Allapattah Flats K-8 School recently held its annual Title 1 and Curriculum Night. Parents and students were treated to a pasta dinner and given a Title 1 presentation. After the presentation, parents were then able to break out into different sessions held by grade groups and departments where they could learn about what their students were going to be learning and participating in throughout the school year.  Pictured, from left, are teachers Mallory Ziegler, Nicholas Spagnuolo, and Ann Hartman.

As part of their Science curriculum, third grade students at Allapattah Flats are beginning to study the sun and other stars in our solar system. The students are learning how to compare and contrast the brightness, sizes, shapes and colors of various stars. This week students attended a field trip to the Indian River State College Planetarium.  The students enjoyed watching the night sky light up in front of their eyes and discussing burning questions they had with Planetarium Director Jon Bell.  Pictured, from left, are Trinity Scott, Madison Garcia, Isabella Westling, Dylan Maloy and Zachary Estep.

Third grade students at Allapattah Flats K-8 School have been studying scientific investigations. To get the students excited about science as well as to practice the scientific procedures, teachers and students conducted a scientific investigation using Diet Coke and Mentos. The students enjoyed seeing the experiment and it reinforced their skills and encouraged them to hypothesize, write detailed steps, and write a conclusion. Pictured are students from Amy Rittenhouse’s class.

Third grade students at Allapattah Flats K8 School are excited about physical attributes! During a review activity students had to reach their hand into a box and describe the object inside using only adjectives. Items included a hair barrette, kaleidoscope and doll shoe. It was determined that all three objects could be identified with 80% accuracy. However, when describing the item to another student, the other student could identify the object with only 15% accuracy. Pictured are Tai’Juan Martin, left, and Marie Bell-Tranquille.

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.          

Mr. Kline’s technology class researched and tested aerodynamics.  First, the students did research of wing design, and which type of wing would lead to the best result (most distance).  Then, they shared thier research via powerpoint with the rest of the class.  Finally, they tested their research. Pictured are: Cecilia Hernandez, Ditavious Burr, Logan Bledoe, Randall Peterson

Sixth through eighth grade students at Allapattah Flats K8 in John Koch’s Career and Technical Education course, Business Keyboarding, stood up to cyber bullying for Bully Prevention Month. Each student completed a research paper using newly learned internet research and word processing techniques. The students then took that research and put it into a group PowerPoint presentation using their newly acquired electronic presentation skills.  Those presentations were later presented to their classmates.  Pictured, from left top row, are Skylar Lasseure, Lia Optacy, Seth Bertorelli, Allen Castro, Vincent Ancewicz, Grace Jiminez, Q’Markis Brooks, and William Taylor (top row), and bottom row, … Read More

The Allapattah Flats K8 girls volleyball team recently participated in the district tournament and finished as 2011-2012 district runner-ups.  Congratulations and great job to the super six, Ryleigh Veith, Shannon Braessler, Valerie Trujillo, Gabby Bather, Madeline Lawson, Tiara Evans and Coach Justin Allen.

Allapattah Flats K-8 middle grades students had the opportunity to visit Washington D.C. over spring break. The students visited numerous national monuments and learned about the nation’s history. Students visited the Capitol, the White House, Arlington Cemetery, and the Washington monument. They enjoyed the Jefferson, Lincoln and Martin Luther King Memorials, as well as the Korean, Marine, Viet Nam Memorials and the tomb of the unknown soldier where they witnessed the changing of the guard. The group wrapped up the trip by visiting some of the capitol’s famous museums and spent the last day at Georgetown University checking out the college.

Students in Myron Varn’s eighth grade American History class at Allapattah Flats (APF) K8 School have finished writing their first document based question (DBQ). Students read and analyzed five different primary source documents to determine the cause of death for almost 80 percent of the first colony’s settlers. They have proven in their thesis that poor water caused disease, poor relations with Powhatan caused violent death, and lack of appropriate skills led to starvation and sickness. This lesson helped the students understand population decline during the time period. When using the DBQ, students are able to brainstorm and come up with … Read More

Eighth grade students in Linda Chinn’s math classes at Allapattah Flats K8 are studying polygons and invited reading coach Linda Schmeer to read “The Greedy Triangle.” Students also looked at some famous art work based on tessellations to gain background. Students then worked with tesseltiles to create their own unique tessellations. Frank Andrade, left, and Corey Lewis are shown with some of the tessellations students used to create their pieces of art.

Eighth grade Allapattah Flats students practiced using the scientific method to determine which type of paper will allow a paper airplane to fly the furthest. Students used prior knowledge to generate their hypothesis and develop their procedures and will apply what they learned from this lab activity to engineer a more aerodynamic plane in their lab work. Students learned to identify the value in using the scientific method in everyday life as a guide for how to think like a scientist. They are also learning to differentiate between science and non-science.   Pictured, from left, are Vincent Iapriccio, Jesenia Casado, Caitlin Cooney as they test … Read More

Students in reading classes at Allapattah Flats K-8 have been working diligently on setting personal and academic goals for the school year. Students will focus on specific reading comprehension skills and track their progress towards mastering those strategies on a weekly basis.  In November, they will participate in student led conferencing where they will share their progress towards their goals with parents, guardians and teachers. Pictured, from left, are Santiago Torres, Gianni Lancaster and Victoria Joseph working together to set personal and academic goals.

Students Myron Varn’s eighth grade American History classes just completed a Student Teaching Module (STM) which divided the class into five groups, each responsible for  part of a chapter covering the inventions and early industry from 1740-1790.  They planned lessons to include learning goals and assessments.  Some lessons were as intricate as PowerPoint slide shows with a Jeopardy quiz. Others were as simple as choral reading and questioning.  When asked to reflect, the groups that had the more complex lessons said that they learned more about their subject, but that it took a lot more time to put together.  Groups that had the simplest … 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.

Elementary grades physical education classes at Allapattah Flats K8 has completed a unit on scooters.  Students enjoyed scooter races, played scooter basketball and scooter hockey. The students improved arm and leg strength, coordination and spacial awareness and are now working on improving the 1 mile run/walk for the Presidential fitness challenge. Pictured, from left, are Alexis Allen and Chyna Nazario as they prepare for scooter hockey.

Students in Tekia Montgomery’s first grade through fifth grade classes at Allapattah Flats K8 School have been learning how to create different animal faces using Origami, the Japanese art form of folding paper. Students read about and saw examples of things such as animals, puppets, masks and geometric shapes, then took on the challenge of creating their own. They created a variety of shapes and added their own flair by drawing on faces and detail. Students were engaged, excited, and had a lot of fun creating these animal faces and working as a team at all grade levels! Pictured are … Read More

Fifth grade students at Allapattah Flats K8 School are working diligently on their natural disaster research project and brochure. Students are now accomplished scientists who can observe and experiment to gather data and draw conclusions. They have expanded their knowledge of the physical world and can apply the basic math and science skills they’ve acquired to their observations. The understanding of the scientific method and the natural world has allowed them to research and analyze each natural disaster so they are able to complete an informational brochure to present to the class. Each group of students is required to research … Read More

Eight grade students at Allapattah Flats K8 are learning about various kinds of matter. They were extraordinarily excited to learn about physical and chemical changes with hands-on activities in the science lab. Students were able to test a variety of chemicals and determine whether the reactions they saw were physical or chemical. They learned about suspensions, mixtures, and more through smell, sight and touch. Pictured, from left, are Autumn Washington, Sharon Charite, Sandy Simon and Jayda Hill as they dive right in to their next test tube waiting to see the reaction.

Students in Dannielle Cason’s eighth grade reading class at Allapattah Flats K8 School took the opportunity to view text from different character perspectives.  Using the short story “The Cat Who Thought She Was a Dog and the Dog Who Thought He Was a Cat” by Isaac Beshevis Singer, the students first identified plot structure and then chose six events from the story to retell from on of the characters’ perspective. The students rewrote the event as if they were the particular character from the story. Finally, they constructed a storyboard of events to visually illustrate how the character “saw” each event. Pictured is … Read More