News and Communications for St. Lucie Public Schools
Kindergarteners at CAST enjoyed a picnic with their teddy bears while they read bear read- alouds, counted bears, and wrote about bears! Students also completed a design challenge where they had to make a chair for a baby bear. Spending the day with our furry friends made our learning so much more fun!
First graders in Ms. Smith’s class learned about cause-and-effect relationships during a recent Stop & STEAM day at CAST. The students experimented with making volcanoes! Everyone loved the reactions when the elements were combined!
CAST Middle School Yearbook students played a game called “Blind Artist” in a recent Graphic Arts class. Blind Artist is a partner game that builds relationships in class, while students learn crucial elements like the importance of communication, patience, and trusting others. The “Director” verbally guided the artists by only saying lines, directions, and shapes. The artists, who must have their eyes shut tight, drew the picture according to the director’s instruction.
First graders at CAST constructed two-dimensional shapes out of pretzels and marshmallows. Students identified whether the pretzel or marshmallow was the side or vertices and then identified how many sides and vertices each shape had! What a yummy math review!
Kindergarteners at CAST are learning the correct way to use their math manipulatives. They read stories about the do’s and don’ts of manipulatives such as teddy bear counters, snap cubes, and dice! They practice how to use them, so they are successful when it is time for math!
CAST middle school Dance students participated in a quarterly fitness test to measure their flexibility, strength, and stamina. This practice helps them with Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind so they are ready for their upcoming performances!
Mrs. Gamez’s soon-to-be second graders are loving every minute of summer camp! They wore hats to beat the heat while they took their learning outside to make solar crickets during a STEM project!
Creative Arts Academy Eighth Graders win 1st and 2nd place in the “Inlet 100thAnniversary Art Contest” sponsored by the Ft. Pierce Lions Club in collaboration with the City of Ft. Pierce. First place winner Adalia Stewart and second place winner Morgan Worley depicted a scenery of the Ft. Pierce Inlet, surrounding waterways, and sea life. Adalia stated her artwork stylized “all the different sea animals and sport fishing” found in our local area. Whereas Morgan wanted hers to look picturesque as if “we were looking at a postcard.” C.A.S.T Middle School Visual Arts students collaborated in this art contest in … Read More
Students in Ms. Smith’s first grade class discussed their feelings during morning circle time and connected each feeling to a different color as part of an arts integration lesson. They then read “Color Monster” and designed their own color monster to represent how they are feeling. Students are working on being proactive by regulating their feelings!
Eighth grade students in Ms. Edwards’ class at CAST examined photographs from the Reconstruction era. Students discussed the feelings these images evoked and the importance of primary versus secondary sources.
Fourth graders in Mrs. Church’s hybrid class learned about the abstract artist Piet Mondrian as they reviewed how to find the perimeter and area of quadrilaterals. Mondrian is famous for using geometric figures and primary colors in his art. Students were tasked to create their own piece of Mondrian-inspired artwork using only squares and rectangles with a perimeter or area of 20, then added primary colors of their choosing.
Ms. Claudio’s seventh graders at CAST examined different styles of architecture and discussed the pros and cons and how math is used in architecture. Students then designed and built their own structure to scale using spaghetti noodles, marshmallows and tape. Their goal was to build the tallest structure that best resembled their scale drawing.
Ms. Denman’s 4th grade class at CAST has been learning about the local history of St. Lucie County. Students learned about landscape artists A.E. Backus and The Highwaymen. To wrap up the unit, the students had an opportunity to paint En Plein Air. A student shared her new learning with family and discovered her great-grandmother was the model for one of Backus’ portraits!
CAST’s Virtual Media Arts Students used their time outside the classroom to their advantage this past month as students learned to film Interview segments with friends, neighbors, and family members. One student, Sterling Prettelt, did an exceptional job in her interview and even got Fort Pierce Mayor Linda Hudson to join her for an Interview! Sterling, with team “Broadcast News” (4th Period’s class moniker) asks Mayor Hudson about her role as mayor, and what it entails. Sterling also asks about the mayor’s impact on the city of Fort Pierce, as well as some personal questions about her pets! Head over … Read More
Third grade students in Ms. Voke’s virtual class explored comic strips: how to write them, how stories are told within them, and how the illustrations progress through each frame. Students created their own comic strips during this week-long unit. They shared their creations with their classmates, and they gave each other feedback on how to make their work better.
Kindergarten and first grade students in Mrs. Roberts’ class practiced their word work skills with shaving cream! This tactile learning experience helped students with sight words, word families, and more!
During CAST’s recent Stop & STEAM event, second grade students in Mrs. Simmon’s class focused on the “S” part of STEAM by creating hand pollinators and designing their own flowers. Then they used the hand pollinators to simulate how pollen is transferred to flowers by insects. This culminating activity aided their learning on living things and the relationships between plants and animals.
CAST kindergartners and first graders had their first garden to classroom experience! Students harvested grape tomatoes, sweet basil and Italian oregano this week from their garden. Then they contacted our friends at Big Apple Pizza, and they made pizzas with the ingredients from the Little Sprouts Garden here at CAST! Students also read realistic fiction stories such as “Pizza at Sally’s” and made thinking maps about the stories they read. What a fun, rewarding and delicious experience!
Ms. Voke’s virtual 3rd grade class from CAST explored ways to find examples of math outside the actual math book. They used magazines, newspapers, ads from the mail and any other resource they had in their home to complete a scavenger hunt of pictures of “math items.” They created their template from folded paper and copied the items to be placed on the scavenger hunt page. Some items for their search included examples of a bar graph, an analog clock, a quadrilateral, a fraction, and an item used to measure liquid or mass. When they found their items, they cut … Read More
Kindergarteners and first graders at CAST worked through a Project Lead the Way project during Stop & STEAM week. Students learned first about the structure and function of our body and different body parts such as the heart, lungs, and stomach. Students examined bones closer by recreating an X-ray image. Then they designed a cast to protect a broken bone that was strong, light, comfortable and water resistant.