Oakhill School reaches out to community with fair
Judging by the number of hot dog meals dispensed, Oakhill Elementary School's first community fair as the school year was winding down was a smashing success.
All 430 hot dogs were given away to hungry fairgoers. But it wasn't just the free food that measured the success of the event - it was the way Oakhill families participated in the various events offered during the two-hour fair.
"We have a lot of mobility in this school so we wanted to give people a chance to connect with the services in the community," said Oakhill Principal Patricia Barrett.
Barrett brainstormed along with first/second grade bilingual teacher Lamie Rea to produce the fair, building the idea upon a similar fair at Huff Elementary School in Elgin.
"My best friend is a teacher there," Rea said. "I saw what they did and thought about bringing it here."
Barrett and Rea began working with a committee of about eight staff members in March to plan what they hope will be an annual event.
"We wanted it to be something where people could come and participate but wouldn't feel any pressure," Barrett said.
The result was a variety of offerings ranging from informational booths to ethnic entertainment, as well as student presentations and a grade level science fair. Among the organizations offering information were local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, Streamwood Park District, Hanover Township, Streamwood Fire Department, Poplar Creek Library, District U-46's SAFE program, Elgin YWCA ESL Program, AAA, and Sherman Hospital's Well Child Clinic. Streamwood Police also conducted gang awareness seminars for parents in English and Spanish.
"Streamwood police did a gang awareness seminar for our staff and we thought it was a good idea if we had one for the community too," Barrett said.
A full evening of entertainment was also on the slate in the school's multipurpose room. Local businesses providing food included Fiesta Market, Sam's, Ultra Foods, Gonella Bread, and Chiggy's, while Burger King donated paper crowns.
Oakhill's band and orchestra opened the evening's entertainment and was augmented by poetry presentations from the school's third-graders as well as a performance of four songs played on recorders by bilingual students. The latter was directed by teacher Ignacio Alvarez who also had a hand in bringing five members of the Colombian dance troupe Somos Colombia to perform traditional dances at the fair. Former Oakhill student Sury Jimenez performed with the troupe.
"I found out about this through Girl Scouts, and I like to dance, so I thought it would be fun," Jimenez said.
Also performing was a troupe from the Emilia Plater Polish School in Schaumburg. Irena Jania, whose son Kris is a fourth-grader at Oakhill and is part of the group, helped arrange for the Polish troupe to perform their native dances. Their repertoire included national dances and folk songs and dances from several Polish regions.
Not to be overlooked was the school's fourth grade science fair, which generally takes place in late spring and focuses on the learning of scientific methods. Nancy Klein, fourth grade bilingual instructor, pointed out her class's experiment seeing how the playing of music affected the growth of plants. The result? Classical music made plants grow fastest, while Mexican pop music made them grow at varied rates. The group exposed to no music grew the slowest.
"I like this fair because it brings the community out to see what is happening in the school," Klein said.