Sun. Dec. 9 - Fri. Dec. 14: Book Fair

Fri. Dec. 14: Fitness Fun Friday, 3:15 p.m.

Tues. Dec. 18 - Fri. Dec 21: Semester Exams

Mon. Dec 24 - Fri. Jan 4: Winter Break

Tues. Dec 18: Faculty Holiday Party - No After School Clubs

The Snowflake Dance

By Adrianne Finley Odell

Recently I stepped into the Lower School music classroom, where our preschool students were engaged in class with their dedicated music teacher, Ms. Novesky.  She was playing a sweet, classical piece on the piano and had instructed the students to pretend they were snowflakes and drift to the ground to the sound of the music.  I couldn’t resist. I soon found myself joining them, imagining myself as a beautiful snowflake and magically floating to the music, along with the breeze, slowly… slowly to the ground. Much to my surprise and delight, the students seemed to think my joining them was completely normal!  The children were asked to feel, to listen, to artistically interpret--and to be silent. In a way, it was a three-year-old version of a meditation as they felt the rhythm of winter and eventually all slumped on the floor, contributing to a snowpack.

After the snowflake dance, Ms. Novesky passed out magical “ice skates” and gave explicit instructions to the students as they “skated” around the room--on paper plates!  At the end of the activity she asked them to describe how the movement on the “skates” felt different than how they had moved before. One of the young girls described how she had to keep her feet solidly on the ground in order to “skate” and glide across the floor.  Others shared their feelings and listened to their classmates describe their experience.

When I left the music room, I thought about what an exceptional experience I had just witnessed--in fact participated in--in the life of our students.  There was tremendous learning built into a seemingly simple exercise. Students had the opportunity to connect with the music and listen to it and to each other’s feelings.  They were able to embrace their creativity through movement and physical expression of the music. They were asked to pay attention and interpret their experience.

There was also a very personal take-away for me: a poignant reminder of the need to pause on occasion from the busyness of the day to creatively connect or even to be still and breathe.  It is all too rare a luxury these days, and yet it can be one of the most profound gifts that we can give ourselves. Simplicity. Even silence. There is power and beauty in allowing ourselves to re-connect.

Last Week:

Last Friday the Roycemore Griffins played their first home game of the 2018-19 season against the Cristo Rey St. Martin Knights. In the 1st quarter, the Griffins found themselves down by 15 points. Going into the half, Roycemore had tied the game at 30/30. 

After halftime and some adjustments by Coach Jones, the Griffins were up by 10 points and never relinquished the lead to the Cristo Rey Knights which led to a 65 - 57 victory over the Knights after coming into the game with a 0 and 2 record. Go Griffins!

This Week:

On Monday 12/10, Middle School Girls won 16-11 at Solomon Schecter, and are now 2-0 on season wins!

Tuesday 12/11 Upper School Boys HOME vs Rochell Zell, 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday 12/12 Upper School Girls HOME vs Josephinum, 5:00 p.m.

Thursday 12/13  Middle School Girls at Chiaravalle, 4:00 p.m.

Thursday 12/13 Middle School Boys HOME vs Solomon Schechter, 4:30 p.m.

Friday 12/14  Upper School Girls vs Acero Cruz Tentative

Saturday 12/15 Upper School Boys HOME vs Yeshiva, 6:30 p.m.

Today, the seventh and eighth graders were visited by Quarter Master Rehova Nemo from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Wm Snell Post 7186. He was here to present awards to our students who participated in the 2018 Patriot's Pen Essay competition. 

Sam N. took first place, and his paper will be sent on to the next level of the competition (this is a national competition). Sam also received a check for $100. The post also decided to award five runner-up awards.

A huge thank you to the VFW and congratulations to our winner, runners-up, and participants! 

Last Thursday, Detective Hunt from the Evanston Police Department visited Roycemore to speak to students about safety--both physical and online safety.  Our second grade took the opportunity to get a photo!

Stop by the Roycemore School Book Fair from 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Monday, December 10 - Friday, December 14.  Please visit us for your holiday, birthday, and other gift needs. There is a tremendous variety of books, activity kits, journals, and gifts available for students!  

We celebrated Computer Science Education Week with school-wide coding activities throughout the week, culminating in a Friday afternoon session that was fun and engaging for everyone!

Students in Grades PK through 12 worked on coding apps and games, robotics, logic puzzles, board games, and more.       

A few of our Upper School students are taking an independent study course on game design and programming. For their course, they created a game and had an alpha version available for younger Roycemore students to test out at the Hour of Code Celebration! The game is tentatively called AMBIR, which is an anagram of the student’s initials.

Registration is now open to the public for this parent and tot class. 

Do you know someone who might enjoy Parent & Tot time at Roycemore? Tell a friend!

The ten session class runs January 9 - March 13, Wednesday Mornings, 9:30-10:45 a.m. To register or learn more about the Parent & Tot Time Winter session, please click here or contact Melinda Orzoff at 847.866.6055 or [email protected]. Space is limited--register today.

What a beautiful Winter Program on Thursday! So many smiling faces onstage and in the audience. Please visit our Facebook page to see more highlights from this year's program.  

On December 4, six World Language students took a trip with their French teacher to La Sardine in Chicago to enjoy ordering, dining and conversing in French. Some tried escargot, others poisson and chocolat pot de creme. 

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