School festival, challenge and competition.
Gurnee
Parent Cafe: Warren Township High School District 121, in partnership with Easter Seals of Metropolitan Chicago — Illinois Autism Partnership, will hold a Parent Cafe for parents and caregivers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder at 6:30 p.m. April 7 at the high school’s Almond Campus, 34090 Almond Road. The presentation is titled “Talking With Your Child About Their Disability: A Journey To Self-Determination and Self Advocacy.” Networking with refreshments begins at 6 p.m. A youth program will be provided. Advance registration requested. Details, call Dr. Susan Coleman, Special Education supervisor at (847) 548-6151 or by email at [email protected].
Festival: Warren Township High School will hold its annual Live Arts Festival beginning at 6 p.m. April 9 at 34090 Almond Road. Experience and celebrate the fine arts programs at the school. There will be student performances by Warren’s premier instrumental ensembles (Symphonic Band I and the Jazz Ensemble), Vocal Velocity (swing choir), the Speech Team, the Giggles and Bits Improv Comedy Troupe, the Motion Sickness Dance Groups and special preview performances of the upcoming musical “Beauty and the Beast.” Also, The Native Woods will perform at 9 p.m. Other activities will include interactive workshops, shirt decorating, face panting, balloon art, artwork displays and more. Details, (847) 662-1400.
Competition: Students from Warren Township High School and Woodland Middle School have been recognized by Healthy Communities/Healthy Youth Warren Township-Gurnee for their efforts to raise awareness regarding mental health issues in children and teens. Healthy Communities/Healthy Youth (HCHY) is an organization with representatives from the community, school districts, township, police department, park district, library and religious community. HCHY recently promoted a “Stop the Stigma” campaign focused at raising awareness around the challenge of mental health issues in children and teens, and encouraging people to not be ashamed of getting help. The poster contest was open to Warren Township High School and middle school students. Out of nearly 40 entries, the winners of the contest were Victoria Dizon and Eunice De La Cruz and Shannon Dunn from Warren Township High School. Runners-up were Saniya Ahmed from Warren Township High School and Maddison Zeni from Woodland Middle School. The posters where chosen for their aesthetics and message. Every poster has the number for a 24-hour Lifeline (800-273-8255) and a link to a web page with local referrals at http://www.hchystopthestigma.com. The winning and runner-up posters are featured on the website. The winning posters will be displayed in the schools and around Warren Township.
Wadsworth
Award: Students and staff members at Prairie Trail School celebrated the 2015 Bluestem Book Award, which is an annual Illinois Reader’s Choice Award for grades 3-5. The Bluestem Challenge is a contest that challenges students and staff to read from a list of 20 nominated books and pass comprehension quizzes on the books. Readers that meet the requirement criteria by the deadline are allowed to vote for the book they think deserves the award for the year. The book that was voted to win the award by Prairie Trail School was “Amulet: The Stonekeeper” by Kazu Kibuishi. Each grade level had a goal to read a pre-determined amount of books and pass the quizzes. The third-grade goal was 6 of the 20 books, the fourth-grade goal was 8 books, and the fifth-grade goal was 10 books. Staff members were challenged to read 11 or more of the 20 books. This year, 118 students and staff members met the challenge. One student and ten staff members read and passed quizzes on all 20 nominated books. A big celebration was held in the Prairie Trail LRC to honor those who met the challenge.
Twitter @newssun