Author: SARA CROLL

 Students in grades Pre-K-5 at Savanna Ridge Elementary participated in a learning and enjoyable presentation on Water Safety. Presenters Bill and Jamie Wagner along with their special assistant “Bobber the Water Safety Dog from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shared with the students the importance of these skills through cartoon videos, lecturing and interactive Q & A. They emphasized learning to swim, to always wear a life jacket while swimming and boating, to always swim with a Buddy, when and where it is safe to dive, how to help someone that is in danger of drowning without endangering yourself, … Read More

The “Writing Wizard” James Dean recently helped prepare students at Savanna Ridge Elementary School for the annual FCAT Writes standardized test. Dean, a representative from Thinking Maps, has been diligently working with the teachers and students in preparation for the writing test. The day consisted of students creating magic wands, wizard hats, and hearing a presentation to help reinforce the material they learned for the test. The students rotated through stations where they used their wands to “zap” out irrelevant information, became writing wizards on how to use clear and precise language, created thinking maps on helpful writing hints, and … Read More

Students from Keiser University came to Savanna Ridge Elementary last week to read to students in Penny LaCorte’s classroom as part of a partnership between the school and Keiser as an ongoing support system. The 15 Keiser students had a unique assignment for their Speech/Communication class — to create a short children’s story and practice their public speaking skills by sharing their work to a group of students. The Keiser students supported the primary classrooms during the reading block. They shared their stories during read aloud time and served as “live” centers to work with students in small groups. Savanna … Read More

Representatives from school districts in Florida and Georgia recently visited Savanna Ridge Elementary to see enthusiastic teachers implementing Document Based Questions (DBQs). The students were engaged as teachers walked them through the process of analyzing documents and making inferences to answer the question, “Jamestown: Why did so many colonists die?” The visitors participated in a debriefing session following their classroom observations, and were impressed by the level of engagement from teachers and students. Many of the representatives are currently using DBQs within their middle and high schools, so they were excited to see elementary students actively participating in higher level … Read More

Second grade students at Savanna Ridge Elementary School in Kristi Collins’ classroom who reach their reading goals earned dog tags to show how many points they earned on Scholastic Reading Counts. The students are given the opportunity to read and take assessments online to show their progress. Each time students take the assessment, they earn more points and are awarded the next level dog tag. The points start at 25 and go up to 250. Many students are at the 100 point level and some have even reached the max of 250! The students look forward to getting the dog … Read More

Third through fifth grade students at Savanna Ridge Elementary participated in a recent school spirited pep rally. Third grade students lead the 4th and 5th graders in a remix song about taking on the challenge of the FCAT and passing it with no problem! Each grade level came in their designated class T-shirt and showed their spirit through a friendly competition on the song they learned. Principal LaTanya Greene led the students in a motivational speech that gave the students the boost they needed for the upcoming testing. Teachers and students had a great time showing their spirit and enthusiasm … Read More

The students at Savanna Ridge Elementary participated in many exciting events during literacy week. One of the special events that took place was visitors from Fort Pierce Central coming to the school. The student leaders from Central read to the third through fifth grade students, talked to them about academics, sportmanship, and the importance of being a responsible student. The day ended with the high school students eating lunch with the students. The children loved talking with the older students and really looked up to them as their role models.