Students in Melanie Francisco’s kndergarten class at F. K. Sweet Elementary School loved exploring apples using all five of their senses. Students observed and recorded how the apples looked, felt, smelled, sounded, and tasted. They graphed their favorite apple and wrapped up the unit by making applesauce. Pictured, Elliot Garder turns the crank as Santino Stevens and others look on in anticipation as to what will happen to the apple.

Northport K-8 eighth grade students in Sandra Tyndale’s reading classes are enjoying a special section of books that are particularly chosen for seventh and eighth graders at the school.  Students can select from Young Adult Choices (YAC) books to tweak their reading enjoyment. The YAC books are being promoted in four schools in the district: Manatee Academy, Treasure Coast High School, Dan McCarty School and Northport K-8 School. The chosen books are shelved and marked separately to encourage young adults to read. The books, all very new and up to date, provide middle and high school students with an opportunity to … Read More

Northport K-8 first grade students in Laura Poveromo, Dulce Olivera and Christine Santos-Nurse’s classes recieved a visit from Officer Daniel Smith of the Fort Pierce Police Department. Students sat in a group in the outdoor garden area and had a lengthy conversation with Officer Smith, who spoke to the students about how to keep themselves safe when playing outside and to make sure to keep their porch lights on and doors locked to help prevent break ins. He also spoke about the importance of laws and equated laws to school rules. Officer Smith also explained all the tools and equipment that he … Read More

Thanks to all the Garden City Early Learning Academy parents’, students’ and staff’s love of books and reading, the school’s book fair was a great success. The five day total combined in-school and on-line sales were just under $1,000. The school gets 40% in Scholastic dollars to purchase books and materials from Scholastic. The majority of the funds will go towards birthday books. The school also had $250 Scholastic dollars in the account, which purchased the 15 Golden Ticket prize books and another 30 birthday books, and should get another 150-200 books with the new Scholastic dollars! Now there will be enough … Read More

Students in Chef Maureen Greenberg’s culinary arts program at Fort Pierce Westwood High School were the stars of the day when officials from the Florida Department of Education recently visited the school. The students prepared the meals in the culinary kitchen and served the guests in Panther Pub and Panther Lane Bistro. Pictured in the kitchen, from left, are Jamal Laing, Sunny Trattles, Chef Greenberg, Blanca Morales, and Edline Dor.

In Jessica Allen’s seventh grade science class at Southport Middle School, students have been learning about the scientific method. Students created their own hypothesis statements on a problem given to them and they got to test their statements. Delsin Pillay is testing his hypothesis statements using paper airplanes and a variety of variations within his testing environment to see if adding weight to a paper airplane’s wings makes it fly straighter.

Members of the Fort Pierce Westwood High School Panther Battalion took a day from work, school and friends to show their interest and commitment in their community by cleaning up Pepper Park. The cadets cleaned up Pepper Park in an effort to clean up their community. Afterwards, the cadets had fun playing sports, getting to know each other and having a barbeque. Pictured are cadets from the Ft Pierce Westwood Panther Battalion.

Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition’s first grade students recently enjoyed a presentation by the Ft. Pierce Manatee Observation and Education Center. Students heard information on “Habitats, Who Lives Where?” After the discussion, students were able to see and touch a turtle, snake and lizard. This was a fun, interactive learning experience for everyone.

Karol Carvelli, Volunteer Coordinator for Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition, recently welcomed the volunteers/business partners at an orientation. A fabulous breakfast was provided by PNC and Tropical Smoothie, and was served to approximately 45 volunteers that joined the Palm Pointe team. They signed up for committees and were informed of volunteeer procedures.  These volunteers support the school in numerous ways and have volunteered as many as 50,000 hours in one school year and are very much appreciated at Palm Pointe. 

Recently St. Lucie County bus drivers, along with the Garden City Early Learning Academy staff, reviewed the Bus Safety procedures with students. The students learned how to sit properly on the bus, back to back, bottom to bottom, and feet on floor. Other safety procedures were also reviewed. Students were given the opportunity to practice evacuating the bus in case of emergency. Time and safety were noted during this activity. Pictured exiting the bus is first grade student Darious Acrey with the assistance of Nuran Onal and Joann Brown.

What great fun was had by students, teachers and parents of Mosaic Digital Academy at its first Fall Meet-Up! Mosaic Digital Academy’s K-6 virtual students, parents, siblings, teachers, and staff met for an afternoon treat at Tutti Fruiti and then enjoyed a little frisbee and kite flying with other students in the virtual school program. Parents had a nice opportunity to connect with other “Learning Coaches”, too! A repeat performance is expected soon.

Students and staff at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition recently enjoyed wearing their favorite team jerseys, an annual fundraising event. Everyone donated $1.00 to help support Big Brothers, Big Sisters’ annual Bowl for Kid’s Sake. Students and staff look forward to helping out this organization every year. 

Southport Middle School eighth grade students are engaged in many exciting activities across the curriculum. History and Language Arts teachers Nancy Filippini and Maureen Dakin are collaborating to assist students in drafting their DAR essays due in October. This year”s topic is to support Forgotten Patriots of the American Revolution. Students in Karen Allen’s science classes are diving into scientific method and inquiry, and students are actively investigating topics of interest, while Julie Lecluse and Lauie Barnard engage students with finding slopes, intercepts, and variation in math classes. Pictured, from left, are Aileen Vasquez, Morgan Ochwat, Nicole DiPietro, and Viviana Torres.

Mariposa Elementary School’s new “Butterfly Band”, under the direction of Mary McCartney, is starting the year off learning new instruments. Fourth and fifth grade band students at Mariposa Elementary are learning to play the tone chimes as a part of this new instrumental group. They are also playing the Orff xylophones, recorders, drums, ukeleles and the steel drums.

Northport K-8 students in Susan Matteson’s eighth grade critical thinking class are selecting books to prepare to demonstrate enthusiastic reading with an engaging and lively pace with Lorri Lamm’s second graders. Students will pair together to read and enjoy new books. The brand new books are a product of the media center’s partnership with the Northport K-8 School PTO. The books were purchased through a community book fair called Titlewish. Titlewish is an online zone offered through Follett Book Company. The Titlewish program allows the parents, grandparents and community members to purchase library ready books. The Northport PTO donated $1,500 for exciting, new … Read More

Staff from Northport K8 School participated in the Bowl for Kids Sake event at Superplay recently. Team members got their teeshirts, picked out bowling balls, teamed up and continued to enjoy a wonderful evening filled with cameraderie. The Northport team was recognized for the largest donation in their time slot. One of the main missions of the teachers and staff of the school is to promote positive interactions among colleagues and to participate in community action initiatives with the betterment of students and community building always uppermost in mind.  The Big Brothers, Big Sisters Bowl For Kids Sake event is yet … Read More

Fifth grade teacher Michelle Powers and fourth grade teacher Jade Joie from Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition were recently awarded a grant to fund a mathematics program. Explore Learning Reflex is an award –winning game-based system that enables students of all abilities to develop instant, effortless recall of math facts in all four operations.  Reflex’s highly adaptive technology provides each student with an optimized path from the initial acquisition of new facts through to full automaticity. Pictured are Ms. Joie, left, and Ms. Powers.

The bus drivers that service Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition were recognized for all that they do for our students at a recent breakfast. Volunteer and PTO member Pam Molner made a spectacular breakfast for everyone with eggs, bacon, sausage, crepes with fresh strawberries, home fries, fruit cups and other scrumptious food.  A PowerPoint presentation by Dean Estrada and Dean Pierre focused on bus data for the last few years, safety, student conduct and positive reinforcement. It was a great opportunity to visit and get to know the bus drivers that come to Palm Pointe.

Northport K-8 students in grades four through eight who have been identified as reaching Adequate Yearly Progress or AYP were invited to participate in a celebration at the school recently. Students were able to dunk principal Glenn Rustay in the dunk tank, enjoyed a variety of inflatable activities like bounce house and slides and also played kick ball, hoola hoops and jump rope. Students enjoyed drinks and ice cones provided by the Northport K-8 PTO. AYP is determined by looking at student FCAT data in reading and math. 67% of students made learning gains in reading and 62% of the … Read More

Students in Thomas Carr’s eighth grade science classes at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition recently had a competition for “Boats in the Moat”. The objective was for students to design and construct a boat which when set afloat in a moat 10 feet long will travel (powered solely by a three speed fan) the entire length of the moat in the shortest period of time. This lesson taught them about the scientific method and variables. During the competition each team was allowed to enter up to three different designs for their boats and each boat was given three trial … Read More