Bethany DiTullio’s fourth grade students at Allapattah Flats K8 are hatching duck eggs to further cultivate their knowledge for the third nine weeks’ science curriculum on animal reproduction and growth. The class has two different incubators with 33 duck eggs total. They are hatching both Call ducks and Pekin ducks. The students will be responsible for checking the humidity and temperature of both incubators and adjusting them as necessary. They will also “candle” or look inside the eggs using a flashlight to keep track of the growing duck embryos.  Pictured, back to front, Latoya Zamor, Victoya Zamor, Kaiya Bullard work … Read More

4th graders at Frances K. Sweet learn how to make observations and create scientific questions during an ice balloon investigation. The investigation involves a frozen, water filled balloon and the students remove the latex and examine the ice using magnifying glasses, flashlights, toothpicks, popsicle sticks, and paper clips.  They then observe what happens when salt and food coloring are added.  Throughout the lesson, students document their observations and raise questions about what they see. Pictured here are 4th graders Ansel Espinal and Dona Lima from Mrs. Elish Mancuso’s class.

Morningside Elementary fourth grade team in collaboration with Keep Port St. Lucie Beautiful taught students about the importance of recycling through a novel study unit. KPSLB donated 100 copies of “Garbage Island” by Fred Koehler. Students read all 39 thrilling chapters packed with action and impressive vocabulary. To reward their hard work, the fourth grade teachers reverse tie-dyed recycling T-shirts. To add to the fun, students and teachers participated in a recycled headwear competition, in which the students were able to creatively represent the perils of not taking care of our earth. The unit of study culminated with a virtual … Read More

The joy is real as Animesh Saha, fourth grade student at Frances K Sweet Elementary School won the school spelling bee against 18 other school mates, third through fifth grade. Pictured in the background is the second place winner, fifth grade student India Duval. No pictured, placing third was fifth grade student Justice Anderson.

Fourth graders in Ms. Erica Morales’ class at Mariposa Elementary enjoyed playing the role of the math teacher. “Ms. Owens, and Mr. Orozco” guided their fellow classmates in multiplying two digit by two digit numbers using the Matrix Model. Classmates thoroughly enjoyed learning and helping their “teachers” solve each problem. Photographed as teachers: Adrian Orozco and Amorie Owens.

Frances K. Sweet’s fourth grade students in Mrs. Nardi Routten’s class became scientists as they explored “ice balloons”.  Students recorded their observation as they performed several tasks.  First they compared and contrasted the results of scraping the ice balloon with a toothpick versus a paperclip.  Students also observed what happened after salt was poured on the top of the ice balloon, and then food coloring.  Finally, students observed what happened when the ice balloon was placed in a tub of water.  During each activity students formed questions and wrote them on post-it notes.  Later, these questions were grouped according to … Read More

During science, our fourth graders have been learning about different types of rocks, weathering, and erosion. Today as a celebration for doing so well on their science unit assessment, students were allowed to open up their very own geode from Morocco. Inside the geode, they found quartz crystal. We analyzed the rocks, luster, color, hardness, streak, cleavage, and inferred the way minerals could have leaked into their rock. At Morningside, fourth grade always ROCKS, but today it also shined like a crystal geode!

Ms. Denman’s fourth-grade students at CAST put the “E” in STEAM! They used engineering to build a cofferdam. Students are learning about Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway. They are learning about the Key West Extension, an overseas railroad and how it was built.  

Students in Nardi Routten’s fourth grade class at F.K. Sweet Elementary recently wrote a children’s book as part of their Disney Planet Challenge.  This book is about two sea turtles — Bianca and Timmy — and their journey to their ocean home.  They face many dangers as they strive to reach the ocean waters.  Published via DiggyPod, students are selling these books for $6.00 each.   Proceeds from the sale of these books will be donated to the Mosquito Control and Marine and Coastal Management Services to help fund their projects with sea turtles.  Pictured from left are Melanie Page, Jacob Corman, Lauren … Read More

Fourth graders at Allapattah Flats K8 have been working together on Social Studies projects based on Florida history. They spent time researching their topic, as well as creating a timeline and poster board, complete with a description, pictures and an oral presentation. From left, Riley Franklin, Gabriella Maimone, Alexis Allen, and Chyna Nazario proudly display their work.

Four St. Lucie Public Schools students have been selected to participate in the international ambassador program, People to People International, this summer. The organization was begun by former President Dwight Eisenhower in an efffort to bring people from around the world together for understanding and friendship. The students will join with others around the country as delegates to France and England, including visiting Parliament and meeting with a Representative of the House of Commons. Pictured, from left, front row are teacher leader from People to People Karen Koehnlein, student ambassadors Braden Rigsby, Hunter Hooven, and Enrique Crespo. A student ambassador … Read More

Three teams from Lincoln Park Academy and one team from Port St. Lucie High School have advanced to the 2013 Odyssey of the Mind World Competition in Lansing, Michigan, next month. The three Lincoln Park teams earned first place in state competition, a first for any school or individual coach. The team from Port St. Lucie High earned second place in state competition in only its second year of competition. Pictured are Coaches Diane Tucker from Port St. Lucie High, left, and Judith Hueter from Lincoln Park displaying the ceremonial checks representing donations from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and other district … Read More

Manatee Academy K8 School media specialist and St. Lucie County Reading Council president Debbie Remington LOVES books, especially when students read books. This affection prompted Ms. Remington to volunteer to serve as the Florida Director of the Young Adult Choices, a division of the International Reading Association which will enable her to bring to St. Lucie County Schools over 5,000 recently released books for grades 7-12 over the next three years! That’s about $90,000.00 worth of books that will be going on library shelves in four different schools: Northport K-8, Dan McCarty School, Treasure Coast High School and Manatee Academy. “All summer … Read More

Teachers Abigail Prager, left, and Erin Bunnell of Parkway Elementary School model analyzing an historical primary source document in order to answer the document-based question (DBQ), “Early Jamestown: Why Did So Many Colonists Die?” They were among a group of 36 teachers trained on October 15 in the Common Core-aligned literacy strategies used throughout the DBQ Project method. With this method, students analyze and corroborate information from multiple documents to write an evidence-based argumentative essay. This method shows great promise for integrating literacy skills with content knowledge. The four schools participating in the pilot are Dan McCarty School, Lakewood Park, … Read More

St. Lucie West K-8’s 4th/5th grade Gifted classes completed a jigsaw activity using the required Social Studies Curriculum on Founding Fathers. Each student had a different founding father that they researched as a group (x4) and then broke out into “teaching groups” where they each spoke to the others in their new group about their assigned historical figure as the expert on the topic. WAY TO GO SHARKS! 

Ms. De Leon’s class read an article about Creative Growth in Oakland, California. Creative Growth is an art center for people with disabilities. Creative Growth gives people with disabilities an opportunity to create, socialize, and display their work in the community.  After reading the article, students had their own chance to express themselves through personal art projects. Each project was unique and colorful!  Titan Born, Titan Bred!

White City Elementary students enjoy reading with the volunteers from the Foster Grandparent Program.  These volunteers spend hours on campus supporting student learning. Students look forward to spending time with these special volunteers.