In December, Allapattah Flats welcomed motivational speaker and Sports Photographer, Ned Schuster of the Speakers Bureau.  Mr. Schuster was introduced by Dr. Donna Mills who began the Speakers Bureau four years ago.  Mr. Schuster has a passion for reaching students by sharing his real life story and impressing upon them that in life you can overcome many of the obstacles that may come your way.   Mr. Schuster shared some real life struggles concerning some of his own educational challenges as a child and his determination alongside his family’s determination to work through those problems.  Mr. Schuster’s determination blazed the … Read More

Fifth graders at Village Green Environmental Studies School were thrilled to learn about and enjoy eating food grown from their very own vegetable gardens! Students at the school grew “yummy” cabbages and “delicious” sweet potatoes.

Mr. Nunez’s 7th grade science class at Manatee Academy created a recipe they like to call “The Kohlrabi Salsa” using fresh ingredients from a garden right outside their classroom! The ingredients include kohlrabi, cilantro, yellow pear tomatoes, and green onion. Way to go!

Recently St. Lucie County bus drivers, along with the Garden City Early Learning Academy staff, reviewed the Bus Safety procedures with students. The students learned how to sit properly on the bus, back to back, bottom to bottom, and feet on floor. Other safety procedures were also reviewed. Students were given the opportunity to practice evacuating the bus in case of emergency. Time and safety were noted during this activity. Pictured exiting the bus is first grade student Darious Acrey with the assistance of Nuran Onal and Joann Brown.

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.

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

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.

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.

Student Takara Thomas was the grand prize winner of Garden City Early Learning Academy’s 100 Book Challenge. This year, the school was able to accept a donated computer as a prize to the winner. The challenge was that any time a student read over 250 steps (62.5 hours) during independent reading time or at home, their name was put into the drawing. Many students met the challenge and had an entry into the grand drawing. This challenge was set up by instructional coach Alexandra Laoutas as a way to promote independent reading. Pictured are Takara and her excited father with … Read More

Garden City Early Learning Academy held its Character Bee of the Month Celebration for Citizenship recently. This event was not only a time to recognize students for being responsible citizens, but was also an excellent opportunity for parents to be involved in a “hands-on” activity with their child. The activity included tracing their child’s hand, discussing and writing the ways that their child had made good choices to become a great citizen. Several students shared what they do to be good citizens. The students were honored with a certificate and pencil. Pictured is Yeraldy Salgado and her mother Liliana Perez working on … Read More

The staff at Garden City City Early Learning Academy thrilled 25 students in their Kids at Hope program to Fort Pierce Westwood High School to meet and talk with older students. Various student leaders on campus, including student athletes, student government officers, and ROTC cadets toured the school with the elementary students in the culinary, chorus, band, veterinary, and pre med programs on campus, and answered questions from their guests about athletics, student government and the cadet program. The visit ended with assistant principal Anthony Conti and a student representative talked with the young visitors about good choices and decision making. The experience for the elementary students was … Read More

The Mobile Planetarium Tour “Growing Up Great Together Under One Big Sky” visited GCELA with an inflatable dome that introduced children to the night sky while forging cross-cultural connections.  Inside the dome, the children viewed a special planetarium show – One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure (created by Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street and its partners, with major support from the PNC Foundation.)   Through the lens of astronomy, children joined Elmo, Big Bird and HuHu Zhu, as they explore the night sky and took an imaginary trip from Sesame Street to the moon.  Each child received a daytime/night time activity … Read More

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.

The VPK class at Garden City Early Learning Academy recentlycelebrated 100 days of school!   The students have accomplished so much during the first 100 days.   To celebrate, they participated in various activities such as counting to 100 and reading stories and poems.  The class also made a Toy Store containing 100 toys.    The students made “100th day” party hats to wear for the celebration.   During snack time, pretzels and crackers were used to make the number 100 which the students ate,  along with apples from the fresh fruit and vegetable program.

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

On Saturday, November 19th at Fort Pierce Central High School, Garber Buick GMC will help donate dollars to education — up to $10,000.  It is all part of the Test Drive Event that generates $10 for each 2 – 3 minute test drive.  When the event exceeds 100 drives, Buick will double the donation to $20 per test drive.

On Saturday November 3, test drive a new Buick and help Fort Pierce Westwood High School (FPWHS) located at 1801 Panther Lane in Fort Pierce, receive up to $10,000. Garber Buick GMC in Ft. Pierce will have new Buick vehicles at the school for this Test Drive Event from 8:00am-3:00pm. For each two-to-three minute test drive, Buick will donate $10.00.  When the event exceeds 100 test drives, Buick will double the donation to $20.00.  The goal is to reach the maximum donation of $10,000 for the day!   Participants will sign-in at the main entrance of FPWHS’s campus where they will … Read More

Garber Buick GMC officials presented a $10,000.00 check to Superintendent E. Wayne Gent, Board Members, and Fort Pierce Central Principal Todd Smith as a result of a successful November Test Drive for Education fundraising event.  The check will support extracurricular activities including athletics, the arts, drama and more. Fort Pierce Central Cobras, Garber administrators, and District officials look forward to continuing a positive partnership.