Posted on

Summer 2021 Field Trips

With Extended School Year underway, our Felicity students have been able to have increased opportunities to go on outings, which has been a creative way to work on social emotional skill building during ESY as well. The field trips from Summer 2021 have included the following: Athletico, Lamb’s Farm, Vollo Auto Museum, The Glenn, Antioch Movie Theater and Pinstripes.

At the local Athletico center, staff encouraged students to work on team building skills through and Capture The Flag. Additionally, Felicity students were able to go to Lamb’s Farm in Libertyville to play mini golf, visit the discovery center featuring exotic birds, puppies and kittens, as well as feed some of the farm animals (i.e. goats, llamas, a camel, horses, cows, tortoises and ducks). Vollo Auto Museum is a Felicity favorite that gives students the opportunity to see historic cars and walk through many different types of showrooms. The Glenn provided an opportunity for students to get a tour of the forest preserve as well as having some extra time to go fishing afterwards. At Antioch Movie Theater, students were able to get a private movie viewing of “Stand By Me”. For the last field trip of the school year, students and staff got the opportunity to play three games of bowling at Pinstripes with lunch and drinks provided.

Please see our photo gallery below for a small glimpse into our field trip adventures!

Posted on

Back to Soul Harbour Ranch!

A few weeks ago, our Felicity students and staff had the opportunity to re-visit the Soul Harbour Ranch in Barrington. Soul Harbour Ranch is a therapeutic horse farm with miniature donkeys, miniature horses, full size horses, puppies and dogs.

Felicity students were gathered into groups of four to have the chance to learn grooming techniques and walking techniques for the miniature donkeys and miniature horses. Some of our Felicity students were reminded of last year’s experience with walking the horses and donkeys and others were able to enjoy this for the first time.

Unlike last year’s field trip, Felicity students were given the opportunity to get a tour of the horse stables and see two of the horses do some tricks such as smiling or making funny faces. Additionally, students were given a complimentary Soul Harbour Ranch baseball cap as well as a catered lunch from Panera Bread!

Posted on

Adventures at Athletico

Recently, our students have been given the opportunity to visit Athletico, a recreational sports center nearby, due to Mr. Nekritz having ownership of the building and wanting to utilize a new space for our students. Athletico has a number of indoor soccer fields that can be used for students to participate in team sports such as Flag Football, Soccer and Capture The Flag. Featured in the photo above is one of our middle school students with one of our high school teachers playing a game of Capture the Flag.

All students are able to get the opportunity to participate for P.E. credit, given there are no documented behavioral incidents prior to attending. In fact, the Felicity team was able to make an agreement with students to make Athletico a weekly tradition on every Wednesday for an extended P.E. opportunity. This is a helpful opportunity to break up the day and have extra space to get some pent up energy out before continuing a day of academics.

Posted on

The Willis Tower Skydeck Adventure

Mr. Luskin and Mr. Watson have been working with a number of high school students on a direct instruction math course as well as designing hands on activities to practice the skills learned and keep students engaged. To this end, these staff designed the last field trip of 2019 to include a trip to Willis (formerly known as Sears) Tower to apply skills of skyscraper measurements and connect the relevance to Chicago architecture.

There were 6 students in attendance, some of which overcame their fear of heights, with the trip to the skydeck and were able to take in a beautiful view of the city. Back in class, students are designing model skyscrapers based on their math knowledge and real-life experience.

Posted on

Chicago Bulls Game!


As most of you may be aware, we are currently housed in the old Berto Center in Deerfield, which means the Chicago Bulls have a special place in our hearts and minds at Felicity. On November 25 2019, twenty lucky students had the opportunity to attend a Chicago Bulls game at the United Center. The Bulls played the Portland Trailblazers this Monday night game and unfortunately took a loss, with a final score of 94-117.

However, the real win of the game was being able to take a picture on half court while the Chicago Bulls had their warm up before the game! Coach Wilhelm of the Bulls has met our kids and is excited, like us, to see additional growth in the relationship between the Chicago Bulls and Felicity School.  We are honored to pay tribute to the Chicago Bulls, past, present and future any time we are able.

Posted on

CAAEL’s Academic Bowl

Four of our brave high school students to the annual “CAAEL Academic Bowl”, hosted by New Hope School. The Academic Bowl is a yearly competition of other alternative and therapeutic schools in the area divided into small groups for each school’s chosen students to represent the team. Each team has one student as a spokesperson to share the team’s answers and gain points.

At the academic bowl, there are four rounds of competition, which included thirty questions about Geography, Science, History, English and Math. Felicity took home a second place trophy for sportsmanship as well as the second highest scoring school among the group! All schools were rewarded with a celebratory pizza.

Posted on

Richardson's Farm: An Annual Felicity Fall Tradition

Felicity students eagerly attended the yearly tradition of going to Richardson’s Farm during the peak of the fall season. Students and staff received a tour of the farm on a private hayride, provided by one of the owners of Richardson’s farm, enjoyed delicious s’mores after lunch and explore the farm’s attractions throughout the day in small groups.

Some of the Richard’s Farm activities included: the famous corn maze, petting zoos, the giant “jumping pillows” and pick out a pumpkin to take back and paint at school for Halloween fun. All painted pumpkins will be placed in a friendly competition to get the chance to win, “Most Creative Pumpkin”.

Posted on

Soul Harbour Ranch Therapeutic Horse Farm

In October, a group of Felicity students were able to check out Soul Harbour Ranch in Barrington, Illinois. In previous years, Felicity staff has been working on continuing to provide activities for students to interact with animals on field trips and special events. Felicity staff has found that interacting with animals can reduce anxiety overall, especially in students who have patterns of impulsive behavior.

The ranch included a variety of animals trained to be emotional support animals including: miniature therapeutic donkeys, miniature therapeutic horses and therapy dogs. Students pet the animals, learn how to walk with them around the farm and helped with grooming.

This was Felicity’s first time visiting and based on the student feedback, won’t be the last. Thank you to CAAEL for inviting Felicity to join in! Featured above is one of our Felicity clinicians, Ms. Swillum, enjoying some quality time with one of the miniature therapeutic donkeys.