SCIENCE ACADEMY OF CHICAGO

Dear SAC Community,

We hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable Spring Break. There were some really beautiful days to be outside and enjoy the sunshine. I hope you were able to take advantage of those days.

With only 7 weeks of school left, teachers and students are working harder than ever to end the school year successfully and healthy as can be! We have many exciting events coming up that we are looking forward to.

I truly couldn't imagine a better team and school family working together as a team for our students. THANK YOU to all of our Science Academy families for supporting us throughout these challenging times. Your child's academic and social growth along with a love of learning is very important to us. Your children are our "WHY"!

Sincerely,

Ms. Bartucci

Principal

Hello SAC families! We have so much news to share with you all. Our students have done amazing work all around this past couple of months and we wanted to highlight some of them. Check out this month's issue of Smore News and see all the great things our students have done. We also have exciting news for our students.

We want you to share your great experiences at SAC over the years on our latest Facebook post. As we read through your awesome comments, parents who share their experiences win their child a dress down for that upcoming Friday.

Join our virtual open house to learn more about SAC on Saturday, Apr.17th at 11 am.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75282630257?pwd=V1IwdXFmbkZEaStwL0JJVTFIRCswUT09

Meeting ID: 752 8263 0257
Passcode: openhouse

At Science Academy of Chicago, we are excited to share that our 8th-grade students earned honors at the Illinois Junior Academy of Science State Fair (IJAS) last weekend. Due to Covid, the event was held virtually but in total, SAC students were awarded 9 Gold medals, 2 Silver, and 1 Bronze medal. More importantly, One student received the "Top Paper Award", one student "Poster Award Of Excellence", and four students "Top Poster Award".

SAC students also won the following special and monetary awards: Adrowski Award, American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Con. Engineers (ASHRAE), Concept Schools, Patnick Construction Inc Award.

This competition is an excellent experience for students to go beyond the classroom to develop their own investigations. SAC would like to congratulate all of the students, faculty, and parents that participated in and supported the school. The Science Academy’s goals are based upon the school’s philosophy and an underlying respect for the individual child. Admission is open to all qualified students and is not based on race, religion, color, or ethnic origin.

This year, Mr. Martinez's 7th and 8th grade social studies students participated in the 2021 Chicago Metro History Fair – Junior Division / Illinois History Day competition.

Illinois History Day (IHD) is a state-wide program for students grades 6-12 who are interested in building research skills while learning about their state’s history. Illinois History Day curriculum is flexible and can be tailored to suit any classroom. Students can create a research paper, exhibit, website, documentary, or performance about Illinois’ long and varied history. SAC students virtually submitted their research amongst other students that participated in regional contests across the state! The National History Day theme for 2020 is “Breaking Barriers in History”

Congratulations to the following SAC students who have advanced to participate in the State Competition: Mahi Malik, Fazilet Kazkondu, Leyla Yurtsever, Elif Uzunel, and Yakup Uysal!

These students received a superior ribbon at their regional and will participate in the state competition in May.

Learn more about state qualifiers here

We are excited to announce that we have organized an amazing STREAM EXPO for students and families this school year. Students have worked very hard to create amazing projects that we have the opportunity to showcase to everyone. Each STREAM EXPO is all about fun learning and new experiences and activities that we all can share. This year, it will be held in our parking lot in order to follow COVID regulations. We are excited to welcome you and your family to this great event as admissions are free. Please join us on Saturday, May 15th, 2021 for this year's STREAM EXPO.

Ms. Johnson has been busy uploading students’ artwork from all grades into Science Academy’s online art museum at Artsonia.com. Visit the website to see amazing art by our students. Consider purchasing an item with your child’s art as a Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift. SAC’s Art Program receives a percentage of all purchases at our Artsonia Virtual Art Museum. Ms. Johnson would like to raise money to fund technology supplies for making digital art and handmade stop motion videos by our students. For more information email Ms. Johnson at johnson@saoc.org.

Fourth and fifth-grade art students are excited about spring time! They recently celebrated this highly anticipated time of year by collaboratively designing and painting a Spring Landscape. This large scale painting is full of vibrant colors and includes a setting sun, blossoming trees, beautiful flowers, and a beach across a rolling hillside prairie land. The painting is displayed in our hallway at SAC for all to admire.

Many of our classes have been making 3-D sculptures. Third grade recently worked in clay! Students choose an animal to research. After making a realistic and detailed drawing of the animal of choice in their sketchbook, students created a portrait in relief (partially 3-D) of their animal in clay. They learned clay working techniques including rolling out a slab, hand forming, and using the slip and score method to seamlessly attach parts together. After their clay dried, they carefully painted the animal portraits.

This spring Pre-k 3 and 4 studied outer space. In Art Class, students learned about our solar system and made a watercolor painting. You can see the sun, Earth, and moon in their compositions. They also created a little space rocket ship from paper and collaged it into their painting. Their work turned out to be beautiful.

The past couple of weeks the children have been learning about the Farm! We have discussed what animals live on the farm, growing vegetables and the role of a Farmer. We also did a science experiment called "Hopping Corn".

Today we practiced the letters in our names by participating in a activity called "Seed Names"; The children were able to recognize and name the letters in their name and used Bird seed to spell it out on glue. They also ended with Dinosaur curriculum where the kids made and explored a Dinosaur mud sensory bin.

PIE DAY:

Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π. Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14) since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π. On that day, math teachers served delicious pie to students during lunch time.

Five students from SAC qualified for the MathCON finals which be held on May.1st. Vahdet(5th), Soha(6th), Kenan(7th), Yavuz(8th), and Mahi(8th) will represent SAC in MathCON finals on May.1st.

In Social Studies, the 6th graders were learning about Chinese dynasties for the last three weeks! At one point, we began focusing on certain philosophies that were developed during these ancient dynasties. Therefore, to demonstrate what they learned, the students created Chinese philosophy coins. The coins contain imagery and phrases that teach the reader a bit of what the philosophies are about. As for the 7th grade social studies class, they have spent the last month learning about US society during the early 1800s, which was a time of extraordinary industrialization and innovations. At this time in US history, there many inventors creating brand inventions or improving many of the inventions we come to use today. To illustrate what they learned, the 7th graders were assigned specific inventions and created an advertisement that explained what their machine did and why people should buy it! Finally, the 8th grade social studies were also busy with their own mini-project. In class, the students learned about the Progressive era of US history, a time when the country was trying to rid politics of corruption and improve the quality of life for citizens. For their mini-project, the 8th graders were in charge of creating comics-stripes that illustrated the laws and rules that Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson fought for!!

SALP activities continued with two more activities in March. SALP Scholars came together on Mar.6th for a study hall and a "make your own pizza" activity. On Mar.20th they went to Elk Grove Bowl after study hall.

The program will finalize with two more activities on Apr.10th and 24th.

The Penny Wars were a HUGE success!!! After a 5 week battle our Penny War has ended and the results are in!

In total we raised $1,951! The winning upper grade class received 3 dress down passes and the winning lower grade class received a special toy! Additionally both will receive a class party! The winning overall class with the highest point total also got to throw a pie at the Principal!!!!

The winners are.....

Upper Grades- 5th grade

Lower Grades and Overall Highest Point Total- 3rd Grade!!!

A big congratulations to the winners and an even bigger thank you to all of the families and students that participated in this event! The students LOVED this fundraiser and it will definitely be one we do again in the future.

The winners were announced and received their prizes live via Zoom!

SAC will be hosting an Outdoor Family Movie Night on Friday April 30th, showing the premier of the movie The Mitchells Vs. The Machines.

Admission is $5 per person (children under 2 are free) and all guests MUST make a reservation for entry, no later than Monday April 26th. To maintain all health, safety, and distancing protocols, there is a max of 6 people per reservation. If you have more than 6 people in your party please make 2 reservations. Payments can be sent in with your child or added to your smart tuition. (Check your email for the RSVP link)

See the flyer attached for more information, and if you have any questions feel free to contact Ms. Danielle, events coordinator, at fazio@saoc.org.

We'll have our in-person KG and 8th Grade graduation ceremonies on May.22nd.

Kindergarten graduation ceremony: 11am, 8th grade graduation ceremony: 4:30pm followed by outdoor dinner

Ticket admission only; graduation will also be streamed live via zoom.

Ms. Danielle has been with SAC 7 years! Of her time here, she has taught Kindergarten for 6 years, Prek-4 for 1 year, and has been SAC's Events and Activities Coordinator since being hired in 2014. This is her 15th year in education. She has taught 2 and 3 year old preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, and 2nd grade. She began her teaching career in the summer of 2005 as a teacher's aide in a local preschool program and has loved every minute since!

She is a graduate of Northeastern Illinois University, with a BA in Early Childhood Education, a minor in history, with a Type 04 Illinois state teaching certificate.

She is a candidate for the National Board Certification of Professional Teaching and recently presented at the 2021 ILASCD Statewide Pre-K and Kindergarten Professional Development Conference.

In September 2019, she married her husband Dean, they have been together for 9 years this March! They currently live on the northwest side of Chicago (near O’Hare). Ms. Danielle is from a big Italian family with even bigger personalities! She loves spending time with them and her friends whenever she can. They are always supportive so you’re sure to see them around school and at school events throughout the year!

Ms. Danielle loves teaching and organizing events at SAC. She loves working with young children because they are so full of life and intrigued by everything in the world around them. Their curiosity and thirst for knowledge is something she greatly admires.

The Gulsen family has been in the Chicago area since 2013. They are a family of six. There are currently two children enrolled at SAC: Tuba and Bera. Tuba is in 6th grade and Bera is in 7th grade. When asked about their favorite class right now, Bera answers music and Tuba says Turkish. The two older siblings, Burak and Ayse Sule, also attended SAC. Burak graduated in 2019 and Ayse Sule graduated in 2016. They also have a cousin named Numan in the 8th grade! The Gulsens say that SAC has been "like home" now.

Manka Arifi graduated from SAC in 2011. She felt that the teachers, principal (Mr. Kartal), and friends she met at SAC prepared her for future successes. She used the skills she learned to become a leader throughout her high school and college career where she led numerous volunteer activities and trips. She earned her degree in Middle Grades Education from Loyola University Chicago, while maintaining her position on the Dean's List. Manka is currently a teacher and a full-time master's student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The tight-knit community at SAC helped her realize her aspirations and potential to help others.

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Academic excellence through STREAM curriculum and a diverse school culture

Email: info@saoc.org
Website: saoc.org
Location: 501 Midway Drive, Mount Prospect, IL, USA
Phone: (847)258 5254
Facebook: facebook.com/scienceacademyofchicago