIC . AUCTION . APPETIZERS . FREE ENTRY . CASH BAR . STUDENT ART
• AND...FREE PARKING!

If you are in a position to donate items for our auction please visit this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094CAEAB22A6F9C70-auction#/

The PTO is trying to reach a goal of 100 monthly donors who are willing to give $1 - $10 each month. Can you help?

Now that we have all settled into the 2023-2024 school year, we are more eager than ever to support our students and teachers. If a teacher wants to do a special project with their class, we want to be able to say YES! If the library wants to add to their collection, we want to be able to write the check. If a grade level wants to go on a field trip, we want to fund it. If there is an opportunity to bring a visiting artist to the school, we want to make it happen.

Thanks to our Dolphin's Cove donors last year, we:

• Provided funds to replace all lost library books throughout the school year.

• Supplied funds for school garden upgrades and maintenance including 200 new plants.

• Sent third graders to the Desert of Maine for an ecological learning experience.

• Covered the membership cost for our school nurse with the National Association of School Nurses. One benefit of membership is the VSP Eyes of Hope® gift certificate program which covers a comprehensive eye exam and, if prescribed, new glasses at a VSP network doctor's office for students in need.

• Brought a Portland Symphony Orchestra Kinderkonzert ensemble to perform for the K-2 students. The brass quintet performed The Circus Ship, the beloved children's book story by Chris Van Dusen, while introducing students to this family of instruments.

• Sent second and third graders to a vibrant production of Wabanaki Stories at Merrill Auditorium featuring five Wabanaki artists coming from several different nations and traditions.

• Organized monthly teacher appreciation events for OAES staff including an ice cream truck, treats for teachers in the staff room, a gift card raffle, and an espresso cart service.

• Paid membership fees for Ruth’s Reusable Resources, a free store for teachers connecting them with surplus furniture, paper, books, office supplies and computers.

• Funded a visit from award-winning children’s book author and poet, Samara Cole Doyon, who is both a second-generation Haitian American and a deeply rooted Mainer.

• Covered the cost of math team t-shirts for fifth graders.

• Organized and funded our school spring fair with an inflatable obstacles course, snow cones, face painting, photo booth, martial arts demos, and lawn games.

• Covered costs for books from Maine Student Book Awards and Chickadee Book Awards to be added to our library.

Currently, we have 25 monthly donors and we thank each of you for the consistent support.

We need 75 additional monthly donors to reach our goal. Please consider if you can!

• https://donorbox.org/dolphinscove-2-3

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