Month: March 2012

Nationally recognized motivational speaker and education authority Dr. Adolph Brown III continued his commitment to St. Lucie Public Schools with two days of appointments at several schools and an evening community program at East Florida Primitive Baptist Association Temple in Fort Pierce. Dr. Brown’s messages energize, educate, inspire and entertain all audiences. Dr. Brown’s continued association with the school district is part of the five-year partnership with educational publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to transform the school system through instructional practice and excellence in materials. For more information about Dr. Brown’s message, visit http://www.docspeaks.com/.  

Romari Timothee and Raymond Coburn from Morgan Haupt’s kindergarten class at F.K.Sweet Elementary enjoy working together and comparing lengths of cube trains during math centers. Kindergartners are busy working and learning all of the skills that they will need for first grade.    

Each week for the last twelve years, Medical Academy students from St. Lucie West Centennial High School have had the privilege of spending part of their school day at Martin Health Systems-St. Lucie West.  The variety of health professions which they can shadow and glean career information from is unending.  For instance, pictured is Dr. Steven Parr, Martin Health System’s ER physician, instructing medical academy students in examination techniques in the Emergency Room of Martin Health Systems- St. Lucie West.  From left, are Dr. Parr, student-patient, Reinaldo Ramos, and students Marissa Russo and Jo Jo Corsi. Students throughout high schools in the United States may now … Read More

At Mariposa Elementary, first grade students in Ami Jobson’s class are authors!  Each student recently chose an animal to research before the class field trip to the Palm Beach Zoo.  The students researched habitat, eating habits, offspring and what each animal looks like.  The students worked hard to report detailed, accurate facts and the outcome was amazing! Parents were then invited to school for an animal presentation and to celebrate their child’s accomplishment.

Frances K. Sweet Elementary second grade students gather to examine a native plant species during their recent Oxbow Eco-Center field trip.  The students, from Rachel Luhta’s class, also went on a nature hike to learn more about insects and plants while visiting the center. 

Fifth grade students Adriana Edmond, Julia Pacek, and Jakiah Webb in Christy Nuccio’s class at F.K. Sweet Elementary are enjoying ice cream sundaes for earning reading points. Students at F. K. Sweet are all involved in the Scholastic Counts program and are enjoying reading, testing, and earning points. Teachers may set individual or class goals for students.

Northport K-8 students in several different classes are vigorously preparing for the school’s second annual Women’s History/Women’s Victory celebration to be held in the Media Center to commemorate the strength and determination of women and to salute March as Women’s History Month.  A sampling of performances are seventh grade girls in Dot Still’s classes preparing a dramatic reading of Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman, fourth grade students in Juliette Thelusma’s class demonstrating a Susan B. Anthony beat, Northstars 6,7 and 8 graders in Mala Woessner’s preparing a powerpoint about Iron Jawed Angels, whose motto was “Lead, Follow or Get Out of … Read More

Southport Middle School teachers and students participated at a local McDonald’s restaurant for “McTeacher’s Night” event. Pictured, from left, are Adriana Garcia, Susan Schill, Alexia Tsikoudis, Lilas Demontegnac, Christine Richards, Jim Saunders and Kendall Spurr.

The students in Traci Lott’s second grade class at F.K. Sweet Elementary were very excited about the recent St. Lucie County Fair. Students worked cooperatively or individually, to create visual representations of what Ft. Pierce looked like long ago. Riley Mullins, pictured, was very creative and constructed a Seminole Chickee Hut for her school’s fair booth.

Ask just about any intermediate student at F.K. Sweet Elementary about their favorite books, and you will hear Nate the Great quite often. This series is written by Lincoln Peirce, and focues on Nate, a sixth grade genius. These hilarious illustrated novels are certainly on Kayla Jungjohan, left, and Willie Whitehead’s reading list.

Third graders at F.K. Sweet Elementary are busy exploring geometry in math with the use of pattern blocks. How many shapes can you create using a triangle and a trapezoid? Jayla Flagg and Wesley Varn are working together to make as many different shapes as possible.

March is National Nutrition Month and Janette Champagne, cafeteria manager at F.K. Sweet Elementary School works hard every day to ensure that students are eating a healthy balanced diet at breakfast and lunch. She also initiated a Walking Club for students. They meet every Tuesday and Thursday before school and walk a mile on the school track. Yoga is also a part of the club’s morning workout. Pictured is Ms. Champagne with students after their morning walk.

 Students in Jean Constantine’s kindergarten class at Morningside Elementary School had made and sent valentine cards to USAF Captain Brandon Daigle overseas and the class was surprised when he sent them sent a big flag from his plane on the dashboard as he flew reconnaissance over Afghanistan. He also included a certificate to the class (by name) and two photos, one of him with the valentines and one of his whole squadron. Pictured is Ms. Constantine, her students, and their prized possession.

Maggie Garrett, seated, a kindergartner in Jean Constantine’s kindergarten class at Mariposa Elementary School  reads to fifth graders Raisa Asim, Alyssa Byrum and Hilario Garcia the book she put together and colored to work with her sight words she is learning to read.

Allapattah Flats K-8 kindergartners celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday with lots of events to emphasize the fun of reading. As part of the celebration, students participated in read-alouds featuring published books by Ted Geisel a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. Students had the opportunity to prepare and taste their own green eggs and ham, as well as dress up for Seuss Day. Pictured, from, left are Aidan Madden and Alexander McFarlane.                                

Floresta Elementary School second grade students were visited by Captain Citrus, the mascot from the OJ4NRG tour, a program put together by the Florida Department of Citrus to enlighten students about the many benefits of Florida citrus.  Students learned that oranges, tangerines, and grapefruits are special kinds of berries, and that most of the world’s citrus comes from our own state of Florida.  Orange juice provides vitamin C, potassium, folate, calcium, and vitamin D, and is free of fat and contains no sodium or cholesterol.  Students learned that the citrus industry employees nearly 76,000 workers and positively impacts the economy … Read More

First grade students at Allapattah Flats K8 are springing into geometry!  To go along with their study of three-dimensional shapes, students were asked to bring in objects from home that represented three-dimensional shapes. These objects were displayed and students took a tour as they identified the faces, edges, and vertices of the spheres, cylinders, cones, rectangular prisms, and square pyramids. The children were so excited to see their math relate to the real world! Pictured, front to back, are students from Stephanie Sanchez’s class  Romin Herrera, Dominic C., Tyler Kwiatek, Cameron Hicks, Zaniya Scott, Hannah Hudson and Jace Celentano.  

Sixth grade students, pictured from left, Genesis Gibson, Derrick Davis, Jessica Hoyt, Zach Roach, and Christen Bailey listen intently to the Battle of the Books question for their team. The annual Battle of the Books contest matches a student team against a faculty team to answer comprehension questions. This year, the sixth and eighth grade student teams won their battle, while the seventh grade faculty team won their battle. This event coordinates literature study among the reading classes, and creates a positive school-wide literacy culture.

On a recent visit to F.K. Sweet Elementary, St. Lucie County School Board Vice Chairman Debbie Hawley visited classrooms chatting with teachers and students. Pictured is Mrs. Hawley with second grade student Brian Wu from Rachel Luhta’s class, discussing some of his Daily Five expectations and activities.

Students in Andrea Anicito’s seventh grade science classes at Forest Grove Middle School were given a visual scenario in which they were presented with a parent’s genetic information. Students then had to create a punnett square to determine the probability of the offspring’s traits. The final part of the project was to build a “spud”. Because there were traits that showed other than 100% probability, the offspring all looked a little different, just like siblings. Together, the class created a potato head family.