Skinner-Palooza provides the opportunity to highlight various talents present in our school community as well as celebrate the arts.  Performances included bagpipes, a string trio, guitars, saxophone, folk music, and a theater performance.  Students were also able to: meet performers; play new instruments; help create a mural; and create a percussion craft.  The event culminated in a fun Sing-Play-Dance-Along.  Thank you to the Arts Committee for organizing and to all the participants of this wonderful event!  

Our Performers included:
Gregg B (Parent- bagpipes)
Sameer (5th grader - violin), Jaiden (5th grader - violin) and Elysia (5th grader -cello)    
Eric (Parent - guitar) and Jett (5th grader - guitar)
Aaron (YG instructor - saxophone)
Ani (Parent - piano)
Irica (Parent - ukulele), Amelia (5th grade - ukulele) and Simon (3rd grade - ukulele)
Anthony (Parent - Collaboraction Theatre Company)
Molly (Parent - Dance)
Susan (Parent - Fiddler)

Four Skinner North students qualified and attended the Regional Science Fair today.  Students had a great showing and are moving onto the City Science Fair!  Congratulations to Anagha, Julie, Madison and Roshni!  Your hard work and dedication are inspiring.

Today, students in grades 4-8 attended the MLK Project:  The Fight for Civil Rights Assembly created and put on by Writer's Theatre.  This assembly was organized by the Skinner North Diversity Committee and FoSN.  Thank you for all your organization!  

"The MLK Project (written by Yolanda Androzzo and Directed by Jimmy McDermott) is a one-woman show that follows a Chicago student's personal transformation through studying the Civil Rights Movement. Alaya uses her fists as an outlet for anger, but after interviewing local heroes of the Movement she discovers she can put "anger into action" and that her power is in her voice and her hip hop, not violence. Weaving together real interviews, poetry, hip hop, history and multi-media projections the performance features stories of both celebrated and unsung Chicago-based Civil Rights Activists. In a tour-de-force performance the actress portrays:

*      Reverend Samuel "Billy" Kyles who was present when Dr. King was shot.
*      Dr. Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs who founded the DuSable Museum of
         African American History.
*      Reverend Jesse Jackson a longtime fighter for social justice.
*      Puerto Rican poet and activist David Hernandez.
*      And More!"

More information can be found by visiting this link:  http://www.writerstheatre.org/the-mlk-project-tour

Today, we hosted our 2nd annual Skinner North Spelling Bee.  Each classroom sent a classroom winner to our school-wide bee.  Nina F., a sixth grader, won the bee with the word Assyrian.  Muhammad M., a fifth grader, was our runner up.  Other participants and class champions included:  Adriana (1st grade), Abir (1st grade), Ellen (2nd grade), Nina (2nd grade), Umar (3rd grade), Jasmine (3rd grade), Jack H. (4th grade), Henry P. (4th grade), Layla (5th grade), Nathan (6th grade), Osita (7th grade), and Barron (8th grade).  

Congratulations to all participants!  Students worked hard to prepare for this event.  We look forward to cheering on Nina as she moves to qualify for the City Wide Spelling Bee.  

​On Saturday, January 9th, the Skinner North Math Team participated in Chicago Junior Math League's second contest of the school year at Lane Tech. CJML hosts three contests each year for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students, and this is Skinner North's first year participating.  The major themes for Contest 2 were geometry and probability.  Each grade competes separately and there are two divisions:  A (selective enrollment schools) and B (neighborhood/magnet schools).  Each team can bring any number of students and the top 6 designated starters' scores count toward a team score.

The 6th grade team earned 3rd place in Division A  with special recognition to the following students:  Connor (2nd place overall), Roshni (4th place overall), and Ben (5th place overall).  Team members consisted of Connor, Roshni, Ben, Matthew, Anthony, Sachin, Ian, Bernadette, Armaan, and Gabe. 

The 7th grade team earnerd 4th place in Division A with special recognition to Alex K. who earned 4th place overall.  Team members consisted of Alex, Nora, Jamie, Muhammad, Benedict, and Jonah.

The 8th grade team earned third place in Division A with special recognition to Madison, Marvin, and Kody who competed with fewer than 6 starters and still placed!

Schools participating in this Food Drive exceeded the goal of 50,000 pounds in honor of our 50th season celebration!!!! 35 participating schools collected 65,287 lbs of food.

Wow!  Skinner North exceeded our previous years totals (2013 = 2,142 lbs and 2014 = 1,614 lbs) with 2167 lbs.  We also came in 10th this year vs. 12th last year.  Great news all for a great cause!  Thanks to everyone who participated and provided food to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.