Volume 5, Issue 4
Principal: Pam Hodgson
Summit Hill Junior High
Assistant Principal: John Wade
7260 North Avenue
Frankfort, IL 60423
April 2013—June 2013
815-469-4330
Inside this Issue:
Library
2
Team 7-1
3-4
7-2
5-6
7-3
7-8
8-1
9-10
8-2
11-12
8-3
13
Sports,
Band and
more
14-16
The 8th graders celebrated the
end of the academic career at
SHJH by attending the banquet
held in their honor at DiNolfo’s
on May 23rd.
The evening began with a sit
down dinner and ended with
dancing. A great time was had
by all.
We have jumped into our PBL (Problem
Based Learning). The students opened the
unit with a very cool, and smelly squid
dissection. The squid represented organisms that could have been affected by the
oil spill that happened in April of 2010.
The students had to research how to effectively clean up and oil spill while considering cost, organisms, environment, short
and long term effects, as well as, global effects.
173 Students participated in the
Battle of the Books on
May 15, 2013
The winning team for 8th grade is Morgan Ramos, Grace Ingram, William Nagy &
Tommy Hortin.
The winning team for 7th grade and 2013 Battle of the Books Champions is Andres Gutierez De Velasco, Tara Tischer, Hannah Gray and Amanda Pohrte.
Wow, the Scholastic Book Fair hosted by the SCO was fantastic! Students were
eager to purchase books they anticipate reading over the summer. Our research
classes have been busy creating powerpoint presentations on vertebrates and invertebrates, famous poets for poetry month, earthquakes, and so much more!
The 2014 Rebecca Caudill nominee list is currently available at www.rcyrba.org.
Keep Reading and have a Spectacular Spartan Summer. Check out your local libraries summer reading programs where the books and the temperature will be very cool
during those hot summer days.
Wishing you lots of ...
Mrs. Bergmann 7th-grade Language Arts
For the last Independent Novel Study of the year,
some of the students in Mrs. Bergmann’s 7th-grade
Language Arts classes produced book trailers based
on the Accelerated Reader books they read. Book
trailers are like their forerunners, movie trailers, except prepared for the small screen. Usually produced
and presented on computers, they entice readers to
read a book with visual representations of the story.
For example, Jake B., Anthony E., and Chris S. produced an engaging PowerPoint presentation for the
book The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan. Their book
trailer introduced the continuing conflict between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood
and followed the further adventures of the seven demigods including Percy and AnnaBeth in several succinct, but entertaining frames. The boys’ book trailer was enjoyed by
all. Jordan C., Hannah H., and Catherine S. produced an impressive video for The Hunger Games. The three girls effectively dramatize the story of Katniss as she fights her
way to victory for District 12. Everyone was in awe of our trio’s production values.
Thanks and kudos to all our future cinematographers!
Mrs. Goebel 7th grade Language Arts
It’s hard to believe that I am writing our newsletter for the fourth
quarter! We’ve had such a successful year, and this quarter was
one that the students will probably never forget! In our regular
ed classes, students studied The Outsiders in which they truly
enjoyed. Facebook pages were created for the characters in the
story which really made them come to life. Students enjoyed creating their character’s status and in turn were amused by others comments to their status posts. In our honors class, students connected their reading of Behind the Blue and
Gray with their Social Studies curriculum. We read this non-fiction piece related to the
Civil War. Several non-fiction reading strategies were taught, along with note-taking
strategies. We continue working on our ABC Countdown for Language Arts class topics.
We are currently on letter “P” and students have had much success relating our classroom topics to the countdown- only 10 more days to go! All students should be proud of
their accomplishments in my class this year. Not only have students performed at a
high level, but they also reached their academic and personal goals!
Way to go, Goal Go-Getters!
Mr. Hagen – Mathematics
All of Mr. Hagen’s Math classes have been working on their College Loan
Letter Project to finish the year in exciting fashion. Students first decide
on a career, then based on their career choice pick a university that is best
suited for that career. Using the current up-to-date tuition costs, students
compute how much money they will need for a college loan that includes
both tuition and room and board. Afterwards, students will then use the
Simple Interest Formula to compute their interest
on their loan, while finally calculating how much
they will have to repay the bank after graduation.
Mr. Deutscher – Social Studies
We currently just completed a very exciting time in American history. We
have made our way through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Recently,
we had the opportunity to analyze a portion of the movie ‘Lincoln.’ The
movie centers on Lincoln’s push to pass the 13th Amendment through congress, which was one of the focuses of our unit. We are just about to begin
America’s move west, as well as the Industrial Age. The students will be
creating advertisements designed to convince individuals to ‘move’ west.
Mr. Sullivan: Language Arts
Time flies when you’re having fun… This year just seemed to fly by, huh? And what
a year it’s been.
About a month ago we just finished our unit covering everything from Poe to Frost, and hyperbole to
alliteration. The students did a beyond admirable
job breaking down the meaning in a work of poetry,
looking at poetic elements, and writing various poetic forms, such as haiku. I’m very excited to see how
they perform next year in this genre. And speaking
of poetry, we are waiting with bated breath to find
out who among our classes have been chosen to be
published in this year’s anthology A Celebration of
Poets!
I can’t think of a better way to wrap up the year in fiction than with The Outsiders.
S.E. Hinton’s novel revolves around growing up in Oklahoma under the shadow of
stereotypes, violence, and survival. As in years past the students really enjoyed the
book and used a lot of their QAR and text-text/self/world connection skills throughout the chapters.
Please have a safe and healthy summer, and we’ll see you in a few months,
Class of 2014!
Mrs. Barron: Language Arts
Fourth quarter finds the Honors class busy working on a fairy
tale trial. In addition to learning the various roles portrayed in
a courtroom, students are writing their scripts and planning
their presentations. Will Gold E. Locks be able to run freely, or
will she be facing a strict sentence? Will Jack and his mother
continue to live at liberty, or will they be required to return
their ‘stolen’ treasures? In order to understand the process in
more detail, a cook County state’s attorney will be visiting the classroom to provide a
presentation and answer student-created questions.
In order to keep all students engaged and interested at this hectic time of the year,
the other ELA classes are creating news broadcasts. Students have been watching
the news and writing their own stories based off of current topics. Good presentation
skills taught in communications class will be reinforced as students are presenting
from their local networks. Stay tuned to local, national, and human interest stories
as the topics unfold from our creative anchors!
Mrs. Furmanek: Math
My math classes have been moving right along giving everything their all! The students
should be proud and keep up the hard work! The end is near! In Honors Algebra, they
will begin to match wits with exponents and their functions. Algebra 1A has tackled linear equations and they can now read, write, and graph these equations. Next they will
solve inequalities. In Pre-Algebra, the students are
up to their ears in solving equations. They will be
entering the world of ratios and proportions next!
Ms. Trotta: Social Studies
We finished a fantastic year by writing a Civil War research paper. Students were able
to use multiple sources in the classroom and pick a person that they were interested in
researching. Students then used the language arts skills of paraphrasing, paragraph
writing and using their “own words” to write an interesting and unique research paper.
This differentiated project will help them greatly as they move up to 8th grade and work
even more on research writing.
Mr. Barnas – Reading/Language Arts
What a year it has been in room 169! I would like to say that I really enjoyed working
with my students this year. In closing the school year, Mr. Barnas’s English classes,
worked on writing personal narrative stories with incorporating vocabulary words used
during the course of the school year. I noticed many students were chuckling while reviewing all their writing from that start of the school year. I am proud of all my students
and their accomplishments this school year. Yes, we have had our
ups, downs, good days and bad; however, overall students have
shown immense growth in writing, reading, and NWEA scores!
Finally, in reading, students concluded reading Mr. Barnas’s favorite novel, The Outsiders. Students learned about the different
slang words used in the 60s, music, and learning about the two
rival gangs, the Greasers VS the Socs. Students ended the school
year with comparing and contrasting The Outsiders movie with the
book.
Mr. Smalter: Social Studies
This has been a rewarding, challenging and prosperous school year. I wish my students nothing but the best as they enter the final year of their middle school academic career. Remember to be respectful, responsible and safe, but also have fun!
Enjoy your summer.
Mrs. Hartley: Science
The 7th grade Junior Biologists are leaving the
world of Biology and have entered the depths of
the ocean floor. Whether it was determining
their own Genetic "Bee Bops", creating their own
new breed of dog, or "Warming up to Worms",
our students have performed beautifully. They
identified different alleles to design their new
creatures, read a strand of DNA to create their
"Mama" and "Baby" dogs, and designed an experiment to determine how earthworms react to
different stimuli. We look forward to our final
lab, which will be the dissection of a pickle. Our
students are preparing for their upcoming years by using their dissecting kits for the
first time.
We have completed our PBLs on "Endangered Species". The students created and presented power points on interesting facts on their creature and solutions on how to stop
their endangerment. They were fabulous. We learned so much..."Sea Otters need to
hold hands (paws) while they sleep on their backs so they do not drift away." Their research paper on their animal was the last piece to our Problem Based Learning Unit.
I am truly so proud of them and have enjoyed this year immensely. Good luck 7th
graders in 8th grade and in high school. You are fantastic and amazing! I will miss
you! Thank you for a wonderful year! Keep exploring!
Mrs. Kelly: Math
Well, can you believe it?!?!? It is the end of the year. It feels like we just started this
school year. We have gone from the "basics" like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and
dividing fractions, decimals, and percents to graphing linear equations and inequalities. What a change one year makes. I have seen such growth in all of the students
and I am very proud of everything they have accomplished. I wish all of you a happy
and SAFE summer vacation. And yes, it does help if you practice different math concepts over the summer! =) Best of luck in 8th grade!
Mrs. Stupay: 8th Grade Reading Specialist
Room 230 is excited to transition from Jr. High to High
School. In Language Arts we are working on the Principal Parts of Verbs and Cases of Personal Pronouns. We
are also down to the last two units for our vocabulary
book.
In Reading, students are reading for their independent
novel study and completing the class reading challenge. Students are wrapping up specific reading skill
challenges and are enjoying the many short stories.
Reading Improvement students are advancing their skills in fluency, comprehension,
and writing. This class utilizes Read Naturally as the main intervention program, but
also uses a wide variety of other resources to help them in their skills development. We
are using the current NWEA scores and AIMS WEB progress monitoring to guide the
rest of the term, in which skills are needed to be focused on.
Mrs. Hollowell: Science
I asked my classes to write about what was happening in Science. I was quite pleased
with the variety of responses, thank you to all the wonderful writers!
Justin Rosner, submitted the following:
“Science class for Mrs. Hollowell is a great and fun learning environment. Our class is
great because we are learning new things every day. We are learning about earthquakes
and the different waves they produce.
In science I am learning about the different waves earthquakes have. I know about Pwaves, S-waves, and L-waves. Those are the different
kinds of waves earthquakes have. I am also learning
about the earths plates. There are the Northern plate,
Eurasia plate, African plate, and more. I like how we are
very communicative when learning it is easier that way. I
hope before the end of the year we as a class will learn
more that we could bring more scientific knowledge to
high school. Those are some things I am learning in Mrs.
Hollowells' class.”
Mrs. Greene: Language Arts
We ended our year reading four folk tales. One was from the Hispanic culture,
“Chicoria,” another from the Indian culture, “Coyote Steals the Sun and Moon.” The last
two taught lessons on minding your own business and being careful not to brag too
much (“Brer Possum’s Dilemma” and “Why the Waves Have Whitecaps” respectively).
We ended the year in grammar reviewing subject-verb agreement and pronounantecedent agreement.
All students are looking forward to a fun and relaxing summer
and to beginning their exciting journey through their high
school years. )
Best of luck to the class of 2013
8-1 teachers
Ms. Beck
Mrs. Blevins
Mrs. Greene
Mrs. Hollowell
Mrs. McSpaden
Mrs. Stupay
Language Arts News from Mrs. Miller:
Our classes have finished the year with novel studies for Lord of the
Flies and Nothing but the Truth. As our students contemplated leaving elementary
school and entering high school, they made
life connections with both novels. Students
also took a look at the long journey from
the beginning of elementary school to the present day. Their
comparisons and contrasts became the foci of a major essay
and a photo project. Good luck to all my students! Thanks
for the great year!
Math News from Mrs. Zayed:
I am very proud of all my students and their accomplishments. I wish nothing but success in their future. I hope they walk away with math knowledge and skills that they will
take and use in their educational journey.
Science News from Mrs. Szymanski:
H2O and C6H12O6 are well- known compounds in our everyday lives. We have been exploring the world of chemistry and chemical reactions. The students lit matches and extinguished them during the foamite lab and
burn Flaming Hot Cheetos to measure an exothermic reaction. The rest of the year is “all
downhill” while the students are studying and
presenting to the class the different types of
volcanoes.
Social Studies News from Mr. Evenhouse:
As the year winds down we are taking an opportunity to demonstrate all the skills we
have learned throughout the year. During our time together we have worked on improving our abilities in reading, research, and writing. Now, with our final research project
we have the chance to show how much we've
learned. Students worked to develop a historical question in an area of interest. We've seen everything from
world wars to cheerleading. From there we looked for
documentary evidence to use in answering our questions. The final step will be developing a thesis and supporting it with the documents we've assembled. At the
end of the year we will be ready for the research and writing ahead of us in high school
Team 8-3 Celebrates the Class of 2013!
As the 2012-2013 school year comes to an end, the teachers of Team 8-3 reflected upon
the year. It has been a great school year! It has been such a pleasure to get to know
you not only as students, but as people. We are proud of your academic accomplishments and hope that the good study skills and habits you learned this year will help
you have a successful freshman year in high school. As 8th grade teachers, we have
helped you build a strong foundation in your core subjects. It is our wish that you
build upon this foundation to create a successful future in high school and in life!
We are very proud of all that you have accomplished, and we are confident that you will
continue to be successful. We congratulate you and we celebrate you for all that you
have done and for all that you have to offer! It has been enjoyable working with you
this year, and we wish you all the best as you move forward! Let us be the first to congratulate you on your 8th Grade Graduation!!! CONGRATULATIONS!
Go Cougars! Go Spartans!
“Put your future in good hands - your own.”
~Author Unknown
Ms. Bottomley
Mrs. DiNolfo
Ms. Canter
Ms. Marinucci
Mr. Chrusciel
Mrs. Schlesselman
Spartan Sports, Band
and more…..
The Summit Hill Strings have had a wonderful spring! They
completed their 2012-2013 year with a concert on Tuesday,
April 16th. The Beginning Strings performed several pieces
from their method books, and
a full page piece of music titled “Rain Dribs” by Anne Svendsen. This was the first
time the group had played a piece of music with 5 different parts. They sounded great! The String Ensemble performed three pieces: “Bushwhacker Stomp” by Keith
Sharp, “Themes from Harry Potter” arranged by Paul
Cook, and a traditional mariachi piece “La Adelita” arranged by Nieto/Phillips. “Themes from Harry Potter” featured Emily Baker on piano, and “La Adelita” featured
Ben Skolek on trumpet, helping create an authentic mariachi sound. The String Ensemble once again had an
outstanding performance. Eighth graders Emily Alvarez, Annie Bowes, Noor Hasan,
Grace Ingram, Kyle Kentrick, and Maritza Sanchez will be greatly missed next year!
On Tuesday, April 16 the
Spartan Show Choir
Performed 3 dances and songs during the
Spring Concert; Do you believe in magic?
Everybody rejoice! and Footloose. They are
pictured below:
Front row: Sammie Youngren, Alyssa Mccurrie Tara Tischer Alexis Heneisen Miranda
Standish, Jordan Pickering, Rebecca Allen,
Alexis Crosby
Back row: Watfae Zayed, Alyssa Balzanto,
Megan Greenburg, Kaley Pickering
Congratulations to our bands on their excellent year!!
Our Concert & Symphonic Bands both advanced to the IGSMA State Contest on April
27th, where the Concert Band received a second place rating and the Symphonic Band received a first division rating! Both bands performed very well and we are proud of their
accomplishments!
At the annual Spring Concert on May 6, not only was the
audience treated to some great music and the year’s slide
show, but several students received year-end awards. Recipients of Band Booster $100 scholarships were seventh graders Evan Curatolo, Madilyn Diaz, Sara Glawe, Samantha
Grobmeier, Justin McCourt and Watfae Zayed. Eighth grade
winners were Jared Candelaria, Gordon Laurencell, Jake
Molnar, Tom Scott, Ben Skolek and Matt Young. The top
eighth grade awards went to Directors’ Award winners Meg
Raimbault and Natalie Seidel, and the new Music Department Student of the Year Award
was presented to Michael Gaertig.
The Musical Revue was another success, showcasing the many talents of our music students. This year’s revue featured three musicals: “High School Musical”, “Phantom of the
Opera” and “Guys and Dolls”. The emcees for the evening were Tommy Hortin and Madeline Buck. The sound, light and stage crews were all students, as was the pit band that
accompanied the production. There were 105 students involved in the production, which performed on Friday and
Saturday, May 10 and 11 for full houses. We are very
proud of our music students for all they contributed to the
success of this year’s revue!
Michael Gaertig is the recipient of the first SHJH Music Department "Student of the Year Award". Michael is a member of the Symphonic band (trombone), Concert Band
(baritone), Tuesday Jazz Band (trombone), Friday Jazz
Band II (guitar), Percussion Ensemble II, Pep Band, Spartan Singers. He auditioned for and was selected for the
2012 IMEA Jazz Festival, the IMEA Concert Band Festival,
was a member of the 2013 Lincoln-Way Area All-Star Band, received first division ratings
at the 2013 IGSMA Solo & Ensemble Contest, held a lead role in the "High School Musical" portion of our 2013 Musical Revue and is an overall active member of the music department.
Pablo Picasso Inspired
Cubism Still Life Drawings
Ally Carlson
Kennedy Colton
Ryan Murphy
Grace Cooke
Lauren Lyford
Sarah Lewis