Author: Venus Burch

Graduating senior alumni were invited to walk Fairlawn’s halls in their caps and gowns. Fairlawn’s current students and staff congratulated them as they walked. A small reception was held in their honor where the seniors enjoyed seeing their elementary classmates and their 5th grade pictures on display! We are so proud of each of them and wish them much success in their futures.

Ms. Strunk’s 2nd grade class drew clock faces on their desks with white board markers.   The students used licorice hands to show the times that Ms.Strunk wrote on the board. The students had so much fun!

Fairlawn is participating in this year’s annual Empty Bowl Project. Thirty students in Mr. Gelardo’s art class will be creating clay pottery bowls for the event to be held on Saturday, March 12th, at the Ft. Pierce Farmers’ Market. Each bowl will sell for $15 and will benefit the Treasure Coast Food Bank. Every dollar raised will provide 7 meals to people in our community. Students who create the bowls can purchase them first or they will be taken to the event and sold along with the many other bowls created by the other schools in our district. Many employees also participated … Read More

As part of Fairlawn Elementary’s ongoing effort to increase word recognition among our students, students and staff paraded through the school halls dressed as a host of costumed words.  Families and friends laughed, applauded, and were amazed by our students’ ingenuity!  From pond to precipitation, humble to boastful, students represented words from  science, social studies, math, language arts and character education curriculum. The parade concept is based on Debra Frasier’s book, Miss Alaineus, A Vocabulary Disaster, where a student confuses the work ‘miscellaneous” for the person, Miss Alaineus.  In this hilarious story, great embarrassment is assuaged by turning this mortifying … Read More

Mrs. Janette Champagne, Fairlawn’s Food Service Manager, conducted a pizza-making lesson with all of the second grade students. The lesson was about farm to table (peppers, fresh tomatoes, pineapple) and how to follow steps in a technical procedure. Students enjoyed creating their own pizzas.

The Fairlawn Elementary students and staff held their second annual “Think Pink” Day to raise money and awareness for cancer on October 2nd. Students enjoyed wearing pink clothing items for $1.00 each while supporting an important cause, raising almost $800.  All funds raised by Fairlawn will be presented to local organizations at the Pink Heals Tour event on October 11th in Tradition’s downtown area.

Fairlawn Elementary School received a $1000.00 check from the National VFW.  The State Commander,  T. Wayne Makham, presented the check to Principal Jennifer Hedeen at a faculty meeting with Superintendent Genelle Yost, Dr. Kevin Perry, and Lydia Martin in attendance.   This donation to Fairlawn Elementary was a result of Shirley Helton (retired 5th grade teacher) receiving the national honor of VFW Teacher of the Year 2014.  Mrs. Helton graciously accepted this award recently in St. Louis, Missouri.  Mrs. Helton was nominated by Nell Moyers to the local chapter and then continued on to win at the state and national levels.    … Read More

The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) recently held an awards ceremony where district winners of their annual essay contest were recognized, and students in Shirley Helton’s fifth grade class at Fairlawn Elementary School took top honors. Pictured are Carli Israel, left, who won first place for her essay on The Boston Tea Party, and Morgan Adkison, who took second place for her essay on Children During the American Revolutionary War. Carli’s essay has been submitted to the state for judging.

As part of Fire Safety Month, kindergarten students at Fairlawn Elementary School recently traveled to the central Fire Station near Lawnwood Regional Medical Center. Students learned about what to do if there is a fire and what equipment the firefighter may use. Students also got to see a firefighter in full gear to show not to be afraid of them if they see them in a fire. Students had already read about community workers and jobs as part of the Journeys curriculum. Students also wrote about their experience using a circle map. Their writing was an opinion piece about their … Read More

Fairlawn Elementary School raised over $1,200 during a recent Pink Heals event to benefit local organizations that support cancer education, prevention, detection, treatment and research. Recently, a day was designated for students to wear “pink items” to school such as a pink shirt, pink pants/skirts, pink socks etc. The adults also participated and it was a fun way to help an important cause. Jennifer Ingersoll’s class raised the most money in the entire school and they will receive a pizza party provided by the Firefighters Benevolent. In addition, the school PTO has graciously agreed to provide pizza to the class … Read More

The kindergarten students learn science through a hands-on experience making a pizza. The students were able to see matter change its shape and property through the process. Christina Silva-Mejias from Loutina’s Pizza  helped the students make pizza. The students applied their sequence skills that they learned from reading “Pizza at Sally’s”  a book about the steps someone takes to make pizza. After making pizza, the students used a flow map to write about the sequences to make a pizza. Pictured are William Kicklighter, left, and Kielan Holland.

To help celebrate Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’s birthday, Garden City Early Learning Academy was visited by over 40 guest readers. Some classes had up to 3 readers at once! The volunteer readers came from various areas of the community, including Indian River State College, the Supervisor of Elections’ office, Fort Pierce city manager, Board of County Commisioners, Children’s Service Council, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Fort Pierce Mayor, and St. Lucie County Fire Department. Thank you to everyone for supporting the school and making a difference in the lives of students.  Pictured is Susan Geen, from the Supervisor of Elections office, reading to VPK students.

As part of Black History month, Joseph E. Smith, Clerk of Circuit Courts for St. Lucie County, spoke with second grade students at Garden City Early Learning Academy about his life and how they, too, can reach their goals and be successful. Mr. Smith is a native to Fort Pierce and graduated from Lincoln Park Academy. He worked in Washington, D.C., and then came back to St. Lucie County to serve the community. Smith is the first African-American Clerk of Circuit Courts in St. Lucie County, and is tireless in his efforts to give back to the community.

Families learned about chemical reactions, density and Newtonian and Non-Newtonian liquids at a recent family activity day at Garden City Early Learning Academy sponsored by The Parent Academy. Everyone left with snow, slime, and a lava lamp. Pictured, from left, are kindergartner Kari’sma Buchanon and pre-kindergartner Gabriella Mele.

The Kids at Hope committee at Garden City Early Learning Academy is sponsoring an Acts of Random Kindness activity for the month of February. All teachers, staff, and students are asked to leave their “heartprints” on the halls of the school. A heartprint is defined as the impression left behind by a deliberate act of kindness. How wonderful it will be to create connecting chains of heartprints displaying appreciation for one another throughout the school. To kick off the event, principal Traci Wilke, pictured, read the book “Heartprints” to the entire school.

Garden City Early Learning Academy (GCELA) celebrated Literacy Week with many fun activities for the students. Curious George was the special guest that visited classrooms to get the students excited about reading. The students participated in a Vocabulary Quilt Contest and reviewed high frequency words. Students were rewarded with a badge/sticker for the number of high frequency words known. In addition, each child received their very own book to take home. GCELA encourages children to read each night for at least 30 minutes. Pictured with Curious George is second grade student Kadejah Stevens.

Garden City Early Learning Academy appreciates community involvement in the school. Recently, Pastor Teddy Sanders and volunteers from  Calvary Compassion Church presented holiday gifts to all students. To show their holiday spirit, the students sang songs for the volunteers. GCELA truly appreciates all that Calvary Compassion Church does for the school.

Students in Mrs. Nesbitt’s first grade class are learning about place value. Students are showing their understanding of tens and ones using pretzel rods and Cheerios.  Pictured are Greg Robinson and Destiney Johnson.

Garden City Early Learning Academy (GCELA) students in grades Pre-K through two recently experienced live theatre through a new program developed by Riverside Children’s Theatre. The program is called “Theatre on the Go” and is designed to take live theatre to the schools in the area. The performance of “Scrambled Stories”, adapted by Kevin Qullinan and Angelo Cerniglia, were favorite stories that were cracked, broken and scrambled by the silly Professor Scattergood. The students participated by helping unscramble “Goldilocks”, “The Ugly Duckling”, and “The Three Little Pigs”. Students had to help get them back to where they belong through audience participation. The students have … Read More

Thanks to all the Garden City Early Learning Academy parents’, students’ and staff’s love of books and reading, the school’s book fair was a great success. The five day total combined in-school and on-line sales were just under $1,000. The school gets 40% in Scholastic dollars to purchase books and materials from Scholastic. The majority of the funds will go towards birthday books. The school also had $250 Scholastic dollars in the account, which purchased the 15 Golden Ticket prize books and another 30 birthday books, and should get another 150-200 books with the new Scholastic dollars! Now there will be enough … Read More