Okoboji Elementary School

Today is School Lunch Superhero Day! It is a day to celebrate and thank the school food service team members that work hard every day to make sure all of our kids (and many staff members) have the nutrition they need to grow, learn, and succeed! They are often here well before the start of the day ensuring that breakfast and lunch will be ready for all of our hungry learners! Thank you to OCSD Food Service Director Carrie Stethem and her outstanding team! OHS Brieanna Nabb Naoko Menting Deb Malchow OMS Carrie Stethem Lindsey Chaffin Tia Hofmeyer Michal Nabb Mia Bacco OES Sherryl Jones Patty Hofmeyer Jackie Anderson Mary Demuth Sandy Hoffman Nancy Kissner

Northwest Bank came to visit our TK class to teach us how we can save money, where to keep money safe, and also teach us the difference between a need and a want! What great skills for our students to learn about! Thank you, Northwest Bank, for coming over!

Today is Administrative Professionals Day! We depend on our outstanding team every day and quite literally could not make our school run without them. They do countless things to support the learning, physical, and mental health of all of our students and staff every single day and we want to show them our appreciation today and EVERY day! Thank you Gayle, Lenae, Amanda, Kizze, and Missy, for all you do for all of us every day!

See below for a statistical update the Boji Mileage Club at OES!

We are very excited to announce that Mrs. Leiss has been awarded a STEM Scale-Up Grant for Making Innovative STEM Connections! This program is designed around a framework that focuses on the idea that making and tinkering are aways to engage student's minds and build conceptual understanding around academic content. Mrs. Leiss is excited to bring this amazing learning experience to many of our students at OES! See the link below for more information: https://www.sciowa.org/education/professional-development/educators/making-stem-connections/

We are excited to announce that a new member of Team Okoboji was approved at last night's board meeting! Bre Small grew up in Spencer, IA and recently graduated from Graceland University. Bre will be teaching SPED at OES with a focus on behaviors. She will also be coaching Jr. High softball for us this summer and Jr. High volleyball in the fall! We are so excited to have Bre join Team Okoboji!

Okoboji 8th Grader Collin Kats was involved in a very bad accident over the weekend and is currently receiving medical treatment in Sioux Falls. Collin's birthday is Wednesday and he is a big fan of the Minnesota Vikings. Let's all wear Vikings gear, or purple and gold, on Wednesday to show Collin we are supporting him!

Date to Create 2024 was a major success! Thank you to all that were able to come to our Open House last night. For those interested, below is a link to a youtube video with highlights of our day!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLPzf_GQny4

April 3rd is School Para-Professional Day! Okoboji Schools depends on our amazing team of para-professionals in all of our buildings every single day. They are often the first smile a student sees as they walk in the door and they often spend more one-on-one time with individual students than anyone else in our district. They impact the lives of our students, teachers, and families in countless ways and we could not imagine our schools without them! Thank you to all of our outstanding para-professionals today and every day!

Date to Create is only 1 week away! The countdown is on! We hope to see you there!

Date to Create is coming soon! Please come to OES for our Open House on April 4 from 5-7 to see some amazing creations from our students! You won't want to miss this one!

Our 1st graders finished up their Fairy Tale unit from our CKLA curriculum. To celebrate, they all got to dress up like a fairy tale character! Look at those amazing teachers and students!!

OES is VERY thankful for the bouncy houses last week as a celebration for great school-wide behavior! These were DONATED by Storm Lake Rent-All! Special thanks goes out to them for their generosity! See below for a link to their bouncy house rental opportunities! They also want everyone to know that if you pick one up on a Friday and keep for the weekend they still only charge for one day! https://rent-all.com/product-category/party-event/entertainment/

We had an amazing assembly yesterday with Kayla from Rachel's Challenge! Our students were given the challenge to be kind to others, and to start a chain reaction! We plan to do just that and (here's a little teaser) we hope to show you some proof during Date to Create!

Be sure to head to the Pearson Lakes Art Center tomorrow from 5-8 to see some amazing art by students from Okoboji! More details on the flyer at the link below! https://bit.ly/3wKoruv

***SAVE THE DATE*** Date to Create is one month away!!! Please come to OES for our Open House on April 4 from 5-7 to see some amazing creations from our students! You won't want to miss this one!

We are one week away from SPRING BREAK at OCSD! All OCSD school buildings will be closed and on break from March 11-15. Whether you will be travelling or staying local, we hope the time off gives all a chance to recharge and refresh for the last ten weeks of the school year!

March 1st is Maintenance and Operations Appreciation Day! Today we take a moment to thank Derek Chappas, OCSD Maintenance Director, and Tim Blair, OCSD Head of Grounds, for all of the hard work they do each and every day. Derek and Tim work tirelessly in ways seen and unseen to ensure our facilities and grounds are safe, operational, and in top condition to support the learning of all OCSD students. Thank you, Derek and Tim!

February 22nd is National School Bus Driver Appreciation Day! Today we want to salute our Director of Transportation, Steve Clayton, and ALL of the outstanding drivers who get our students to and from school and activities every day safely! Through wind, snow, and rain, they always keep our kids safe and get them where they need to be to learn, perform, and grow! Thank you to all of these outstanding OCSD Bus Drivers! Steve Clayton Rod Blau Tom Sporrer John Walters Pam Trosin Daniel Clements Michal Schoning Michael Umscheid Don Nolan Aaron Sloan Brett Simpson Adam Quail Brett Ferguson Doug Otto Heidi Wittrock Tiffani Reese Dennis Houseman

Do you have a child that is ready for our PK Programming next year? Or, do you have a child ready for KG that is currently not at Okoboji Elementary? If the answer is yes to either of those questions, please join us for our PK/KG Parent Night on Tuesday, March 19 at 6:00 PM! See the flyer below for more information!