Enrichment

Band is an optional part of the curriculum offered to all 5th and 6th grade students. Class meets for approximately 45 minutes once a week during the school day and is a “Performing Arts” class. Instruction is offered on flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, trumpet, and trombone.

Evergreen School District funds this program so there is no cost to participate in Band. However, all students may need to rent or buy their instrument and are expected to purchase a cleaning/care kit for their instrument of choice. Students choosing to learn clarinet or alto saxophone also need reeds.

Performances are important and all students are expected to perform in the Winter & Spring Concerts. (Time & Location TBA)

Registration and classes begin in September. For more information, visit tinyurl.com/gallagherband. Or contact Mrs. Gallagher directly at ygallagher@eesd.org

Research has consistently proven that music and art education build vital critical thinking skills in children. At Silver Oak, all our students have access to art.

Kindergarten through 6th Grades Art

Arts Attack, a video-based art curriculum system, is used in kindergarten, first grade and second grade. This program is designed to teach each child how to express themselves through art and see and experience the world in different ways. The language of art, like the language of words, requires the learning of skills and concepts that will allow the free flow of expression. The goals of Arts Attack are to teach the elements and principles of art and drawing in a developmental and sequential way, as well as to study the art of other artists, cultures and historical periods.
 

Kindergarten - 4th Grades Music

In 1st to 4th grade, students receive music lessons throughout the year to learn about different musical instruments and understand music better.

Students in 1st to 3rd grade can join a special Holiday choir that culminates with a festive performance before the winter break.

Throughout the year kindergarten students have music lessons suitable for their age during the school year to help them lay a strong foundation for their future music learning.
 

5th and 6th Grades Art Music

Through the Evergreen Elementary School District, an art teacher visits our 4th through 6th graders on a weekly basis.

With the exception of the weekly district art teacher, all of our art programs are funded through the generosity of our parents' donations to Silver Oak PTO. These additional funds enhance our students’ arts experiences throughout each school year. PTO also funds the necessary art supplies to provide each student an outstanding art experience.

SOEP/PTO supports both in-class music and art instruction for all grades. Our classroom Fine Arts programs are funded by the PTO annual Pledge Drive.

SOEP/PTO coordinates its extracurricular Fine Arts plays with Starting Arts. Two play are offered for students to participate in each year: Upper Grade Play for grades 4-6 and Lower Grade Play for students in 1st - 3rd grades.  Watch for announcements on our website for registration.  These extracurricular offerings are self-funding via registration fees to cover program costs.  Click links below to learn more. 

Upper Grade Play
Lower Grade Play

Silver Oak Elementary School's STEAM Lab opened in March 2017. It was the first dedicated STEAM lab in Evergreen School District and is designed for student to have access to 21st century skills in science, technology, engineering, art and math. Our STEAM Lab offers our kindergarten through 6th grade students fun, exciting, hands-on ways to explore these subjects. The projects they will work on strengthen students' abilities to be creative and flexible problem-solvers. Our lab offers students in all grades the ability to learn introductory STEAM concepts and activities that are age and grade appropriate.

With Silver Oak PTO donations and Measure M monies, the STEAM Lab is colorfully outfitted, wired for the latest technology, and equipped with materials and tools so students can take advantage of a space that promotes working on group projects.

Each year in the fall, Silver Oak’s fifth graders are offered the opportunity to spend one week at Walden West Outdoor Science School, located at Via West in Cupertino. The facility is situated on 55 acres of beautiful oak woodland and is adjacent to Stevens Creek Park in the Cupertino Foothills. Santa Clara County Office of Education has been operating the outdoor school for fifth and sixth grade students since 1950.

During their stay at Walden West, students enjoy learning about the forest, meadow, and stream communities through the use of games and other activities. Qualified naturalists will use their expertise to help children see the interrelationships between plants and animals, as well as the effect we have on the environment. The experience is social, as well as academic. Living 24 hours a day with other students requires your child to cooperate and work together with others toward common goals. Throughout the week, classroom teachers will be available to help students adjust to being away from home. In the end, however, friendships and memories are made that last a lifetime. What greater way to learn than to be immersed in real-life science for one week!

The Evergreen District Science Fair is held every year in March. In the classroom, students complete one of five types of projects: experiment, demonstration, model, collection, or invention. Students are interviewed by a panel of teachers and parents who select which project will advance to the district science fair. Each project focuses on science concepts correlated to grade-level standards. For more information, contact your classroom’s teacher.

Each spring kindergartners observe the life cycle of the frog and butterfly starting with larvae and tadpoles and following them through being born to developing into an adult. Students' study the similarities and differences in the life cycles of organisms. The lesson begins with a reading of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Next, students use a video to study the developmental stages of frogs, dragonflies, and butterflies. They compare insect and frog life cycles to each other and to the stages of human development.

Learn more about these two competitions that students study for to compete in during the school year. 

Math Olympiad* - 4th, 5th and 6th graders
Kangaroo Math* - Grades 1 - 6

Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path.

Silver Oak PTO offers our 4th through 6th grade students to learn basic Python programming concepts (Level 1) and advanced Python programming concepts (Level 2).  Classes are free and held before school starts. Registration takes place in the fall and spring. Details will be posted on our school and PTO websites.

Accelerated Reader (AR), created by Renaissance Learning, Inc., is an individualized reading program used to assess and improve each student’s reading skills and to increase reading enjoyment. Find out more about the AR program on our Library page.

Battle of the Books is a national reading incentive program that Silver Oak has participated in since 2012. Silver Oak students who will be in grades 3-6 each Fall are invited to challenge themselves to read as many books as they can from their grade's list from summer until the start of the competition in October.  Students form teams and compete in a game show style venue where two teams face off at a time to answer questions related to any of the stories on their list. The top two teams for each level will meet in the Championship Competition to see which 3rd/4th grade and 5th/6th grade teams win the BATTLE OF THE BOOKS. Learn more about and see reading lists for this PTO sponsored program.

i‐Ready’s adaptive test identifies students’ strengths and weaknesses in reading. An adaptive diagnostic automatically adjusts the difficulty of the questions according to each student’s ability levels. The first question your child will see will be based on his/her chronological grade level. As your child proceeds through the test, items become more or less challenging, depending on how he answers each question. The test is designed to find exactly the level at which your child is performing in phonics, vocabulary, literature and informational text comprehension. Login information is available on our Academic Resources page.

RAZ-Kids is an interactive reading tool for students to practice reading fluency and comprehension. Students have a log in and a password to get into their reading account. Teachers are able to monitor each students' progress and change their reading level. These levels are all individually based on each child's reading level and are adjusted to reflect their abilities. The students can listen to a story, read a story out loud, record themselves reading, and then take a comprehension quiz. Each child earns points or stars to use for their RAZ Rocket which allows them to buy things for their rocket very similar to Webkins.

Newsela is an innovative way to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that's always relevant: daily news. Newsela makes it easy for an entire class to read the same content, but at a level that’s just right for each student.

TIME For Kids is a weekly classroom news magazine that motivates kids to read. Issues cover a wide range of real-world topics kids love to learn about - and it's the best nonfiction text you'll find! A powerful teaching tool, TIME For Kids builds reading and writing skills and is easily integrated across our curriculum, including social studies, science and math.

Students in grades 4-6 have the chance to showcase their talents in a classic spelling bee coordinated by the PTO. Daily spelling activities begin in January. Finalists of the written spelling bee advance to the Oral Spelling Bee taken at the end of January. All words are chosen from the Spell It! website. Visit the website for practice word lists and more information about the Scripps Spelling Bee.

Girls on the Run

Girls on the Run is a 10-week social-emotional after school program that teaches girls and anyone who identifies as a girl, in grades 3-6, critical life skills such as: managing emotions, standing up for themselves and others, and how to be a good friend, all the while training for a celebratory 5K fun run at the end of the season. Learn more about the GOTR program at Silver Oak. 

Silver Oak PTO Fitness Fun Run
 

Silver Oak PTO Fitness Run is held annually in Spring.  All students participate in this event as part of the school's Physical Fitness Program. Pledge forms will be sent home with your child. Contributions are made as a flat dollar amount (not per lap). Students that raise a minimum of $25 will automatically be entered into a raffle for awesome prizes. Funds raised by this event are used to support physical education, health and wellness at Silver Oak.

Our Friday Run Club is designed to show students how much fun it can be to move their bodies while promoting team work. Students participate each Friday during their lunch recess. Every week they run or walk 1 lap minimum, they receive a special charm to add to their necklace for that week. For every lap they go around the track, their class receives 1 point. The class with the most points at the end of the month, will get to keep the winner's trophy. At the beginning of the school year students are given class shirts that represent the college they belong to. We are grateful to our PTO for making this program available to our students.