Month: October 2012

WestGate K8 School “Autism Speaks” walking team co-captains Jessica McLaughlin, right, and Valentina Whyte were recently presented with a $500 check from Nate Rivaldo representing the Port St. Lucie chapter of The Sons of Italy. Whyte, who is a behavior tech in one of WestGate’s autism units, said the donation will help reach the $2000 goal set for the year. The generosity of the members of The Sons of Italy is greatly appreciated.

Northport K-8 eighth grade Clownfish boys are supporting the school’s Relay For Life team this year by stepping into some big shoes! The theme this year is “Old Hollywood Glamour” and the boys are raising money for the event bypaying $5 per day to wear high heels. The Clownfish team leader Dru DeHart came up with the great idea to help support Relay For Life, and the boys have been vying to wear the shoes. The fundraiser for eighth grade boys runs October 30-November 16, and for seventh grade boys from November 27-December 19. The idea supports one of the school’s goals of providing … Read More

Students in the third grade classrooms at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition have been learning about different reading skills. To heighten the students’ awareness of these skills and to incorporate a creative, hands-on activity, every year third graders create Pumpkin People projects. Students partner to read a storybook and organize their information into various maps to show cause and effect relationships, character development, vocabulary, and elements of a story. Once they have completed their maps, students paint and decorate a pumpkin to look like the main character of their book. Pictured is Cameron Cavanaugh displaying her Sponge Bob … Read More

Get your ice cold lemonade, for only 75 cents at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition! The first nine weeks of school, students in Kaitlyn Olesik’s autistic middle school class worked very hard on identifying coins and their values. They put all of their prior and new knowledge to the test by opening up their very own class lemonade stand! The students were given the opportunity to make homemade lemonade. They used skills such as following directions, measuring ingredients, taking turns and squeezing fresh lemons! The turnout was great, they had many classes stop by and they got to utilize their new skills. The class would … Read More

Northport K-8 sixth grade Starfish students and instructors joined forces to compare and contrast the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man recently as part of a unit of study. Students studied the characteristics of the two as well as weaponry and methods of survival. As a culminating activity, teachers dressed the parts of Wilma Flintstone, Betty Rubble and Pebbles Flintstone and encouraged students to compete in a “Deadliest Warrior” Survivor game. Each group of five students were given “dino bone survival scenarios” to read and then determined which man, Neanderthal or Cro-magnon, would survive the scenario. Students were engaged in the game and used critical thinking … Read More

Samuel S. Gaines Academy second grade teachers Amanda Hayes, left, as Bad Kitty and Eileen Repoli as Amelia Bedelia joined with students, faculty and other staff members celebrating Character Day recently, dressing up as their favorite story book character.

Students in Diane Eibl’s Kindergarten class at Morningside Elementary were visited by two firefighters this week. Firefighters Wayne and Dan, from Station 17, came in to teach students about fire safety. The students were reminded to STOP, DROP and ROLL, DON’T HIDE, GO OUTSIDE, FALL AND CRAWL. They were given the homework to make sure each has a family fire escape plan. The children enjoyed the visit, especially the part when they got to put on the turnout gear!

Port Saint Lucie High School held its annual senior pinning recently at the Port St. Lucie Civic Center. The Jaguar Battalion presented the colors as part of the opening ceremony. The Color Guard displayed a wonderful presentation of the colors. C/CSM Cruz led the Color Guard presenting the national flag, C/SSG Pollino presented the state flag, and C/CPT Benagh and C/PFC Renderos stood as the guards. principal Bridgette Hargadine spoke eloqently to the seniors to remember for their last year at the school. Congratulations to all the senior Jaguars of 2013 that were pinned at the ceremony. Pictured is the … Read More

The three top school fundraising teams for the Big Brothers, Big Sisters (BBBS) “Bowl for Kids Sake” event were recognized at the October 23, 2012, St. Lucie County School Board meeting. The popular event is held every year, where teams raise funds to support BBBS mentoring programs. Pictured, from left with the trophies, are first place assistant principal Maria Noya from WestGate K8, second place assistant principal Linda Menekheim from Floresta Elementary, and Christy Nuccio from F. K. Sweet Elementary School.

Kindergartners in Kristin Griffin’s class at Frances K. Sweet Elementary School practiced sorting and classifying leaves. After finding that the leaves could be sorted in a couple of different ways, the students were then asked to sort and classify in their favorite way, color, size, or shape. Jayna Baptiste, left, picked color and Cedric Garvin, Jr. picked shape.

After reading the story of the week, “David’s Drawings”, students in Melanie Francisco’s kindergarten class created their own class drawing like David’s.  Kenna Reichard, left, and La Teya Weathers added details to help create a one of a kind masterpiece.

Students in Dorian Newbern’s first grade class at Frances K. Sweet Elementary are learning about place value. From left, pictured are Katelyn Foster, Kanari’l Tolbert, and Ethan Belulovich working together to make numbers using ones and 10s blocks. Later on in the lesson, the students were able to compare their numbers by using the blocks as a reference.

Northport K-8 School community “walked the walk” and “talked the talk” recently at the school’s second annual Unity Day. Students made posters, banners, flags and signs and walked a route marked by the physical education instructors to offer support and to empower students against the harmful effects of bullying. Third grade teachers Melanie Polascak and Diana Lankow appeared on the morning announcements with important messages about bullying, teen girls painted their pinkie fingers blue in unity against girl bullies, classes watched clips about bullying and important lessons filtered the school classrooms about bullying. Several parents came to join their own children … Read More

Garden City Early Learning Academy (GCELA) students in grades Pre-K through two recently experienced live theatre through a new program developed by Riverside Children’s Theatre. The program is called “Theatre on the Go” and is designed to take live theatre to the schools in the area. The performance of “Scrambled Stories”, adapted by Kevin Qullinan and Angelo Cerniglia, were favorite stories that were cracked, broken and scrambled by the silly Professor Scattergood. The students participated by helping unscramble “Goldilocks”, “The Ugly Duckling”, and “The Three Little Pigs”. Students had to help get them back to where they belong through audience participation. The students have … Read More

Teachers Abigail Prager, left, and Erin Bunnell of Parkway Elementary School model analyzing an historical primary source document in order to answer the document-based question (DBQ), “Early Jamestown: Why Did So Many Colonists Die?” They were among a group of 36 teachers trained on October 15 in the Common Core-aligned literacy strategies used throughout the DBQ Project method. With this method, students analyze and corroborate information from multiple documents to write an evidence-based argumentative essay. This method shows great promise for integrating literacy skills with content knowledge. The four schools participating in the pilot are Dan McCarty School, Lakewood Park, … Read More

The Bluebird Educational Productions (BEP) organization which supports music education and appreciation in St. Lucie Public Schools recently received an anonymous donation from a local patron so that a deserving student could have a instrument of their own to pursue their love of music and perform in their school’s band and music programs. Cole Maxwell of Lincoln Park Academy was selected to receive a new alto saxophone courtesy of the donation. BEP, which sponsors music appreciation and performances in St. Lucie Public Schools, is currently promoting its Recycling in the Key of E program, which puts refurbished musical instruments in … Read More

The annual Planting Day at Rivers Edge Elementary School always refreshes the campus with new seasonal beauty. Students in Lorraine Bernard’s fourth grade class Jamar Gullett, Emily Plank, Paige Parrett and Sofietta Perfetti work at planting flowers and mulching their classroom garden just outside their door. Thanks go to the students and volunteers for making the campus a more welcoming place to be.

Rivers Edge Elementary hosted an exciting family event recently to put books in to the hands of students, Bingo for Books. Pictured is third grade student Kayla Filippini from Barbara Ditrapani’s with her dad enjoying a robust game of Bingo mixed with science trivia questions. Every student went home a winner!

Fifth grade students at Morningside Elementary School will have the opportunity to learn and apply STEM skills beyond the classroom through an Innovation Generation grant from the Motorola Solutions Foundation, the charitable arm of Motorola Solutions, Inc. The Motorola Solutions Foundation provided $50,000 for a second year to challenge Florida’s district-wide local education foundations to inspire students through projects designed to help them solve real-world problems in science, math, technology and engineering (STEM) areas this school year through a grant to the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations (CFEF). St. Lucie County Education Foundation’s project was one of 10 chosen to … Read More

The Port Saint Lucie High School Jaguar Battalion hosted the annual Treasure Coast Raider Meet at Port Saint Lucie High School recently. Participating schools included Port Saint Lucie High School, Ft. Pierce Central High School, St. Lucie West Centennial High School, Ft. Pierce Westwood High School, Okeechobee High School and Treasure Coast High School. Treasure Coast High School has an Air Force JROTC unit, St. Lucie West Centennial has a Navy unit, and the remainder are Army JROTC units. The Jaguar battallion won first place overal, Treasure Coast High School won second place overall, and a tie for third place … Read More