Author: Roberta Farrell

The pre-algebra students in Michelle May’s classes at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition recently wrapped up their unit on linear functions, utilizing slope intercept form of an equation, finding constant rate of change and discovering how that relates to slope intercept form of an equation. They took to the outdoors for their unit review. The students were partnered and worked together to do each problem on the unit review on the sidewalks in the school with chalk to demonstrate their understanding… They loved the change of environment and really worked hard together!  Pictured are Ashley Petrow, left, and Gina Carvelli as … Read More

Fuel Up to Play 60 is off to a great start at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition. The school had more than 100 students participate in the “Got Milk” promotion where students made a mustache drinking milk. The Fuel Up to Play 60 program is created to encourage students to think, eat and play healthy and exercise at least 60 minutes per day to ensure they are developing a healthy body. Pictured is the school cafeteria staff with their milk mustaches.

Students in Kaitlyn Malloy’s ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) middle grades class at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition showed their appreciation for veterans recently. After several interactive and hands on lessons describing veterans’ importance, students created individual cards for soldiers who are currently serving the nation, and to their parents who have previously served. Pictured, from left, are Noah Landon, River Rashford, Richard Perez and Maliyah Cruz.

First grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School at Tradition have deepened their understanding of Tier 2 vocabulary with Vocabulary Day! Pictured are first grade students learning new words and their definitions in a meaningful way. Students employ several techniques to meet Common Core Standards for vocabulary including context clues, synonyms/antonyms, illustrations, and role play as evidenced by their unique, inventive costumes when they transformed into their favorite vocabulary word for parents and other special guests on Vocabulary Day.

Fourth grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition recently spent the morning unraveling math and science mysteries about pumpkins! Through hands-on activities, students measured the weight, height, and volume of their pumpkin. They then created a bar graph comparing the data that they collected. Students predicted how many seeds were in their pumpkins and also used estimation strategies on a HUGE jar of candy corn. A fun day was had by all!  Pictured is Victoria Cornelius with her fourth grade students.

Third grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition chose a fictional book from the media center and described the main character’s traits in the story. Students explained how the character’s actions contributed to evidence regarding their traits, motivations or feelings. Additionally, students designed a flow map, and wrote a response to literature. Lastly, students decorated and designed their pumpkin to look like their main character. This Pumpkin People Project is a Palm Pointe favorite and a tradition for many years to come! Pictured is Kristina White proudly displaying her pumpkin decorated as a dog and holding her report.

Eighth grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition recently showed off their skills in building atoms using a Bohr model when they created an atom of one of the first 13 elements on the periodic table.  Throughout the past two weeks, students have worked hard to understand atomic structure, the periodic table and the behavior of matter. Students then created edible atoms using M and Ms as subatomic particles and cookies as the nucleus to show they are understood how an atom was structured. Pictured, from left, are Jordi Munoz, Raphael Alexis, and Leo Fernandez.

Fifth grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition used a variety of resources to compare and contrast two Native American cultures from different regions of America. They specifically studied how the two regions are alike and different in aspects of food, clothing, shelter, music, art and religious beliefs. Pictured from Jade Joie’s fifth grade class are Nadia Mihajalovski, left, and Ashley Coronel as they proudly show their projects.

Palm Pointe first graders are Super Scientists! Students from Glenna Sigmon’s first grade class generated and tested hypotheses and used their super science skills to observe matter. Fort Pierce’s Manatee Observation Center’s Super Science Day presentations gave these first grade scientists the opportunity to make lava lamps and flubber. Students watched the matter change before their eyes.  Students were excited to record data and reflect in their journals. Pictured are Matthew Antonakos, left, and Zachary Veldhuis.

Eighth grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition looked at different changes in matter both physical and chemical to observe and classify different changes in matter. Students produced their own lava lamp or graduated cylinder to view the physical changes of a mixture and the chemical changes present in a chemical reaction. After working to demonstrate their understanding with the lava lamp, students went further when they looked to identify specific signs of a chemical change while creating a “Sunset in a Bag.” Students were able to view first hand both a physical and chemical change in color along … Read More

Recently, sixth graders from Michell Powers’ science class at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition shared their expertise to their second grade “science buddies” from Melissa Bonet’s class. Together, students explored density in a hands-on inquiry activity. Both groups of students enjoyed the experience. Pictured, from left, are second grader Bradley Holtzclaw, with sixth graders Pasquale Giallongo and Giordano Fleuriot.

Eighth grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition have been working recently on deepening their knowledge of matter and its behavior by interactively looking at the properties and changes of atoms in different types of matter. Students focused their efforts on becoming experts in matter, mass, weight, volume and density. Students worked to calculate and identify the mass, volume and density of all different types of matter during their three days of laboratory investigation. First, students looked at different regular and irregular shaped (dominoes/bell-etc) household objects, and determined the objects mass and volume. Pictured are Criston Wilson, left, and Alberto … Read More

While learning about people of the past, kindergarten students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition dressed up like Johnny Appleseed. Together, students created a timeline of the important events in Johnny Appleseed’s life. After they finished their timeline, students enjoyed all kinds of treats made from apples. Pictured is Ariana Costanzo, kindergarten teacher, as she talks to her class about Johnny Appleseed.

The fifth grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition participated in a Super Scientist Lab Day.  Through seven different investigations, the students learned about chemical and physical changes.  Each of the fifth grade teachers conducted a different experiment showing either a chemical or physical change.  The teachers rotated through each of the seven fifth grade classrooms to demonstrate their specific experiment so that all the students observed each of the experiments.  Pictured from left is Lindsay Hudson, teacher, Ani Ramsingh and Anthony Balam.  

Seventh grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research @ Tradition enjoyed listening and learning to guest speaker, attorney Tanya Fender. She came to talk to them about the Constitution, rights and responsibilities.  The students later were able to ask questions and discuss the information.  It was a very informative and educational experience for the students.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. On September 17, Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition participated in Circle of Hope, which is a district-wide project for creating cancer awareness, raising money for research and honoring those who have gone on a cancer journey. Pictured is the Morning Crew from left (Back row)Sydney Holtzclaw, Debra Snyder, Principal, Julia Genkinger, Alejandra Monzon, Mindy Murray, and Aishwarya Kalluri,( Front row ) is Maria Hearn, Celeste Hall, Krista Garcia, Lupe Novoa and Erika Goldberg after sharing interesting cancer awareness facts on the daily morning broadcast.    

Lorri Rudzinski’s second grade class at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition completed a Thinking Map flee map using the Common Core standard of demonstrating understanding of characters, setting and plot using the 7 Habits of Happy Kids. They were excited to share their group effort with James Dean the representative of Thinking Maps. Pictured from left is Karie Dyer, Naje’ Carter Evans, Jacob Eichenlaub, Alaysia Jackson, Nicolas Tovar, Nikko Lopez, Cianna Lents, Jack Lopez, Jasmine Duarte-Garcia, Cooper Kuba, Joshua Volcin, Zion Sanguinetti, Kenzie Kemerson, Breanna Sylvain, Madison Kohn and Luptia Vargus

Palm Pointe graduates reconnect with Hillary Cruz, 7th grade Civics teacher at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition, and Janet Winikoff, representing the Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County, regarding the students’ 2011/12 Project Citizen idea for a pet food stamps program. The students targeted low-income pet owners as the problem to focus on for their class project two years ago; claiming one of the most cited reasons for surrendering pets was due to the owners’ inability to financially care for them. Students had the idea to create a Medicaid-type program (called Peticaid), that would subsidize … Read More

Lorri Rudzinski’s second grade class at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition is learning place value. They practiced a game, “Race to a Flat” to learn how ten ones can be replaced by one ten, and ten tens turn into a hundred. Pictured are from left; Cooper Kuba and Nicolas Tovar winning with their hands held high, also pictured from left are Joshua Volcin, Karie Dyer, Breanna Sylvain, Naje’ Carter-Evans, Jack Lopez, Madison Kohn.