Mrs. Paula Smith is a P.E. specialist at Spanish Oaks. She and her husband live in Spanish Fork and they have two wonderful children. Paula is from Southern Arizona and was raised on a cattle ranch. She has attended college at Brigham Young University. Her favorite foods are steak and Mexican. Her favorite vacation destination was to Nauvoo, but would really love to go to Hawaii someday. She enjoys reading and her favorite books to read are the Children of the Promise Series.

The 5th Grade at Spanish Oaks hosted a Tea at the White House. The guests were the students dressed as different United States presidents and first ladies throughout history. Parents were also invited, and they even participated. Students gave clues about their person, and then parents tried to guess which person the students represented. Hot chocolate and cookies were served. This was the culmination of a research unit that the 5th graders did on their chosen president or first lady.

Mrs. Stacey Richey is a Speech and Language Pathologist at Spanish Oaks. She is married to Kyle Richey and they live in Provo. Stacey is from a small town in Southern California. She has attended college at BYU and has earned a Masters Degree in Communication Disorders. Her favorite vacation is at the beach in San Diego. She enjoys reading and some of her favorite books are October Sky and the Redwall Series.

On December 1st, 2012 students from Spanish Oaks Elementary competed against 23 other schools in Nebo School District at Art City Elementary in Springville. They took 7th place overall. Awesome job boys! Students who participated: 2nd grade: Aiden Johnson, Talmage Johnson, Quinn Burtenshaw, 3rd grade: Ethan Wilding 4th grade: Samuel Gunderson, Zachary Brown 5th grade: Jacob Gunderson, 6th grade: Tyler Brown, Caeden Wilding Photo of participants with trophy

Miss Rachel Hughes teaches fifth grade at Spanish Oaks. This is her eleventh year of teaching at our school. She graduated from Brigham Young University and earned a Master’s Degree from Southern Utah University. Her favorite foods are hamburgers, French fries and pizza. She loves to travel and some of her favorite destinations are Boston, the Oregon coast and anywhere new that she has never been before. Her favorite books are Fanny’s Dream, Fever, and 1793. Rachel is very active and loves to run, watch sports, read, travel and shop.

Mrs. Angie Lindstrom is our Take-Home Library Coordinator and technician at Spanish Oaks. She has worked at our school for eight years. She and her husband live in Spanish Fork, and they have 4 daughters and one son. She has 3 grandchildren that she adores. Angie is from Lindon, Utah. Her favorite foods are chocolate, lobster, strawberry milkshakes and watermelon. She loves to spend time in Robertson, Wyoming where her parents live during the summer months, so they spend a lot of time there too. Her dream vacation would be to Scotland or Italy.

Spanish Oaks Elementary just completed their yearly Reflections Contest, and students were honored at an assembly. Students were very excited to share their entries with other students in the school. The theme this year was “The Magic of the Moment.” The students listed below will be moving on to Council. We also want to thank our PTA helpers, D. Dee Rex and Erica Hansbrow, for all of their time in helping and encouraging students to share their talents and preparing a dvd presentation of all of the entries.

The students of Spanish Oaks Elementary were honored to have the members of our local American Legion visit our school and share their veteran experiences with us. Steve Wilson, a local veteran, encouraged students to be grateful every day to be able to live in our wonderful country. The veterans attending from the American Legion shared where and how they had served their country. We watched a video on what a veteran is and how we can show our appreciation to the veterans for their service. The veterans were also honored with patriotic songs from our school choir.

The fifth grade at Spanish Oaks celebrated a Colonial Day as an end to their studies of Colonial times. On that day, they came dressed as colonial children, and some students even brought their lunches in a knapsack. They participated in many learning activities such as writing with a feather pen, learning lessons from colonial classrooms, making butter, constructing a Jacob’s Ladder and playing many fun colonial games. Students gained a great appreciation for colonial life.