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Classroom, Club, and Activity News:
February has been a very busy month for band students!
On February 8th and 9th, 7th grade oboist Sonali Marion represented Westview Hills Middle School at the All Illinois Junior Band festival at the University of Illinois is Urbana-Champaign.
February 13th was the annual Solo and Ensemble Night at Westview Hills Middle School. Professional musicians were brought in to critique each 6th, 7th & 8th grade band member as they performed a solo, and 7th & 8th graders on their small group pieces.Congratulations to all of our talented band musicians for their outstanding performances. Each judge was asked to pick their best performers of the night. Shout Outs for best performance of the night go to:
Nancy Wang, flute
Aarush Palli, flute
Sonali Marion, oboe
Maria DeSantiago, clarinet
Nysha Adusumilli, bass clarinet
Nick Kujalowicz, alto saxophone
Stella Gordon, tenor saxophone
Sean Hill, trumpet
David Moffett, trombone
Jason Yawe, baritone
Ethan Hallberg, percussionAnd to our winning ensembles of the night:
Chorus and Air, by Analise Budziak, Naomi Luangdilok and Elena Garcia
Ranting and Roaring, by Avery Andersen, Laura Misiunas, Catie McCabe, Nick Kujalowicz, Ashley O’Neill and Natalie Kujalowicz
And Procession of the Knights, by Jay Panicker, James Patacsil and Jason YaweCongratulations again to all on a job well done!
Our Westview band students performed these ensembles on February 22nd at our annual Spaghetti Dinner, held at Maercker School from 4:30 - 8:00 PM. Thank you to all who came out and supported the band. For over 40 years our students and band parents have been running this successful and fun event.
LLS Fundraiser - The Westview Serves Club raised over $500 in the Pennies for Patients Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Shannon Rodriguez and Sarah Waters led the efforts with their club members.
FPS -Congratulations to our FPS teams who competed at Regionals on February 9! Westview hosted the event, which brought 13 teams from 3 middle and high schools to compete. Both teams will advance to the State Competition in Bloomington on April 5-6.
FPS 2018-19: (1st row, l-r) Colleen Milos, Deona Julary, Alice Liu, Sebrina Sebastian, (2nd row, l-r) Valeria Gonzalez, Ansh Desai, Edward Thomas, and Grant Diedrich. Best luck!Science Fair - Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Science Fair on January 26. More than a hundred students from Holmes, Maercker, and Westview came together to show their exhibits and experiments for our judges. Thank you for everyone who volunteered! Six of our Westview Students have progressed to the Regionals level: Edward Thomas, Sebrina Sebastian, Colleen Milos, Vandana Sivakumar, Elena Isabel Garcia, and Naomi Luangdilok; they will be representing us at North Central College on March 9.
Chess Success! - Congratulations to our Westview students who recently participated in the IESA State Chess Finals. Check out the full story.
Health and Wellness Class
8th Grade Health students were engaged in an effective peer teaching presentation on mental illness awareness this month! Students completed a color coded graphic organizer focusing on key concepts presented by their peers. Students presenters focused on differentiated learning techniques incorporated throughout their presentation to appeal to all levels of understanding. As well, students actively answered a formative assessment given by the presenters based on the content they presented on!
Westview #FitTip - snip the current month as a visual for the website, include the link for historical examples.
Creative Writing Open Mic Night -Several Westview students shared their writing at the Creative Writing Open Mic night on February 7th. The Open Mic night was put on by the Creative Writing Club but was open to everyone. Students submitted a piece of writing based on the theme of “dreams” and then read their piece aloud at the event. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners were chosen based on creativity, theme relevance, and performance. 1st place went to Maggie Noonan (8th grade), 2nd place went to Analise Budziak, and 3rd place to Danny Garcia. All students did an amazing job and we are so proud of them!
International Writing Activity - Students in Mrs. Konidaris’ 3rd block class participated in a Traveling Tale. The class worked with students from Ukraine, Spain, India, and Canada to create a digital story using the theme of gender equality. Students drew their own illustrations, and recorded their voices using the website Adobe Spark. The story is being finished by students in Ukraine and we can’t wait to share when it is done!
EarthQuest, Westview’s STEM Club, participated for the third year in a row at the 3rd Annual American Water Works Association’s Water Tower Model Competition on Saturday, February 23, at Westmont Junior High School. Each year Westview students’ models have placed among the top 3 in the competition, winning 1st place again this year with Jose Veliz-Hernandez’s “Jose’s Treehouse” model, and 3rd place with Oliver Stehlik’s ocean pollution-themed model. Jose and Oliver (and Olayemi Orukotan, who was Oliver’s teammate but who could not attend the competition) will go on to compete at the Association’s new State Competition, to be held in Westmont in April, where the top three students/teams will earn college scholarships. Best wishes to Jose, Oliver, and Olayemi!
Other 2019 WV participants:
Julianna Kolatek
Milena Lopez
Anita Shala
Faith Lee
Alex MelnickMathCounts
Wilbert Chu (7th grade) won 1st Place Individual Award at Chapter Math Counts competition for the second year in a row! The Salt Creek Chapter includes 18 schools in the area: Westview Hills Middle School, Avery Coonley Gifted School, Butler Junior High School (Oak Brook), Cass Junior High School (Darien), Clarendon Hills Middle School (Clarendon Hills), Hinsdale Middle School (Hinsdale), Gower Middle School (Burr Ridge), Bryan Middle School (Elmhurst), Glen Crest Middle School (Glen Ellyn), among others. It's a great honor to compete with top mathletes in the area schools and advance to the State competition.
Thank you so very much for all Wilbert's teachers and coaches who have cultivated him throughout the years and the wonderful school Wilbert is so fortunate to be a member of! We are so grateful for all you do! We really appreciate Ms. Constantine who is his math club coach, Ms. Nodelman who is his current math teacher, Ms. Burnett who came to organize the school team today, and all his past and current teachers so very much!
- Luyan (Wilbert’s mom)
Photos: Wilbert posing with Salt Creek Chapter organizer Dawn; Awards at the Chapter competition.
Entire MathCOUNTS Team:
Community Connections:
6th Grade Neon Dance
Calling all sixth graders!
Come meet other sixth graders who will attend Hinsdale Central at LEAP's annual SIXTH GRADE NEON DANCE!
Come have an AWESOME time dancing, playing ping pong, eating pizza, snapping pictures at a photo booth, and meeting new friends!
We will have a DJ, pizza ($2 a slice), drinks, candy, and various prizes for dance games.
Admission: $5 per child, bring extra for pizza and concessions
Date: March 8 from 6-9 PM
Where: Hinsdale Central cafeteria (come through the pool doors)
We look forward to seeing you there!
P.S. Make sure to wear neon!!
All proceeds will benefit the LEAP Science and Maths academies in South Africa.
-LEAP Into Africa Club at Hinsdale Central
Thank you! To all the parents who completed the 5 Essentials Survey for Westview Hills. The winner of the Mariano’s gift card raffle is Carmela Luangdilok!
BBA BEL Program
While checking out the UW site for summer opportunities, Kara Kuo came across this interesting program. Since Maercker is very diverse, we may likely have students who could participate in this program in the future. It is for Sophomore students and requires a two summer commitment. She wanted to share it with everyone, since it might be of interest to many families that qualify. Note the enrollment has passed for this summer, but this is a heads up for kids who are in 8th or 9th grade now.
Applying to the BBA BEL Program | Wisconsin School of Business at UW Madison
