Congratulations to the Drama Club  on their fantastic performance of Lemonade.  The play looks to the wisdom and cheerfullness of Mother Goose to remind the other nursery rhyme characters that kindness, glee and compassion  can brighten any day.  Taking lemons and turning them into lemonade.  The students' hard work and practice really shined through during their two performances.  Thank you to Ms. Poznicek and Ms. Bradley and all the parent volunteers who helped!

Thank you to our parent performers, organizers and those who came to participate in our annual Skinner Poolza.  It was a musical extravaganza.   Students got the opportunity to hear a wide variety of music and chances to try out different string instruments, dance and sing along.  Thank you to Ms. Poznicek and the Arts Committee for putting together a great event.

Congratulations to the Skinner North Chess Team.  ALL THREE of our chess teams (K-2, K-4, and K-6) advanced to the CPS Championships on March 28, 2015 at Whitney Young High School.  

The top three teams in each section advanced:

-The K-2 team earned a third place team trophy!

-The K-4 team earned a first place trophy!

-Jack H. went a perfect 5-0 and won a second place trophy;

-Daniel L. (8th place), Jaiden L. (10th place) and Jonah F. (11th place) all had 4 points.


-The K-6 grade team earned a second place trophy!

-Jonah K. won a third place trophy with 4.5 points;
-Ryan W. won a fourth place trophy with 4 points;
-Matthew L. finished in sixth place with 4 points; and
-Osita A. earned 9th place also with 4 points.

Pi Day is tomorrow, Saturday 3.14.15, so we celebrated the irrational number today as a school.  At Skinner North, grades Kindergarten through 7th grade, looked to further their understanding of Pi.  Students worked on a school-wide Problem of the Month, where they explored the meaning of Pi and its uses in geometry.  A special note of thanks to Ms. Ridgway for helping to organize the day and to of our teachers for helping students become persistent and perseverant mathematicians!

Students had a great time on Saturday at the You Be the Chemist Challenge! You Be the Chemist is an academic competition that looks to encourage students in grades 5-8 to explore and apply chemistry concepts to real world situations.  Go to https://www.chemed.org/ybtc/challenge/ for more information.  Skinner North students took pride in their work and showed so much enthusiasm to the judges and visitors! Both of our Quiz Bowl contestants, Ivor and Marvin, made it to the final round!  Congratulations team!

Please see below for revisions to the 2014-2015 school calendar.  These revisions were made due previous school cancellations due.  

• Thursday, June 18, which was scheduled to be the first day of students’ summer break, will now be a regular attendance day for all students.
• Friday, June 19, will now be a regular attendance day for all students.
• Students’ summer break will begin on Monday, June 22.

Skinner North will host an open house for selected students on Wednesday, April 1st from 5-6pm and will start in the auditorium.  This open house is intended for parents of students who have been selected.  Come and find out more about the school, enrollment and go on a tour of the school.  

CPS has decided to test all students in grades 3-8 on PARCC rather than risk a loss of state and CPS funding.

Personally, I know our students at Skinner North are ready for PARCC. We have been implementing Common Core aligned instruction for the last 5 years. I am confident that our students will be successful and hopeful that we will be able to make good use of the resulting data.

Students in grades 3-5 will be assessed pencil/paper and those in grades 6+ on computers. 

We will test on the following days: 

PARCC Math
Tuesday, March 10 starting at 9:15
Wednesday, March 11 starting at 9:15

PARCC ELA
Tuesday, March 24 starting at 9:15
Thursday, March 26 starting at 9:15
Friday, March 27 starting at 9:15


FAQs
(1)- I have heard a lot about PARCC being a difficult assessment.  Is my student ready for PARCC?

Teachers at Skinner North have been planning instruction aligned to The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for 5 years.  The PARCC assessment is aligned to the CCSS and thus students have had a lot of exposure to this curriculum.  Many of the questions on PARCC will have students showing evidence of thinking, explaining their thinking, reading the text closely, etc. These are all things students do on a daily basis in their classrooms.  You can go to http://parcc.pearson.com/practice-tests/ to see some sample problems.

(2)- Do students take the assessment for their grade level or the grade level above?

Similar to ISAT testing, students will take the PARCC assessment that is for their grade level i.e. 3rd graders take the 3rd grade test.  This is true even as a Classical School where students do curriculum that is a year advanced. 

(4)-  How much time will the test take?  

Each test should be about 75 minutes, though our kids have always finished ISAT quicker than the allotted time in years prior.

(5)-  Will NWEA or PARCC be used for application to Selective Enrollment Schools (i.e. academic centers or selective enrollment schools)?

For next year the district will still use NWEA percentiles for Selective Enrollment purposes.  Students' spring percentiles are the numbers used.  


(6)-  Where can I get more information?
http://www.parcconline.org/for-parents


(7) Are all students expected to take PARCC?  
 
CPS expects all kids to take the PARCC.  At our school, this equates to students in grades 3-7.   The district has yet to release any opt out guidance.  If you feel you would like to do this, please schedule a meeting with school administration.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

-Ethan & Katie