WHAT'S NEW
THE LATEST INFO ON OUR PROGRAMS AND EVENTS
Building Sustainable Dream Homes (on a budget)
For three weeks 5th graders at Longfellow spent their art time working with architect Maya Bird-Murphy creating their Sustainable Dream Homes. Students were given an imaginary budget of $50 to invest in sustainable strategies for their homes. They could choose from...
Everybody Wants to Be King
Ms. Utter's second graders at Longfellow Elementary embarked on a musical journey to Pride Rock, culminating in a roaring performance of Lion King's "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" for parents, classmates and principal Angela Dolezal The production, brought to...
2017-2018 Annual Report Now Available
December is a great time to reflect on the events and news of the previous year. We love creating our annual report and being reminded of all the amazing students and teachers we worked with last school year. This year's annual report has gorgeous photos, amazing...
Spoken Word Expands to 6th Grade
Thanks to a partnership with D97, OPEF's popular Spoken Word residencies have expanded to include 6th grade as well as 7th grade. The original 7th grade program launched in Fall 2015. Spoken Word is a powerful and effective medium for fostering creativity and...
Robots and the American Revolution
What if Paul Revere was played by a robot? Working with D97 librarians, we recently began a pilot program for fifth graders combining our popular Geared Up and Robotics programs. The six-week residency excites kids about coding, tech, and robots and provides a new...
Full Steam Ahead on Super STEAM Saturday
Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday for our annual Open House event: Super STEAM Saturday. Over 100 families representing all of the D97 schools (and a few others) came out to create mandalas, drive robots, write poetry, draw buildings, play with LEGOs and...
Spoken Word Residencies Start at the Middle School
Fall is here and poetry is in the air. Seventh grade students in Ms. Stringham's Language Arts classes at Brooks received the first Spoken Word residency of the year. Spoken Word artist Christian Robinson (also known as rapper Rich Robbins) met with classes...
Shop, Enjoy, & Donate with Whole Foods
We are thrilled to announce that the the Whole Foods in River Forest will be donating 5% of their profits on October 18 to the Oak Park Education Foundation. All Whole Foods in the Midwest are participating in Community Giving Days, each one choosing a different...
End of Summer Soirée for Scholarships
Both new and long-time supporters stopped by the historic home of Mary Jo & Stephen Schuler last Friday night to celebrate the end of summer and support scholarships for BASE Camp. Thanks to our hosts and fabulous chefs Kim Wojak, Alice Ireland, and Wayne Juhnke,...
Ozobots & Architecture at Holmes STEM Night
Last week we were thrilled to be asked to stop by Holmes' STEM night. It gave us a chance to visit the amazing replicas of Chicago buildings created by Holmes students in Architecture Adventure. We also got to see all the creative ways students found to play with the...