Month: November 2012

First grade students at Allapattah Flats K-8 recently enjoyed a visit from the Children’s Museum of the Treasure Coast to learn about nutrition and healthy eating. Students learned about the food pyramid, healthy eating habits, and the importance of exercise. Pictured, from left, are Maximo Mendoza eagerly awaiting his turn to make a yogurt parfait, with classmates Claudia Jolivert and Chinhayi Evans.

Parents at Weatherbee Elementary recently attended a workshop to learn about accessing the Parent Portal on the St Lucie Public Schools website and the “Skyward Family Access” program. Marj Armstrong of the Title I and Curriculum and Instruction departments, and Michael McCarthy of the 21st Century program, presented the workshop to parents. Parents learned how to access their child’s school grades, classroom assignments, and maintain vital teacher correspondence through the web based system. Pictured is McCarthy and parents learning about this vital resource.

Kindergarten through second grade students at Allapattah Flats K8 School recently were visited by Wyland Foundation, along with Stella the Whale.  Stella is a near life size canvas painting of a baby right whale. Students got to take part in a unique exercise in goal setting to help Stella migrate 700 miles from one end of the state to the other. Stella’s epic 30-day journey is part of an effort to draw attention to the plight of the endangered north Atlantic right whale whose numbers have dwindled in recent years to less than 400. To mirror the average traveling distance … Read More

Seventh grade students in Christine King’s class at Allapattah Flats K-8 School created an interactive bulletin board of the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe. The board gives other students, through the use of a flip chart, the opportunity to get a synopsis of the short story that will encourage them to seek Poe’s entire classic work out and read it on their own. The learning goal was for students to understand that text has meaning and students should be able to use dominant strategies and skills to construct that meaning.  Pictured, from left, are Ahlyissa Hicks, Zachary … Read More

The Fort Pierce Central High School ROTC Raiders team competed recently in regional competition among 16 Florida high schools and 49 teams to qualify for state competition. The Cobra battalion brought four teams a male team under Cadet Master Sergeant James Lowery and a second male mixed team under Cadet Staff Sergeant Daniel Grundstrom. The first male mixed team, under Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Robert Grundstrom, brought home third place in the three mile team run. The female team under Cadet Major Kayla Hartseil placed third in the three mile team run, third place in the rope bridge and third place overall. The … Read More

Students in Linda Auciello’s kindergarten class at Mariposa Elementary recently enjoyed a hands on math activity that taught them many lessons combined into one. They learned about ordering numbers up through 10, the concept of one more, and counting objects up to 10. Pictured is Shane Lesser counting his sets of blocks. He realized that when you make each set of blocks one more than the previous one then it looks like a set of stairs! Math is so much more fun when you can do it hands on!

Northport K-8 fourth grader Cierra Yuhas knew she was having difficulty with reading comprehension. She spoke to her teacher, Carissa Provencher, who provided some valuable advice: select your favorite book, contact the author and get some tips on how to better understand concepts from books. Cierra took her teacher’s words to heart and wrote a letter explaining the situation to Cynthia Lord, author of “Rules”, Cierra’s favorite book.  Lord wrote Cierra a very special letter with some words of advice to keep reading, to look closely at everything because it becomes more beautiful. The author also advised Cierra that her book was … Read More

Fourth grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition spent a recent afternoon unraveling math and science mysteries about pumpkins! Through hands-on activities, students and parents measured the weight, height, and volume of their pumpkin. They then created a bar graph comparing the data they collected. The students predicted how many seeds were in their pumpkins and also used estimation strategies on a large jar of candy corn. A fun day was had by all!  Pictured are Chase Martin and his mother, Lydia Martin, working together on one of the centers.

Manatee Academy K8 School Vet Prep students and their parents recently visited Fort Pierce Westwood High School’s Veterinary Assisting Facility. Westwood’s Career and Tech Ed (CTE) Vet Assisting and Agricultural Biotech students hosted the campus visit, along with instructors Lisa Davenport and Charles Paschal, with the support of Westwood’s ninth grade counselor Monarae Buchanon. Manatee K-8 Science/Vet Prep instructor Lisa Friend said the visit was a great success, students were amazed at the variety of activities and learning experiences available in the Westwood program, and had many questions following the tour. Westwood students commented on how the Manatee students were … Read More

Students in Dorcia Reid’s first grade class at Windmill Point Elementary recently dressed up or created posters of their favorite characters and participated in a parade around the school to showcase their favorite character to parents and fellow students. Following the parade, students shared their books with their classmates and explained why they liked the character they chose.

The kindergarten students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition recently enjoyed their annual Storybook Character Parade. The students selected a book to read and dressed up as the book’s main character. Students and teachers paraded through the halls around the school so that students in other grades could see them. Parents were invited to come and see the parade too. After the parade, parents went to their child’s classroom to enjoy activities and refreshments.  Pictured are students in Patricia Ifill-Bowen’s class.

Lisa Weil and Karol Carvelli’s reading class at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition was visited by mystery reader Adam Jones, a Port St. Lucie businessman.  Mr. Jones, a long- time resident in the area and British national shared his knowledge of English pounds and read from the novel, “Around the World in 80 Days.” Students ate British scones while listening to Jones’ interpretation of Phileas Fogg.  Pictured, left, is Mr. Jones with students from the class and Karol Carvelli, back right.

Students in Lisa Bradley’s kindergarten class at Rivers Edge Elementary School recently picked their own pumpkins from the school’s Ppumpkin patch. Students counted pumpkin seeds, weighed and measured, learned about the growth cycle and sorted shapes to make decorative faces as they ended their unit on Cornucopia.

Students at Floresta Elementary participated in the school’s inaugural Vocabulary Parade recently. The Vocabulary Parade is part of Floresta Elementary’s ongoing effort to increase word recognition among students. Prior to the parade, teachers read Debra Frasier’s book, Miss Alaineus, A Vocabulary Disaster, to their students. The school’s Literacy Council, k-5 classroom and resource teachers, and all support staff worked together to make the Vocabulary Parade an enormous success. Students learned a plethora of new words and enjoyed sharing original and creative representations of some extremely challenging words. A special thank you goes to administration, faculty, and staff who modeled for … Read More

Floresta Elementary School hosted its Annual BOO Bash recently. This event was sponsored by the school’s very supportive PTO. TRAXX Entertainment provided the music and great entertainment, and even brought along a very special guest visitor just for this spooky occasion. Students in each grade level were awarded prizes and other recognition for the best costume. All proceeds benefit the school and students.

The Starbright Therapy Dogs visit Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition every week and visit and read with the middle school autistic students.  Pictured is coordinator Dot Blair with Music, an Australian Shepherd that loves coming each week and reading with the students. Music looks great dressed up for Halloween!

The Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition’s chapter of the National Junior Honor Society recently conducted its annual food drive. This is the fifth year that the food drive has been held in October. The club collected 16 boxes full of food for the local food bank, Harvest Outreach, in St. Lucie County. The food collected will help support many families that don’t have food for the fall holidays. This is a very worthwhile cause.  Pictured are NJHS members gathering the boxes.

Windmill Point Elementary fifth graders are incorporating technology into Social Studies. Students have been learning about the European Explorers and the importance they have had on our world in Social Studies. Pictured is Laura Young’s fifth grade class as they are creating a Power Point presentation on a specific explorer. They will be teaching each other about their explorer by presenting their PowerPoint presentations to the class. They are learning not only how technology can enhance their projects but how it enhances their learning.