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MARK T. SKINNER WEST SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
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2019-2020 School Year
Week #14: December 13 - December 20
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CPS 2019- 2020 Calendar: here
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CNA and Skinner West celebrated 41 years of partnership!
Mrs. Clark, Mrs. Robinson, Ms. Maatouk and our Third grade students and teachers visited the CNA building to spread some holiday cheer. Primary Chorus sang a collection of holiday tunes including the Christmas Music Sing-Along and crowd favorite Hip-Hop Reindeer.
CNA presented Skinner West with a $10,000 donation that will be used for many essential school needs! In return, Mrs. Clark gifted CNA with an art piece crafted by the 7th grade students representing our beloved City of Chicago.
Thank you to CNA for your generous gift!
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Save the Date: Gallery 111 is February 29, 2020
** Call for Silent Auction Donations!**
Save the Date for the Skinner annual "No Art Left Behind" gala
Saturday, February 29 7:00-10:00
National Museum of Mexican Art
We are currently looking for families
interested in contributing to our silent auction to consider donating the following needed items:
Do you have a great space or a skill that you could share with our party goers? If so, let us know, we would love to work with you to create an exciting experience for our guests.
Do you have a second home? Michigan? Wisconsin? Florida? Tahiti? We would love to offer a vacation opportunities for our silent auction Please let us know if you have any connections.
Art, jewelry, event tickets spa experiences, dining, and hotel stays
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Glee Club & Primary Chorus
The Skinner West Primary Chorus, comprised of all the 3rd graders, has been continuing their holiday season performance tour. They kicked off the season at the Palmer House Hilton on December 5th, and since then have sung at the 7th Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony at Mary Bartleme Park, the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, and the West Loop Marianos.
Last week, the Glee Club was asked to perform at the LSC Election Kick Off at Phoenix Military Academy, where LSC members, teachers, principals, Board President Miguel del Valle and CPS CEO Janice Jackson were in attendance. Dr. Jackson asked to take a picture with the Glee Club!
Music activities will continue this week and next, as Primary Chorus performs at CNA and the Glee Club takes their turn at the Palmer House and Marianos.
Don't miss the Winter Concerts at school on Thursday, December 19. Kindergarten, 1st, 3rd,5th, 8th graders and Glee Club will be singing. 5th graders will play recorder, and 8th graders will be playing ukulele!
Enjoy the music, and Happy Holidays! 
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Classroom Connections - 8th Grade
Discussion is not the only engaging ELA activity transpiring in Ms. Jogmen's Reading Cafe. Student's have increased their background knowledge by researching the far out 1960's and learned how style, social activities and everyday lingo influenced the writing of their current novel "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton.
Exchanging dialogue also ensued as students dug deep into decoding the meaning of "nothing lasts forever" after reading "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost.
Flexible seating in Ms. Jogmen's Reading Cafe has provided opportunities for students to exchange thoughts and ideas while reading a variety of genres.
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Classroom Connections - 3rd Grade
Our third graders are so excited to be in the Primary Chorus this year! They had a successful Primary Chorus performance at the Palmer House, downtown Chicago. They brought holiday cheer to hotel guests, parents and tourists passing by the Main Lobby.
Third grade students sang songs about Frosty the Snowman, Dreidels, Snow, Christmas, Kwanzaa and more! Congratulations to the Third Graders and Ms. Maatouk for another successful Primary Chorus performance!
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PTO Presents: Chicago Bulls vs. Charlotte Hornets
BULLS VS. HORNETS
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13 | 7:00 P.M. CT
Enjoy a legendary outing at a Chicago Bulls game with Skinner West students, faculty, family and friends.
Purchase tickets HERE with special discount code " skinnerwest"
Purchase tickets at a discounted price now, and for every ticket sold, 30% of the proceeds will go towards supporting enrichment activities for Skinner West Superstars.
Share the excitement of Bulls basketball and the NBA's leading entertainment experience as the team takes on the Hornets.
Support Skinner West and be a part of Bulls Nation today!
Can't go to the game? To help expand the types of support given to the school, please also consider donating the price of a ticket to the PTO.
The discounted ticket price is:
300 Level, Rows 8-17 (baseline): $32.40 (regularly $44.80)
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Holiday Concert Schedule
Skinner West Primary Chorus has kicked off the Holiday Season
with its first performance at the Palmer House.
Please join us for the full Superstar Winter Concert for Parents and Community Members on Thursday, December 19th!
Many thanks to our music teacher Ms. Maatouk for preparing our Superstars for the holiday season!
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Your Name in Lights!
Proceeds benefit the 8th Graders trip to Washington D.C.
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Kindergarten Reindeer Pajama Party
Skinner West Kindergartners kicked off the holiday season this week with a Reindeer themed Pajama Party! They rotated to each of the four classrooms making crafts, listening to stories, singing songs, and of course playing "Reindeer Games!" It was a wonderful opportunity for the K students to intermingle and have a fun time with their friends!
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5th Grade Health Education
Families of 5th Graders, please read this letter from Ms. Westy on the upcoming health education curriculum. 
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Classroom Connections - 7th Grade
Throughout the month of November, the seventh grade students took on the challenge of writing novels for National Novel Writing Month. This was a culmination of planning and developing characters, elements of plot, internal and external conflict, setting, mood, and of course interesting dialogue.
After carefully calculating a reachable goal, each student set a unique personal word count to achieve by the end of the month. In order to make that happen, they threw out their "inner-editors" to get their stories on paper. What's an inner-editor? Well, it's that little voice in your head hindering the creative process telling you your writing isn't good enough. It makes you stop and become critical of how you are telling your story.
With their "inner editors" out of the way, our students made great strides in writing young adult realistic fiction novels encompassing a wide array of themes and issues. Each day our language arts classrooms were abuzz with the clicking of keyboards and peer to peer brainstorming sessions. With December here, it's time to celebrate the progress our young novelists made, writing a collective 711,137 words across all four classes!
Another event that started for our seventh graders in the month of November, and that will continue through February, is History Fair. Every seventh grader used November as a brainstorming month as they have begun the process of finding and selecting a topic from history (at least from 25 years ago or longer) that somehow fits into the theme of "Breaking Barriers in History". Each student will research their chosen topic, find and analyze evidence and make an argument using that historical evidence. The project is due March 2, 2020.
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Selective Enrollment Deadline Extended to December 13th
High school and Elementary school selective enrollment deadline on gocps.edu has been extended to 12/13/2019
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All comments, suggestions or requests to submit information to this newsletter should be emailed to skinnerwest@gmail.com.
Communications Volunteers are welcome. Donate your time to help increase communications and contact us!
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Would you like to add another parent, guardian or caregiver?
Text SKINNERNEWS to 22828 or click here (Messaging & data rates may apply)
Deborah M. Clark
Principal
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