Author: CHARLOTTE PENNINGTON

Students at Mariposa Elementary School recently jumped for pledges for the local chapter of the American Heart Association. The goal this year was $7,000. All students spent their resource time, skipping, jumping rope, running an obstacle course and hopping to music.  We thank all those who have made donations on behalf of the students.  It is nice to know students are able to have compassion and place the needs of others before themselves.  Pictured, from left, are Brianna Locklar, Ariya Mosley and Zechariah Araya.

Students in Greta Hyatt’s kindergarten class at Mariposa Elementary created an animal report using tree maps.  Tree maps direct students on creating reports by providing research strategies at a primary level.  The students were directed to find information about their animals by answering the following questions: What does your animal look like?  Where does your animal live?  What does your animal eat? After finishing their assignment, each student had an opportunity to share their new animal facts with the class.

Three Mariposa Elementary staff members recently ran the Torrey Pines Race for Research half marathon. The staff members participating in the race were, pictured, from left, Sue New, Christina Bondi and Michelle Graci.  Sue and Michelle ran their first half marathon and Christina ran her sixth half marathon. After running 13.1 miles, the ladies earned a Torrey Pines Half Marathon medal.

This week in the Mariposa Elementary School media center, media specialist Charlotte Pennington read to the kindergarten, first and second grade students “Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot” by Dav Pilkey.  Before the story began, Mrs. Pennington brought out a tin can robot she made at home.  She explained to the students how she made it while the students sat wide-eyed.  The robot prop was an excellent introduction to the chapter book.  After the book was read, the students were instructed how to draw Ricky, one of the main characters. Pictured, from left, are Lea Cesiro, Cameron Peterson, Taline El-Khoury, and Stephanie … Read More

Maria Nunez’s fourth grade class at Mariposa Elementary is working on a science experiment to see how much water an organism can hold. The students in the picture demonstrate how to use a balance and a ruler to determine growth. The students were amazed on how much growth took place in one day.  The experiment will continue for another 7 days to allow for collection of data. Pictured, from left, are Anijah Shuford-Moore and Nazeer Dunn.

Miguel Juarez in Ami Jobson’s first grade class at Mariposa Elementary School made a hardcover book titled “Alligators”.  His book is divided into sections: Table of Contents, Meet the Author and alligator facts. To honor Miguel for his hard work, Mariposa’s broadcasting station, Wings TV, invited him on the show as their special guest. His book was televised for the whole school to see.

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.

Mariposa Elementary School recently held its FCAT / SAT Information Night for parents. To start the night, everyone enjoyed a chicken, mashed potato and gravy dinner. After dinner, parents learned more about their children’s upcoming standardized tests and how they could help them at home. Teachers also shared reading tips and strategies with the families during grade-specific breakout sessions. At the end of the night, everyone had an ice cream sundae! Pictured is third grade teacher Susan New shareing reading strategies with parents.

Students in Toni Baptiste’s first grade class at Mariposa Elementary School are studying bugs this week in Journeys. To build off of prior knowledge, the class enjoyed a quiet nature walk around the school grounds to complete a circle map on bugs. Students were very excited to write about their findings on their maps.

Students who will represent Mariposa Elementary School in the All County Chorus in April are Jessica Bently, SadiahKouns, Mia Rose Kirchner, Alex Perry, and Sara Cardoso. This year’s theme is Songs of Florida. The students will be practicing after school with music teacher Thomas Conner to prepare for their video taping for the concert April 26 at the Fenn Center in Fort Peirce. Pictured, from left, are  Jessica Bently, SadiahKouns, Mia Rose Kirchner, and Alex Perry.

Students in Toni Baptiste’s first grade class at Mariposa Elementary School have researched a zoo animal and made a cereal box report about their animal. Boys and girls were excited to share their animal’s habitat, diet and fun facts to the class. In addition, students were able to share information they learned about each other’s animal to a chaperone on a field trip to the Palm Beach Zoo. Pictured, from left, are Brandon Schwochert, My Nguyen,  Isaiah Bissram, Samuel Montgomery, John McCallum, and Sophia Mohammed.

St. Lucie County School Board member Dr. Donna Mills recently visited Mariposa Elementary School and addressed third to fifth grade students in an assembly on Black History.  Dr. Mills discussed the importance of caring about yourself and gave a background on her life.

To honor the legacy of Dr. Seuss, students in Lisa Green’s second grade class at Mariposa Elementary School invited parents to read stories created by the famous author. When the parents arrived , the students were very surprised to see one of the parents dressed as The Cat in the Hat.  His costume made the celebration come alive. The day turned out to be a great success as the students listened, read, and shared their projects on Dr. Seuss with their classmates and visitors. Parent Robert Harrod is pictured reading as The Cat in the Hat.

Students in Linda Auciello’s class at Mariposa Elementary School recently planted lima bean seeds as part of their science lesson. The students first learned about the parts of a plant then planted  lima bean seeds to observe the life cycle of the plant.  The kindergartners really enjoyed learning about plant growth by watching their lima beans grow. Hopefully, they will be able to eat some of the delicious lima beans as their plants continue to grow.  Pictured, from left, Tammiyha Saintard, Kerstin Hayward and Dalton Ricci developed green thumbs as they nurtured their plants to maturity.

Students in Toni Baptiste’s first grade class at Mariposa Elementary School researched a zoo animal and made a cereal box report about their animal. Boys and girls were excited to share their animal habitat, diet and fun facts to the class. In addition, students were able to share information they learned about their animal to a chaperone on a field trip to the Palm Beach Zoo.

At Mariposa Elementary, pictured from left are Jerry Schupp, Kylie Christiansen, Remy Jones and Nicholas West using cereal to solve greater than or less than math problems in Melissa Whalen’s class.  The students worked in pairs to apply their knowledge of greater or less than, using cereal as a hands-on manipulative.

Mariposa Elementary School recently hosted a Family Math Night, where parents learned ways to help their children with homework, math games and activities the family could do at home together.  This sort of family participation has been shown to increase a child’s confidence in his or her ability to do math, as well as teach students and parents to value mathematics. Parents learned how to identify opportunities for reinforcing mathematics skills at home by talking about how they use math at work or at home, by involving their children in tasks that require computing, measuring, estimating, building, problem solving and reasoning, and by looking for activities … Read More

Kari McIntyre’s kindergarten class at Mariposa Elementary School learned about the characteristics of penguins. The students wrote about what they eat, where they live, and what they look like. The students’ final project was creating their own penguins. Richard Roth demonstrates his creativity with his penguin waving hello.

Students in  Ashley Coe’s class at Mariposa Elementary participated in a fun activity to learn about author’s purpose. Using a candy wrapper, they had to find the facts that informed the consumer about the product. Then they had to write an advertisement using figurative language to persuade the consumer to purchase the product. Finally, the students created an imaginative story about the candy product to entertain the purchaser.  

Students in Linda Auciello’s kindergarten class at Mariposa Elementary know how to write and read 100 sight words by the 100th day! They used their word knowledge to create a massive poster of the sight words they have learned and they also wrote their own smaller sized list of the same words. This is turning into a classroom full of sight word wizards!