Chicago City Day School

A little rain couldn't dampen the fun of our FIeld Day games this past Friday, the last day of school. Students danced, jumped, tossed, and hula-hooped all morning, and then our teachers squared off against the recently graduated eighth-graders for the annual faculty vs. students volleyball game. A wonderful end to a great year! Have a great summer!

Congratulations to our Class of 2026, which formally graduated from City Day on Wednesday. As part of their commencement, the graduates gave short speeches, reflecting on their past experiences at City Day. Other commencement speakers praised the graduates for their hard work and stellar academic record. Members of the Class of 2026 earned admission to excellent high schools in Chicago and beyond, including independent, parochial, boarding, and selective-enrollment public high schools. Best of luck to our graduates!

Our last field trip of the school year! Grades 1 and 5 visited the Shedd Aquarium today. Once there, the two groups split up and explored different types of marine life and marine environments inside the museum. The first-graders were particularly taken by the immersive quality of the Shedd's exhibits — it felt almost like they'd actually entered the sea!

Our boys volleyball A-team capped off what has been a tremendously successful year in City Day sports by winning a third-place trophy in the CAMS postseason tournament this week. It's the third trophy won by City Day teams this year — the girls volleyball A-team won a first-place trophy in the fall, and our girls basketball B-team won first place in the winter. Congratulations to all of this year's student athletes and the coaches who guided them. We look forward to more success in 2026-2027! GO COUGARS!

Our eighth-graders opened a miniature golf course this week! The course consists of holes that the students designed and built in art class after visiting a real mini golf park — Par-King Skill Golf in Lincolnshire — for inspiration. One of the holes pays tribute to iconic buildings in downtown Chicago, while another stands as an ode to pizza, to give just two examples. Our junior kindergartners had a blast playing the course this morning! Great work, students!

Our eighth-graders were fascinated and moved during their recent exploration of the Experience360 installation created by the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center. The highlights of the visit were a virtual-reality presentation of a Holocaust survivor's life & experiences and a holographic "conversation" with another survivor. Our students left the downtown Experience360 site talking about the importance of preserving personal stories of significant historic events. Thank you to the Experience360 staff for being wonderful hosts and guides.

Our third-graders have been studying Chicago architecture as part of their yearlong exploration of the city's history and culture in class. This week, students observed Chicago's famed architecture via the unique vantage point of a Chicago's First Lady Cruises boat tour along the Chicago River. The third-graders loved seeing the buildings up close and learning the stories behind their creation!

Our third-graders loved visiting Graceland Cemetery & Arboretum! The students found burial sites of notable Chicagoans and delivered short presentations about their lives and accomplishments. Among the people highlighted were architects Louis Sullivan and Daniel Burnham, boxing legend Jack Johnson, and inventor George Pullman. The trip aligns with third grade's social studies curriculum, which focuses on Chicago history.

Congrats to our sixth-graders and their teachers on the excellent production of "Matilda," which they will perform for the community this week in the Hunt Theatre. The acclaimed musical centers around a gifted, book-loving girl who befriends a teacher while butting heads with her uncaring parents and school headmistress. The sixth-graders are a true triple threat in this production, singing, dancing, and acting with confidence! Performances take place at 2 p.m. on Wednesday and 10 a.m. Thursday.