Northport K-8 students in several different classes are vigorously preparing for the school’s second annual Women’s History/Women’s Victory celebration to be held in the Media Center to commemorate the strength and determination of women and to salute March as Women’s History Month.  A sampling of performances are seventh grade girls in Dot Still’s classes preparing a dramatic reading of Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman, fourth grade students in Juliette Thelusma’s class demonstrating a Susan B. Anthony beat, Northstars 6,7 and 8 graders in Mala Woessner’s preparing a powerpoint about Iron Jawed Angels, whose motto was “Lead, Follow or Get Out of … Read More

Southport Middle School teachers and students participated at a local McDonald’s restaurant for “McTeacher’s Night” event. Pictured, from left, are Adriana Garcia, Susan Schill, Alexia Tsikoudis, Lilas Demontegnac, Christine Richards, Jim Saunders and Kendall Spurr.

The students in Traci Lott’s second grade class at F.K. Sweet Elementary were very excited about the recent St. Lucie County Fair. Students worked cooperatively or individually, to create visual representations of what Ft. Pierce looked like long ago. Riley Mullins, pictured, was very creative and constructed a Seminole Chickee Hut for her school’s fair booth.

Ask just about any intermediate student at F.K. Sweet Elementary about their favorite books, and you will hear Nate the Great quite often. This series is written by Lincoln Peirce, and focues on Nate, a sixth grade genius. These hilarious illustrated novels are certainly on Kayla Jungjohan, left, and Willie Whitehead’s reading list.

Third graders at F.K. Sweet Elementary are busy exploring geometry in math with the use of pattern blocks. How many shapes can you create using a triangle and a trapezoid? Jayla Flagg and Wesley Varn are working together to make as many different shapes as possible.

March is National Nutrition Month and Janette Champagne, cafeteria manager at F.K. Sweet Elementary School works hard every day to ensure that students are eating a healthy balanced diet at breakfast and lunch. She also initiated a Walking Club for students. They meet every Tuesday and Thursday before school and walk a mile on the school track. Yoga is also a part of the club’s morning workout. Pictured is Ms. Champagne with students after their morning walk.

 Students in Jean Constantine’s kindergarten class at Morningside Elementary School had made and sent valentine cards to USAF Captain Brandon Daigle overseas and the class was surprised when he sent them sent a big flag from his plane on the dashboard as he flew reconnaissance over Afghanistan. He also included a certificate to the class (by name) and two photos, one of him with the valentines and one of his whole squadron. Pictured is Ms. Constantine, her students, and their prized possession.

Maggie Garrett, seated, a kindergartner in Jean Constantine’s kindergarten class at Mariposa Elementary School  reads to fifth graders Raisa Asim, Alyssa Byrum and Hilario Garcia the book she put together and colored to work with her sight words she is learning to read.

Allapattah Flats K-8 kindergartners celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday with lots of events to emphasize the fun of reading. As part of the celebration, students participated in read-alouds featuring published books by Ted Geisel a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. Students had the opportunity to prepare and taste their own green eggs and ham, as well as dress up for Seuss Day. Pictured, from, left are Aidan Madden and Alexander McFarlane.                                

Floresta Elementary School second grade students were visited by Captain Citrus, the mascot from the OJ4NRG tour, a program put together by the Florida Department of Citrus to enlighten students about the many benefits of Florida citrus.  Students learned that oranges, tangerines, and grapefruits are special kinds of berries, and that most of the world’s citrus comes from our own state of Florida.  Orange juice provides vitamin C, potassium, folate, calcium, and vitamin D, and is free of fat and contains no sodium or cholesterol.  Students learned that the citrus industry employees nearly 76,000 workers and positively impacts the economy … Read More

First grade students at Allapattah Flats K8 are springing into geometry!  To go along with their study of three-dimensional shapes, students were asked to bring in objects from home that represented three-dimensional shapes. These objects were displayed and students took a tour as they identified the faces, edges, and vertices of the spheres, cylinders, cones, rectangular prisms, and square pyramids. The children were so excited to see their math relate to the real world! Pictured, front to back, are students from Stephanie Sanchez’s class  Romin Herrera, Dominic C., Tyler Kwiatek, Cameron Hicks, Zaniya Scott, Hannah Hudson and Jace Celentano.  

Sixth grade students, pictured from left, Genesis Gibson, Derrick Davis, Jessica Hoyt, Zach Roach, and Christen Bailey listen intently to the Battle of the Books question for their team. The annual Battle of the Books contest matches a student team against a faculty team to answer comprehension questions. This year, the sixth and eighth grade student teams won their battle, while the seventh grade faculty team won their battle. This event coordinates literature study among the reading classes, and creates a positive school-wide literacy culture.

On a recent visit to F.K. Sweet Elementary, St. Lucie County School Board Vice Chairman Debbie Hawley visited classrooms chatting with teachers and students. Pictured is Mrs. Hawley with second grade student Brian Wu from Rachel Luhta’s class, discussing some of his Daily Five expectations and activities.

Students in Andrea Anicito’s seventh grade science classes at Forest Grove Middle School were given a visual scenario in which they were presented with a parent’s genetic information. Students then had to create a punnett square to determine the probability of the offspring’s traits. The final part of the project was to build a “spud”. Because there were traits that showed other than 100% probability, the offspring all looked a little different, just like siblings. Together, the class created a potato head family.

Students in Andrea Blackburn’s fourth grade class at Samuel Gaines Academy presented Black History Projects to students in K-5 grades.  The students had all of February to study their subject and create their project.  They became experts in who they studied and were able to present to anyone that came by to check them out.  All that participated in the Black History Fair were very impressed by the amount of knowledge the students had about the person they studied.  Parents enjoyed coming the night before to review their child’s projects as well. Pictured are Isaiah Davis, Gilberto Barron, Edwin Tinoco, and Yohan Purkiss.

First grade students in Jacqueline Harris’ class celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday. The students enjoyed a read aloud of Green Eggs and Ham followed by a surprise breakfast of which they were all eager to consume. Later on they made hats depicting the character Cat in the Hat using his hat and created “at” word family words which were displayed on the their hats. Pictured, from left, are George Gervin, Dontavius Tindall, Valentina Damian, Cedtearia Hayes, Eliette Jean, Tom Flucker, Richelle Williams, and Leslie Bonilla.

Enthusiastic seventh grade students in Beth Torresson’s reading class at Samuel Gaines Academy have diligently been working hard in the “Language” reading program. This 90 minute direct instruction is given on a daily basis. The “Language” program is a comprehensive literacy curriculum. The students work on a variety of concepts each day, including grammar and usage, listening and reading comprehension, speaking and writing, phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, spelling,  vocabulary and morphology. All of these concepts will enhance their skills to become better readers and to understand the structure of the English language more proficiently.

Mariposa Elementary School recently held its FCAT / SAT Information Night for parents. To start the night, everyone enjoyed a chicken, mashed potato and gravy dinner. After dinner, parents learned more about their children’s upcoming standardized tests and how they could help them at home. Teachers also shared reading tips and strategies with the families during grade-specific breakout sessions. At the end of the night, everyone had an ice cream sundae! Pictured is third grade teacher Susan New shareing reading strategies with parents.

Students in Toni Baptiste’s first grade class at Mariposa Elementary School are studying bugs this week in Journeys. To build off of prior knowledge, the class enjoyed a quiet nature walk around the school grounds to complete a circle map on bugs. Students were very excited to write about their findings on their maps.

Northport K-8 principal Glenn Rustay and assistant principals Bennie Montenegro and Doug Shook, as well as the entire Northport K-8 family and several district staff, welcomed motivational speaker Dr. Adolph Brown III  to an inspiring and energizing program for the seventh and eighth graders.  Dr. Brown entered the room dressed as a thug looking for his grandmother.  Students began to take notice of his dreads and his clothing almost immediately.  Dr. Brown moved to the stage and began taking off his first impression outfit and thrilled the students when he appeared well groomed and full of confidence.  Dr. Brown moved the … Read More