Students in the sixth-grade writing classes of Ms. Corush/Eiter, Ms. Malec, Ms. Prahl and Ms. Wright are developing persuasive writing skills. Pretending to be the Vernon Hills Chief of Police, they wrote letters to the Vernon Hills Village President asking him to add a canine unit.  Vernon Hills had a canine unit in the past. The students used logical arguments to drive home their points. On May 29, Vernon Hills Village President Roger Byrne, Chief of Police Patrick Kreis and School Resource Officer Jon Paret came to Middle School South to provide feedback on the letters. Village President Byrne told the students that he would not be adding a canine unit at this time since there are 20 canine units in the county and the Village can borrow a unit when needed. Chief of Police Kreis congratulated the students on their strong writing skills. Having Officer Paret was a real treat since he was one of the first Vernon Hills police officers to have a canine in the police force.

Sixth-grade students in Ms. Corush’s language arts classes at Middle School South are learning how to give presentations and build their speaking skills through a multi-genre research project. This assignment focuses on personalized learning so the students could choose whichever topic they wanted as well as how they wanted to present the information researched. Students did not write a traditional research paper, but instead, wrote research using various genres they chose. Each student had up to seven minutes to present his/her topic to the classroom. Some topics include the Titanic, Lyme disease, Ellen Degeneres, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Michael Phelps. Classmates asked good questions, which the presenters answered with ease.

Congratulations to the cast, crew, and directors of Mary Poppins Jr., the 2018 Middle School South play. The audience was treated to quite a performance on Friday and Saturday evening.

Please assist the Key to 73 Education Foundation choose an inaugural gift for each Hawthorn school.  The Key to 73 Education Foundation was established to raise private sector funds to support the goals of the District’s Strategic Plan. In its first year, the foundation would like to present each school with a gift to be used by all of the students. Please take a short survey to help select the option most valued by all for each school.