Frequently Asked Questions

Uniforms and Store

Yes, we do. Tops: white, hunter green or navy collared shirt. Bottoms: navy or khaki shorts or pants. Girls may also wear navy or khaki dresses and skirts. On Friday’s your child may wear jeans with a spirit shirt. Spirit shirts may be purchased at the Bobcat Store and college shirts are permitted.

A spirit shirt is either a school shirt purchased from the Bobcat Store or a college shirt. They can be worn on Fridays with jeans!

https://oakforestpta.com/collections

The usual suspects—Academy, Walmart, Target, Children’s Place and Land’s End. If you want to get fancy, look for navy blue stuff at Jcrew, Bella Bliss, Jcrewfactory, and MiniBoden. Sometimes Costco.

School Supplies

A backpack, a small towel (for resting time). a change of clothes (vomit, mud, and accidents happen), a water bottle and school supplies. Please note this all varies by teacher.

Well, you could go all over town and spend your precious time looking for everything on the list or you could do it for cheaper here https://www.educationalproducts.com/shoppacks/ Enter OAK005 (OAKzerozerofive) to get to the OFE packs by grade. They will be delivered to your child’s teacher a few days before school begins. Your teacher will be overjoyed if you order supplies from the PTA! Supply lists can also be found on the website here.

Communication

Parent Square is the school’s system of communicating with you and your family. You will get messages from your teacher, the principal, other members of admin and the PTA. Read the posts. DO NOT IGNORE THE POSTS. It is how you find out valuable information about what is going on in your child’s life. It is not a perfect system, to be sure, but it is what we have.

We have a PTA Facebook page and an Instagram account. Also, each class (labeled as their high school class year) has a Facebook page. Example: OFE class of 2029. The school wide PTA Facebook page is for posts that pertain to the entire school. Posts need approval. We try to keep it positive and informative. Not all posts get approved. The individual class pages are more informal, and posts require no approval. That’s where you go to tell everyone your child has lice or strep and for everyone to watch out, or to see if anyone is going to the park Friday after school. Instagram is for pretty pictures. There is also the PTA website which is tremendously informative. Check it all out.

Yes- join our Facebook page-Oak Forest Elementary School PTA- Houston ISD and Instagram page-@oakforestelementarypta for lots of updates and info! Our website also has a calendar, FAQ’s, details on all our events, a blog, our board and much, much more!

Drop off & Pick up

Two ways: Either walk them to the front door, or in the car line. Please note: we will have an entire post on these topics later. It’s not that hard—but it seems daunting at first.

Yes, on the first day! But since you already did kinder, no to all the other days. For the first few weeks of school there will be 5th graders at the front of the school helping kids to their class. There will also be adults helping with those couple of kids that need extra help (you know, the screamers). These adults have done this many, many times and know what to do. Most kids are totally fine once they get to their class. Out of the screamers, there are probably only one or two that need any more help. They will be fine. The kinder teachers all have PhDs in getting kids to be happy and cheerful within a few minutes. Please don’t stress over this.

Three ways. Walker line, car line or after school program line. At the ice cream social, you will tell your teacher how your child will get home on the first day, and on most days after that. Change in schedule? No problem. Email your teacher. Truly not a big deal.

Classroom Info

You will get a message from Parent Square notifying you of your teacher prior to attending Ice Cream Social in August.

All the teachers are amazing. #truth. They are all great and you really can’t go wrong. So, don’t sweat this at all.

Absolutely! Most teachers rely on several parents to help with event throughout the year. Your teacher will tell you more about this at the Open House in September.

Yes! The week before school begins there will be an ice cream social. This is where the kids get to go into the classroom and meet their teacher. Try not to miss this, especially for the real littles. She will give you some valuable information that day and it’s a good way to calm those first day jitters (both yours and theirs).

Peanut butter is delicious so yes! But probably only in their lunch kit. Generally, not as a snack. Here’s why: Kids either bring a lunch or eat the school lunch. They eat this in the cafeteria, and there are special provisions made for kids with peanut and other allergies and there are lunch monitors to help your child open juice boxes, prevent food fights, and they are trained on how to handle any allergic reaction should one arise. But snacks are eaten in the classroom and come from home. Kids are instructed not to trade food, but there are less safeguards in place in the classroom. If you are in a class with a child that has an allergy, your teacher will let you know and the SNACKS (not lunch) you pack will have to accommodate that child. Teachers will not refrigerate snacks or lunches so please plan for that.

Sure. The administration will post to ParentSquare towards the beginning of the year when you can begin joining your child for lunch. Please be mindful of special times when the campus may be closed due to testing or special events which impact lunch schedules, etc. You will have to sit at a separate table from the class. In my own opinion not sanctioned by anyone else: this is a super fun TREAT and should not happen too frequently. You want your kid to be happy and have fun with their friends. Best way to do that is to just let them be during lunch.

Afterschool Program

Yes, we are currently partnered with KidVenture. Please contact the school for more information and registration details..

General Info

Doors will open at Oak Forest Elementary starting at 7:10a.m. with the tardy bell ringing at 7:35a.m and dismissal at 3:00pm.

There are several things in the fall that you should be aware of. Some are in the evening and some during the day. The dates and times will be announced once the school firms up their calendar for the year. Here’s a breakdown of the main ones:

Open House– usually in September in the evening.
Fun Run-in late September or early October during the day.
Grandparents Day– usually in September during lunch time. This is such a fun day and is not just limited to grandparents.
Book Character Parade– stop the cuteness! On Halloween day in the morning.
Fall Festival–sometime in November. And all families + our community is invited to attend!
Thanksgiving Lunch usually in November during lunch.
Class Parties/Holiday Parties– scheduled around the holiday schedule and classroom instruction.
International day Festival- Early Spring and all families + our community is invited to attend!
Field Day– usually held in March.

You can find the School Website here and more information in the Student Handbook here or on our Useful Links page.

Hey! We get it! We’ve all been there and have your backs. We have a mentor program where you will be assigned a family that will call you and guide you through anything else you need to know those first few weeks. And if they can’t answer it, they will point you in the direction of someone who can. Seriously don’t worry, and welcome to the best six years of childhood. You will watch your child transform from a cute toddler to an annoying tween at Oak Forest all while learning and growing in an amazing school. Welcome to the family!