Mariposa Elementary celebrated their PBIS by creating a Unity Friendship Rock Garden. Florida Falls in Fort Pierce was very generous in donating over 700 rocks. Each student was able to design their own rock to represent friendship, unity, anti-bullying, caring words, and respect. Once the rocks were complete, they were placed in a “garden” for all students and staff to enjoy. The rock garden sends a strong message of positivity for all. Anthony Vidal, Joseph Scotti, Luke Saintelien-Elan, Kristal Santiago, Justin Ingersoll, Lawrence Pierre, Lillith McAdams, Jeremy Beausoleil, Clara Hager, Jonathan Smith, and Jahmal Julmis from Mrs. Lana Watson’s class … Read More

Mariposa Elementary 5th grade students, Jacob Collins Chun, Woodley Jean, Wyatt Baber, and Daniel Rivas helped clean up the playground during recess. Acting responsibly and taking pride in Mariposa is their motto!    

Mariposa Elementary PBIS event recently had students voting for who they wanted to wear a turkey costume. We had one nominee from each grade level and resource, along with Mrs. Whitaker and Mrs. Patton. Students were allowed to use the butterfly bucks they earned performing the I CAN expectations of  Act Responsibly, Be Respectful, Create Safety, and Do My Best. The nominees were Ms. Buck, Ms. Dimeglio, Ms. Auciello, Ms. Biegner, Mr. Evans, Ms. Guntow, and Ms. Nunez. The winner of the costume was Mr. Evans! The students loved seeing their music teacher dressed as a turkey!  

Mariposa Elementary 5th graders performed their show of Broadway musicals with the help of their drama coaches from Port St. Lucie High School. For more than 20 years, PSLHS drama students have partnered with Mariposa students to choreograph popular Broadway songs.  The 5th graders shine as they perform the songs for other grade levels as well as their parents.

Third grade students at Mariposa Elementary worked in partnership with the Fort Pierce Westwood Academy students.  Collin Heatherington, Devin Gorzong, Wendy Zepadta, Zhanè B, Allison Kholer, Lena Shingledecker, Julia Haney, Samantha Watson, Clovis Wilson, and Nayeli Fernandez built four raised garden beds for their fellow Mariposa Monarchs.  Students across the campus will participate in the care of the gardening beds. Many farm to table activities will be conducted which directly connect to the ELA, math, science and social studies standards. Audrey Barr, Gabriel Barahona, Antonio Thomas, Sylas Rodriguez, Jocelyn Erwin, David Espinosa, Alejandro Alvarez-Aldana, Daniella Post, Drayden Walls, and Ayva … Read More

Mariposa Elementary participated in Read for the Record school-wide. As a school, we signed up for the nationwide literacy event. We pledged to read the book “Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon” by Kat Zhang, along with 2 million other students. PNC banker, Heather Ferguson read the book to our VPK students, and afterward each student received the book to take home. The students loved the story and also enjoyed drawing their very own dragons. Many other classrooms also created dragons. They used the book as inspiration and were encouraged to try their best.

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

In our Mariposa Elementary School’s N.E.E.D. group, “We learned about solar energy and went to teach kindergarten. We passed out solar beads and asked them to make a hypothesis, but we used the word “guess” so they knew what we meant. When we got outside, they stood in the sunlight, and their faces look amazed when they saw the color changing. I’d have to say I had so much fun teaching the little kids about solar energy. They were so well behaved, and just by looking at their faces, I’m pretty sure they liked the little lesson as much as … Read More

The fifth grade students on the N.E.E.D. (National Energy Education Development) project team at Mariposa Elementary School are busy focusing on learning and teaching energy sources to students in other grade levels within the school. Mariposa Elementary is the N.E.E.D. state elementary school of the year, and a national finalist. This year’s group is highly motivated and working towards attending the national awards ceremony in Washington D.C. this June. Pictured, from left, are team members Cathy Smith, Justin Locklar, Hannah Wright, Monica Kalina, Mary McCartney, Mikayla Sampson, Tnanazia Young, Johann Vianna, Allysha Lillard, Jan Feliciano, and Adam Archer.

Mariposa Elementary music teacher Mary McCartney received a $5,000 grant from Lowe’s Toolbox for Education. This grant will be used to create an outdoor amphitheater to be used by teachers and parents to enjoy student generated performances of all kinds. The staff, PTO and chorus members will collaborate in the design and building of the amphitheater.

Staff in the Media Center at Mariposa Elementary celebrated Literacy Week by creating posters from favorite childrens’ books.  Students visiting the center were asked to draw scenes depicting a character or event from the storybook.  Posters will be on display throughout the school. Pictured is student Andy Gonzalez.

Mariposa Elementary School’s new “Butterfly Band”, under the direction of Mary McCartney, is starting the year off learning new instruments. Fourth and fifth grade band students at Mariposa Elementary are learning to play the tone chimes as a part of this new instrumental group. They are also playing the Orff xylophones, recorders, drums, ukeleles and the steel drums.

Mariposa Elementary proudly announced the creation of their “Kindness Squad,” led by teachers Ms. Theresa Delancy and Ms. Erica Anderson. This team of fifth-graders began meeting monthly to plan activities that promote kindness across our campus. They helped lead a drive-by event with our kindergarten staff and students to bring sunshine to a student who has been out of school for an extended period of time. On Monday, the Kindness Squad welcomed students at parent drop-off with music, cheers, and posters, wishing everyone a wonderful day. Lots of smiles and laughter to start the day! It was a great way … Read More

Students in Linda Auciello’s kindergarten class at Mariposa Elementary School have been learning about their five senses. The students each had an apple to use to describe their five senses in regards to the apple. How did it feel? What did it look like? How did it taste? How did it sound when they bit into it? and How did the apple smell? The students had so much fun tasting, listening, smelling, feeling and looking at these delicious apples. Pictured are parent volunteer Don Lesser, and apple observers, from left, Luke Duffy, Shane Lesser, Lyndsey Simpson and Noah Erdwein.

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 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.

Kindergarten students at Mariposa Elementary were awarded Awesome Artist awards for outstanding work on their fall mosaics. Students first learned about the change of seasons in a science lesson in Carla Bargeron’s resource class.  Then the students learned about mosaic art techniques. Pictured, from left, are Abigayle Conner, Brenelly Rodriguez-Guerrera, Jade Mayberry and Noah Corsiglia.

Students in Linda Auciello’s kindergarten class at Mariposa Elementary recently enjoyed a hands on math activity that taught them many lessons combined into one. They learned about ordering numbers up through 10, the concept of one more, and counting objects up to 10. Pictured is Shane Lesser counting his sets of blocks. He realized that when you make each set of blocks one more than the previous one then it looks like a set of stairs! Math is so much more fun when you can do it hands on!

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.

Kindergarten students in Carla Bargeron’s enrichment class at Mariposa Elementary School learned about Chinese New Year celebrations.  The students created colorful dragon masks and enjoyed a fun parade around the school in honor of the holiday.  Gung Hay Fat Choy!