On Friday, May 5, Five Oaks Academy kicked off its 20th Anniversary Celebration with its first-ever World’s Fair! This celebration highlighted their commitment to global studies, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) as well as the support of the many countries represented within their own school community.

FOA students were the emcees for the World’s Fair celebration that kicked off with student musical performances from each program level as well as a Latin dance mix performed by Middle School Spanish 3 & 4 students. After the performances, parents, grandparents, friends of FOA, and students, enjoyed viewing STEAM projects from each level, a flag-making activity with the Children’s Museum of the Upstate, taste testing of German Pretzels, and an art show featuring student works from both the Art History and Creativity programs. FOA alumni Joey Adamson, who currently attends Clemson University, treated students to a special exhibition featuring his engineering car project as well as a car from Clemson Racing for the Worlds Fair.

The first World’s Fair was in 1851 and was held in London. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the World’s Fairs became huge celebrations of the immense and ongoing progress. The Fair was driven by a desire to display scientific and technological innovation and gains. In 1918, Dr. Montessori held a very unexpected exhibit that featured a classroom with 30 children, aged 2 ½ to 6. The classroom was called the glass house because it had extensive window panes that afforded the World’s Fair attendees easy viewing access. Her exhibition has been celebrated as a critical event that united science and education as she put the field of education into the progress paradigm. She won two gold medals for her educational insight.

Thank you to everyone who attended our first Five Oaks Academy World’s Fair on Friday, May 5, 2023. We had a HUGE turnout, and it was a beautiful day to come together to celebrate Five Oaks Academy student accomplishments in STEAM with our Annual Student Art Show, Lower Elementary Imaginary Island projects, and Middle School Job and Legacy Projects on display. The student performances of international songs and dances were also fantastic to watch!  Thank you to Maren Mueller for special ordering and to Mr. Tom for picking up the delicious German pretzels we all enjoyed!  Thank you to The Children’s Museum of the Upstate, Flatrock Family Dentistry, UE Student Rylee S., and FOA Alumnus Joey Adamson for sharing their festival activities.

Thank you also to our 2022-2023 Title Partners: Flatrock Family Dentistry, Summers Orthodontics, Reformation Home, Habitat Co. Bluefield Realty Group, Magnolia Falls Oral Surgery, Edward Jones Financial Advisor Andrew Schroeder, Darien Marie Photography, and J. Edwards Handyman Service.

As a STEAM-accredited school through the South Carolina Independent Schools Association (SCISA), Five Oaks has been recognized for its achievement and commitment to STEAM education campus-wide. This year, we were also pleased to nominate ten Lower Elementary and Upper Elementary for the “National Youth Leadership Forum: Pathways to STEM” program through Envision by WorldStrides. We were able to recognize the following students:

Lower Elementary:

• Cameron Staley (3rd Grade)
• Gram Haskell (3rd Grade)
• Kyson Garcia (3rd Grade)
• Avery Foster (3rd Grade)

Upper Elementary:

• Olivia Lim (4th Grade)
• William Sparks (4th Grade)
• Woodson Meeks (4th Grade)
• Jack Tabakhov (5th Grade)
• Siobhan Kozub (5th Grade)
• Daniel Rosales (5th Grade)

Beautiful surroundings inspire beautiful artwork. Upper Elementary students enjoy art classes on the Discovery Deck and near the Jean Wilson Freeman mural at Five Oaks Academy.

Thank you so much to all of our volunteers who helped us beautify our campus during our Spring Community Day!  We couldn’t do it without your help!

The bees are back at FOA! We have two hives of Italian honey bees that are located on our nature trail. Our first two attempts prior to COVID ended in the queens swarming the hive and with an infestation of European Hornets that devastated the hives. We are excited to say that our two new hives are thriving!

The Italian honey bees are very gentle honey bees. Both hives have accepted their queen and are settling in nicely. They are bustling with activity, and the queens have each laid about 30,000 to 40,000 eggs in the last three-four weeks. They have nearly run out of room to lay more. FOA parent and beekeeper extraordinaire, Dan Magner, purchased the hives and bees for FOA and is our bee advisor. The Upper Elementary students are working with him to help maintain the hives, learn about the bees, and teach other program levels about the amazing Italian honey bee!

On Friday, May 20, “Dan the Bee Man” met with the Upper Elementary students and explored the hives. This exploration included looking for the presence of the queen, assessing the space for the hive to grow, and discussing how to manage pests properly. Students learned about the life cycle of the Italian honey bee, different jobs in the hive, communication, and the overall changes in the hive throughout the year. Having two different hives also gives us the opportunity to see what effect the hive’s placement has on the hive’s success (i.e. sunlight, access to water, etc.). At this time, the hive down by the river is doing slightly better than the one near the trailhead, in that they have stored more honey, and the queen has laid more eggs. We look forward to following both of the hives’ successes and involving every program level in this exploration.

A sense of joy and happiness was in the air at our International Festival held on Friday, May 6. This was the first major festival we have hosted on campus since the pandemic started, and it felt wonderful to see everyone and socialize. We have over 30 countries represented in the Five Oaks community, and native clothing worn by children and adults alike reflected our international community. In addition to the Spanish songs, the students’ performances celebrated children around the world, and elementary students presented songs in sign language.

Everyone enjoyed the student performances, which were enhanced by instruments purchased with a grant from FOA grandmother, Angele McLaughlin. We were especially proud for Dr. Spencer Jordan, director of SCISA (South Carolina Independent Schools Association), to present Five Oaks Academy with the 2020 W. Keller-Kissam School of Honor Award, and we appreciated his very kind words about our school: “I have been to all 127+ schools within our association, and there is not one school – large or small – that I can put up to par with Five Oaks.”

After the program concluded, students and their parents enjoyed activities such as inflatable obstacle courses, The Nomadik Few Gourmet ShavedIce, pies from Rachel’s American Pies, colorful streamers, and photos with Frankie the Fox! We look forward to our next opportunity to join as a community, meet new people, and talk with each other!

A special thank you to all of the volunteers who showed up and worked SO hard during our Spring Community Day! We accomplished so much and had a blast doing it!

Our many volunteers: replaced all stairs in the Main House (many of which were broken), laid a stone walkway next to P2 to help with drainage issues and create a path for the students to walk on, installed attic stairs in both LE classrooms providing much-needed storage, counted money from Coin Challenge, worked on the Art Show, moved the playground gate, repaired broken spindles, painted the new fence in front of the school, cleaned windows, fixed chairs, repaired broken classroom furniture, and much, much more!

We are so grateful for our supportive FOA a community that comes together to GET IT DONE!