Graduation and End of the Year Update!

Felicity would like to congratulate its largest graduation class in the history of the school! With nine 8th graders, and 10 high school graduates, we couldn’t be prouder. On May 24th we hosted a celebration of our graduates with over 120 people cheering on the great accomplishments of the group. Our students worked so hard to get where they are today, and we cannot wait to see what the future holds for them as they continue on their path.

With the 2022-2023 school year coming to an end, we look forward to the students joining us again for the start of our 2023 Summer School session. With outdoor lunches, activities, and field trips, summer school is a great way to infuse a calm work environment, with fun summer experiences!

End Of Semester Raffle!

Here at Felicity, students are given tickets for work that they complete during the school year. These tickets can be used to get special breakfast items in the morning, and bags of chips or drinks during lunch.

At the end of each semester, Felicity holds a blind raffle, where students can use the tickets they have leftover, and put them into different bags for different prizes! These prizes include soft blankets, gift cards, and even headphones or an electronic massager! It is always a blast watching students divide their tickets up amongst the different items they may want to go for, and some students even pool their tickets together in an attempt to win certain prizes! Congratulations to all the students who went home with something from our end of the semester raffle!

Felicity Art Project Update – Ceiling Tile Painting!

Over the last two months, students have had time to work on their very own ceiling tile with Ms. Medina to put up in the school building! These tiles are being installed into classrooms all around the building. This art project allows students to leave their permanent mark on Felicity, long after they are gone!

Students were allowed to paint something that they felt represented themselves, or whatever they felt they could paint best. Some students even chose to use their own free time to put the finishing touches on their tiles. Below, are a few examples of some of the incredible work that has been done!

Caael Basketball Update!

Our Felicity basketball season is only a few weeks away from ending! Felicity is a proud member of the Chicago Area Alternative Education League. CAAEL, a not-for-profit organization, has been providing a full spectrum of academic, athletic and art programs to the Chicagoland area’s youth since 1976.  Each year, CAAEL offers 1100+ events to 5,000 students from 30 Illinois counties. Working together, building a team like atmosphere, and coming together to achieve a common goal, are three important parts of the Caael program we try our hardest to achieve!

Caael is not about having the best record in the league or winning every game. The goal is to give students a reward for their academic success in the classroom. If students reach an academic goal set by their teacher, and want to participate on the team, they get to spend a chunk of their Friday’s playing against another school in the Caael program. When Felicity travels to an away school for a game, students are treated on the way back to a lunch outside the building!

We have one away game, and one home game left in the season! After basketball season, we move onto either Softball, or Soccer, depending on how many kids show interesting in signing up!

Hydroponics At Felicity!

Over the Summer, staff members worked very hard on setting up our Hydroponics System! Now, we are fully functioning, and able to share our full set up with you all.

Here, we are able to grow fresh produce for some of our animal friends in the building to enjoy, along with teaching students a fun way to grow food without having to use soil! The system is able to use water-based nutrient solution, instead of the soil, to grow these plants!

For the students that choose to participate, this is a place they can go to learn about a small piece of agriculture, and the places science can take us moving into the future!

CAAEL Basketball

The CAAEL Basketball season is under way. CAAEL basketball has been one of the most highly anticipated sports for Felicity students to be able to join. Each student on the team gains an opportunity to earn a sportsmanship award at the end of every game, as well as providing reasoning behind why the student was chosen. Felicity students also have the opportunity to provide two sportsmanship ribbons to two students on the opposing team.

To start the season, Felicity started with a victory of 38-17 against South Palatine at the home court. The second week against New Hope Academy ended with a loss of 16-28. Next, North Shore Academy’s game ended with a loss of 21-37. However, week four took a turn for the positive with a 32-16 win against Forest View.

Although it hasn’t always been easy to win a few games, Felicity students have found new ways to collaborate as a team and zone in on a few key basketball skills to carry with them in future games. Hopefully the best is yet to come!

CAAEL Flag Football

Felicity is so excited to see CAAEL back for our students! The first sport of the season is Flag Football. Two of our paraprofessionals, Mr. Townsend and Mr. Farca took the initiative to find students that would be interested as well as making a schedule during P.E. of when practices would be run.

The first CAAEL Flag Football game was on 9/24 against Connections at Brickyard Park. Two of our students were able to give out sportsmanship awards to two of the other players at the end of the game, as well as two players from the other team to provide Felicity students with the same recognition. The second CAAEL Flag Football game against Camelot of Belvidere was on 10/1 and Felicity played an intense game, but unfortunately fell short of the win 36-46.

One of the primary missions of CAAEL is understanding the importance of being a consistent team member and playing a leadership role. Each student was given the opportunity to explain why the other player was chosen for sportsmanship and stood out from the rest of the team. Please see our below slideshow of some of the practice action shots and the first game, stay tuned for further updates!

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2021-2022 School Year Upcoming Changes

The new Felicity school year is starting on August 16th and we have plenty of changes that will be assisting our students with blended learning and a unique school experience for the next year.

To start, Felicity staff decided to come up with a brief “Interests Inventory” for students and staff to fill out on Google Forms to include the following topics to name a few: hobbies outside of school, enjoyable activities in school, favorite candies, favorite movies/tv shows, two individuals you would like to meet and more “get to know you” questions. The original purpose of the Interest Inventory surveys were to collect data for what students for “rewards” in regards to assignment/class completion, future raffles, etc. Then, Felicity staff decided to expand this to a broader opportunity to learn more about each other.

We have been working on developing our STEAM Fab-Lab to be able to accommodate a ceramics and aquaponics component to learning that students can gain chemistry, science and even home economics knowledge to apply towards their required classes. With adding new and innovative tools, students can get cross-curicular credit in an interactive way that will be new and challenging for all.

Additionally, starting in October, Felicity School is partnering with The Rocks Group to open a carry out restaurant within the facility. With this experience, students will gain the hands-on opportunity to get an insider look at the service industry aspect of carry out service including but not limited to: marketing, accounting and servicing direct customer needs, based on student interest. Here is an update from What Now Chicago on the latest: https://whatnowchicago.com/rocks-bar-group-debuts-rocks-kitchen-at-felicity/

Please stay tuned for more information! Below is a few “before” pictures of our aquaponics system.