White City Elementary students enjoyed a recent schoolwide PBS activity. Students earn ROARing Riches whenever they demonstrate our schoolwide expectations: Respectful to Others, Always safe, and Responsible. For a cost of 10 ROARing Riches per cookie, students were able to choose from a variety of toppings to decorate their cookies including icing, M&Ms, cinnamon red hots, and hearts. What a “sweet” way to celebrate excellent behavior!

Gaines Academy K8 Girls A Basketball team beat West Gate K8 Girls B team with a score of 29 to 12, going undefeated in the regular season. Savannah Houle and Michaela Kelly were the high scorers with 13 points and 9 points, respectively. Pictured, top row from left, are Antonnette Boothe, Savannah Houle, Tashonna Deval, Breanna Williams, and Stephane Destile. Bottom row, from left, are Duvy Hurtado, Sharmane Saunders, Michaela Kelly, and Cherise Johnson.

During a writing lesson, second grade teacher Mikki Greer from Gaines Academy became aware that some of the students had never made a fort out of blankets.  The next day the class looked at pictures of different types of forts and even created a few of their own. The forts were used for quiet reading during 100 Book Challenge. The students reading in their fort, from left, are Anthony Aguiniga, Jesus Andrade, and Jason Jacques.

Students in Julia Melville’s second grade class at F.K. Sweet Elementary have been studying different types of landforms and bodies of water in Social Studies.  Pictured, from left, Yasmine Joseph-Beausejour, Armani Richardson, Emma Brosnihan, and Megan Kriska are building models of landforms, using salt dough, and then painting the landforms and bodies of water. Students were excited to be able to use the knowledge they had gained, to represent the landforms in a physical state.

St. Lucie Elementary sponsored an ELL Parent Council Workshop and family spaghetti dinner.  Parents and students participated in “make and take” activities in reading, writing, and math.  Fifth grade student Kaylee Cendejas, pictured at left, is working on a project as teachers Leigh Bretherick and Theresa Brown, and Kaylee’s sister Stacy, watch her progress.

Morningside Elementary fourth grade students enjoy a presentation using puppets of prehistoric animals provided by Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute. Along with their presentation they had the opportunity to interact with learning & development facilitator Indria Sukhraj from the institute.

Pictured, from left, are Morningside Elementary School fourth grade students Alexa Portillo, Kate Cook, Serra Aims and Jaquelin Cruz engaging in activities preparing for FCAT writing. Students had the opportunity to engage in various activities led by Deb Hitsman related to FCAT writing.

Morningside Elementary School students in Rose Pazos’ fifth grade class have been maintaining a garden they planted with coaching from science teacher Mar Lou Jennings. The garden includes a sensory area, a flower area, and a vegetable area. The vegetables include broccoli, mustards, tomatoes, turnips, eggplant, bell peppers, brussel sprouts, and purple and green cabbage.  

Allapattah Flats middle grades students recently held first-ever student-led conferences in their reading classes.  These conferences provided an opportunity for the students to reflect upon their successes during the year and show their data binders, which included their tests scores and academic work with their parents.  This was a positive opportunity for the students to emphasize their strengths, acknowledge their challenges, and with their parents’ support, plan their approach for the next semester. Students did a great job communicating with their families about their education and goals. Pictured is seventh grade Student Antonio Riberal discussing his reading progress throughout the year with … Read More

Third graders at Allapattah Flats have been studying plant and animal life cycles in science class.  On a recent field trip, students had the opportunity to visit the Savannas Preserve Park.  Students went netting in the water to search for and observe various living organisms.  Students were also introduced to some unique plant life and taught about what the early settlers of this area used these plants for in their everyday lives. Pictured is Connor Cook from Randi Pierson’s class eagerly investigating his net in the hope of finding some living organisms.

Pictured from left, third grade students Mariana Trujillo-Naranjo, Lauren Bishop, Connor Cook and Gabriel Vernon work hard on preparing their representation of St. Lucie County 100 years from now. All Allapattah Flats third graders enjoyed imagining the community 100 years from today, they read books and watched a video of other predictions before coming up with their own ideas of future communication, transportation, shelter and even food. Their projects are displayed at the St. Lucie County Fair.          

Northport K-8 Northstar team prepared a special celebration for the school’s younger students recently.  Students made Mardi Gras masks and mini floats using materials brought in from home and marched in a Mardi gras parade.  The band students on the team led the festivities with their own rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In!”  Students threw beads and candies to the young onlookers.  The activities planned by the team instructors throughout the day led to an effective lesson about Mardi Gras and promoted positive interactions among students and teachers.  Pictured is student Sabrina Wing.

F.K. Sweet Elementary is very fortunate to have former teacher Tom Filipkowski return to volunteer his time in continuing the ever popular Chess Club on Thursday mornings. The Chess Club has always been a favorite with intermediate students. Not only are the skills of the game and high level thinking covered, but the love of the game and sportsmanship is also stressed.

Southport Middle School student Hannah Spurr heads to state competition in the local DAR American History Essay Contest and the Good Citizen Award contest sponsored by the Cora Stickney Harper branch of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  A celebratory tea was held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall in Ft. Pierce. Pictured are Spurr and other local winners from Southport Middle School with St. Lucie Public Schools’ K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Supervisor Tim Norfleet and Karen Evans, representatives from the Cora Stickney Harper branch. From left are Tim Norfleet, Karen Evans, Hannah Spurr, Sydney Starnes, Lisa … Read More

At Mariposa Elementary, pictured from left are Jerry Schupp, Kylie Christiansen, Remy Jones and Nicholas West using cereal to solve greater than or less than math problems in Melissa Whalen’s class.  The students worked in pairs to apply their knowledge of greater or less than, using cereal as a hands-on manipulative.

Port St. Lucie High School recently hosted the Region III Skills USA carpentry competition, in which three students from Port St. Lucie High School took top honors. Cody Gosa won first place, Diamond Salazar finished second, and Christian Nowacki completed the sweep for the Jaguars with a third place finish.  Cody, who is a senior, will represent the region at the state competition next month.  Skills USA is a national nonprofit organization serving teachers and high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health occupations. Pictured is automotive technology teacher … Read More

Having already qualified through regional events held earlier this month, a goup of 21 Allied Health students from Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie West Centennial, Fort Pierce Central and Fort Pierce Westwood high schools and their instructors head to the Florida Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) State Championships to be held March 30-April 1, 2012. Meanwhile 46 additional students from Fort Pierce Central, St. Lucie West Centennial, and Treasure Coast high schools will travel to several technical centers in Polk and Orange Counties soon to participate in many other Region III SkillsUSA technical and leadership competitions.  Criminal Justice students from Treasure Coast and Fort Pierce Central high schools will also compete locally in SkillsUSA Crime Scene Investigation and … Read More

Educator and accomplished musician Ossie Wright visited F.K. Sweet Elementary School recently to give students some background information on the origin of Black music. Students enjoyed his music and guessed song titles and composers. This is one of the  favorite activities for intermediate grades during Black History Month.