Update: Parks, Libraries Join Schools Altering Schedule

Some facilities are closed all day while others will shut down early.

(Update at 10:15 a.m.) Programs of the Lake Forest Parks and Recreation Department, the Lake Bluff Park District, the Lake Forest Public Library and the Lake Bluff Public Library have all been altered because of the snow. The Lake Forest Recreation Center, Stirling Hall, the Wildlife Discovery Center, the Deerpath Golf Course office and the fitness center will all close at noon today, according to Marketing Director Cathy Japuntich. The Lake Bluff Public Library is closed today, according to information on its website. The Lake Forest Public Library will close at noon, according to a recording on its telephone. The Lake Bluff Park District will end its day at 3 p.m., according to Guest Services Manager Christie Carey. “We are calling out …

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Teen Tennis Player Shares Court with John McEnroe

Daniel Levine, a Highland Park native who attended Lake Forest Country Day School, recently enjoyed a day to remember on the tennis courts in Florida.

In a once-in-a-lifetime moment, Highland Park native Daniel Levine, who has been playing tennis since he was 6, shared the court with tennis legends John McEnroe and Mats Wilander at an international tournament in Delray Beach, Fl. on Feb. 22, reported wptv.com. "It's pretty crazy to go back and tell my friends I got to play with Mats and McEnroe," said Levine to News Channel 5 in West Palm Beach, Fl. Levine, who formerly attended grade school at Lake Forest Country Day School, was one of several lucky participants in the Wilander on Wheels program, a tennis clinic for youths and amateur players named for 7-time Grand Slam champ Mats Wilander. Levine is a student at SEK Boca Prep and the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Fl.

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Lake Forest Country Day School Students Dive In To New Language Program

LFCDS' Early Childhood Program, as well as lower school students, take on a restructured language program.

LFCDS, Woodlands Promote Health and Fitness

Lake Forest schools have programs and facilities in place to keep students healthy

There is much concern about the size of American students. In this day and age of 500 channels, video games and shrinking budgets that sometimes cut out physical education courses, two local Lake Forest schools are taking initiatives to make sure their students are active this year. Lake Forest Country Day School and Woodlands Academy have new initiatives in 2012-13 to keep kids in shape. At LFCDS, new curriculum is being developed for seventh and eighth graders this year that will emphasize the body to mind connection and talk about the importance of nutrition, stress management and hygiene among other subjects with the students. This program is scheduled to be extended to fifth and sixth graders next year. “With the goal of encouraging …

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Local Private Schools Prepare for New Year

New personnel and technology in place for 2012-13 school year at School of St. Mary, Lake Forest Academy; bullying prevention programs continued

They are the four words every kid hates to hear:  first day of school. Well, that day that is cursed by kids and perhaps loved by parents is soon upon the people in Lake Forest. There will be some new faces, new buildings and a continuing look at school age issues in the City’s private schools. Both School of St. Mary and Lake Forest Academy are scheduled to open Monday with a few changes on tap for the year for each facility. At School of St. Mary, enrollment is up to 545 students, a spike from 530 last year. “We have an excellent teaching staff,” Dr. Venette Biancalana, the St. Mary’s principal, said. “We provide a Catholic education and many families are opting for a Catholic education today.” With the new students, new staff members …

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1ST STEP Summer Playdates Encourage Easy Transition to School Life

Educational program set in parks initially to give kids, parents a chance to gain comfort level.

  You may not think of 2-year-olds as students, but at Lake Forest Country Day School, the 1ST STEP program offers children an early opportunity to interact with their peers. And thanks to a series of scheduled playdates, the students and their parents become acquainted with one another to ease the transition into a school setting this coming fall. The five scheduled events take place throughout parks in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff, and are hosted by the 1ST STEP team of Sara Walsh, Sally Stephenson, and Sue Burmeister. The playdates aim to set the tone for the community feel of the program. “These summer gatherings were so successful the first year of the program that we decided to continue them,” said Sara Walsh, director of the 1STSTEP …

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Lake Forest Country Day School Names Second Semester Honor Roll

High Academic, Academic, and Effort Honor Rolls listed.

  Lake Forest Country Day School announces its second semester honor roll for the 2011-2012 school year. High Academic Honor Roll The Academic Honor Roll has two levels and is awarded to students in sixth through eighth grade. High Honors indicates that a student has earned a grade point average of 3.67 or higher with no grade of D or F.  Grade 6: Jonathan Browne, Ethan Cantor, Aryana Farimani, Victoria Giambrone, Collin Grasher, Maximilian Hayes, Anne Hennessy, David Krivoshik, Olivia Maggos, Saphie Potts, Mason Schilling, Adam Steinwold, Amanda Tibbals, Phelim Tong, Lowell Weil. Grade 7: Emily Cullitan, Erisa Farimani, Julia Goeks, Mariah Goeks, Halima Ling, Kevin Meehan, Tessa Mills, Morgan Peirce, Timothy Sperling, Maddie Stephenson, …

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Class of 2012: Lake Forest Country Day School

Graduates move on to public, private high schools.

  Here is the Class of 2012 from Lake Forest Country Day School: Rasha A. Baig, Charles Joseph Bernhart, Cameron Hamilton Pezon Brown, Brandon Patrick Browne, Matthew Robert Browne, Joyce Aikman Caldwell, Rachel Mae Cantor, Ethan Dunton Colburn, Lilly de Sousa, Cole Louise DeYoung, Julia Poole Dixon, Benjamin Ward Dixon, Nicholas Marshall Ehrhard, Benjamin David Fybel, R. Wyatt Goeks, Luke Kahl Grumhaus, Caroline Wood Grumhaus, Mary Georgia Hale, Katherine Grace Hale and Ricardo Haagensen P. Paes Leme. Clayton James Maggos, Richard Harkins Marra, Payton Jeri McDonough, Emma Claire Merlin, Julia Katherine Mills, Elizabeth Ashlynn O’Keane, Allie Dean Patenaude, Caraline Crowley Patterson, Sophia Rose Platcow, Jessica Langford Puryear, …

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Digital Communications Class "Boots Up" at LFCDS

Curriculum created in tandem with School's ePAL one-to-one computing program.

  In Kate Starns’ English class, the oral book report has its place, but in her sixth-grade Digital Communications class, the report has a slightly different name — the book “trailer.” Both contain the usual requirements of a book report — a summary of the novel and an insightful question or two to engage one’s audience — but only one looks like it might be the kind of preview one sees before the main feature at the local movie theatre. “It’s still the same assignment — we’re just teaching the students tools to communicate it in a different way,” said Starns, who, with fellow English teachers Jeff Miller and Marcia Mann, are teaching the first year of a Digital Communications course at Lake Forest Country Day School. The curriculum is …

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Eighth Graders' Art Projects Meld Motivation, Medium

Lake Forest Country Day students encouraged to think about inspiration, creation.

  When one views a work of art at a museum, the medium the artist used to create it is fairly apparent. A sculpture carved from wood differs greatly from one fashioned from metal; a photograph is typically distinguishable from an oil painting. What might not be immediately obvious is the inspiration behind the work. It is this component of visual art that Kirsten Anderson, one of the art teachers at Lake Forest Country Day School, wants her students to consider in their final semester of her class. “These students have learned about so many mediums, and have obtained so many skills,” Anderson said. “By the time these students reach eighth grade, I want them to combine those skills with their own motivations to create a piece of art with a …

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