The Mariposa Elementary School band and chorus performed recently at the Children’s Museum of the Treasure Coast. They presented their holiday musical called “Santa Goes Green” with a message of becoming environmentally friendly this holiday season. Pictured is Alex Perry singing a solo with the chorus behind her. The musical was made possible with a generous grant from Florida Power and Light, and the N.E.E.D. organization.
As part of the second grade science unit on animals, students at Mariposa Elementary enjoyed a visit from the WildLife Teaching Team from the Hobe Sound Nature Center, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting an environmental awareness in people of all ages. The center offers a variety of environmental education presentations to schools and organizations. The students enjoy the opportunity to see live animals up close. They viewed an osprey, and an owl, and were allowed to pet a baby alligator, a baby crocodile, and an albino snake. Pictured, from left, are Kindman Inniccherri, Esmeralda Cruz, and Jessica Simko.
For Saint Lucia Day, students in Alicia Swink’s second grade class at Mariposa Elementary dressed up in Swedish traditional headdress and costume. The students delivered gingerbread cookies to all the second grade classes while reciting the St. Lucia Day song as part of their activity.
Southport Middle School’s Reading Counts tree had so many outstanding favorite book ornaments that they overflowed and had to be mounted on a board to be displayed. Teacher Evelyn Watson, pictured seated, joins a few of the students who created a small booklet to show their favorite book and why they liked it. Standing, from left, are Marissa Kalina, Briana Norman, Faith Papidero, Crystal Goodwin, Andy Jean-Pierre, Amy Chen and Samantha Lewis.
Northport K-8 kindergarten students who are enrolled in the school’s 21st Century after school program received a special visitor recently to confirm their belief that Santa does really exist. Students were thrilled to visit with Santa Claus who gave each child the gift of a coloring book and crayons and did indeed confirm the belief that “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!” Santa listened as each child express wishes and instilled in each child the real meaning of the holiday season. Local Civil War re-enacter Alyn Bryant played the role of Santa.
F. K. Sweet Elementary second grade students Lion Belcher, left, and Chandler Miller, are anxiously awaiting Santa’s visit to the school a little early. The school’s student council sponsored its annual Breakfast with Santa, and there was a large turnout. Parents and students enjoyed breakfast and crafts and then the long anticipated visit and picture with Santa.
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.
Northport K-8 seventh and eighth students on the Clownfish team, under the direction of instructor Dru Dehart and with the support of her team of teachers have been raising much needed dollars to support Relay For Life in a variety of meaningful ways. Clownfish boys previously sported high heeled shoes for a cost to raise funds. Recently, students participated in a pie eating contest to support cancer research. Students paid three dollars to participate and five dollars to make their own pies using pudding, vanilla wafers and whipped cream. Students raised well over three hundred dollars. Pictured, from left, are Christina Lambert, Paul Brinker, Richard Ramirez, Patrick Gallway, Osmany Venereo and Evan Buckman.
Fort Pierce Westwood High School culinary arts students prepared and served a holiday themed hot buffet lunch to school and district leaders recently at the district offices. The lunch was sponsored by St. Lucie Education Foundation executive director Jim McKenzie, who was pleased with the quality of the meal and service. Chef Maureen Greenberg assisted the students who cooked, baked, transported, plated, served, decorated, and cleared the lunch. Pictured, from left, are Ciara May, Alexis Lloyd, Blanca Morales, Joseph Noble, Joseph Gilmore, Eric Smith, Ken Adams, Jeron Evans, Jose Garcia and Jamal Laing. The students handled the crowd with efficiency and grace as they fed more than 60 people in less than one hour.
Marine Private First Class Austin Boatright, the brother of a student in Lois Peith’s second grade class, visited White City Elementary recently. Private Boatright just graduated from Parris Island and spoke to the students about the importance of being respectful and responsible. In order to graduate, Private Boatright was required to do many things including shine his belt buckle and boots, iron his clothes, and make the bed. Students were inspired by the commitment and dedication of this leader and role model. Pictured is Private Boatright surrounded by White City students.
As a reward for staying on task and completing assigned computer activities, students in Elizabeth Sands’ VPK class at Weatherbee Elementary were recently visited by Cassandra Dillard and her special friend, Curious George. As Ms. Dillard read the Curious George Christmas Book, the children munched on chocolate chip cookies and giggled as Curious George acted out the parts in the story. Before leaving, Ms. Dillard and Curious George presented the students a plaque and a Barnes and Noble gift certificate. Pictured are the students, their teacher and special guests.
Students in eighth grade language arts classes at Allapattah Flats K8 are busy brainstorming and categorizing different topics. Pictured, from left, Jonaton Jeantry, Latonia Jones, and Skylar Lasseur are racing against a clock to brainstorm as many phrases, words or related categories as possible. Once their time is up they create different categories to narrow the topic for the words they wrote on their desks. Students love the novelty of writing all over their desks, but don’t worry — the desk washes clean.
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, from left, Miranda Thomason, Jeremy Roberson, and Jer’miah Williams.
Third grade students at Allapattah Flats K8 have been learning about different forms of energy in science class. Students in Shannon Johnson’s class went to the science lab to learn more about potential and kinetic energy. Science teacher Joseph Kline instructed students to experiment with different heights of a ramp to test the objects’ potential and kinetic energy. Students rolled a tennis ball down a ramp at different heights towards a funnel and then measured how far the funnel moved. Pictured, from left, are eighth grade student Mallorie Sonenblum, with third graders Austyn Adderly and Von’che Jones.
Third grade students in Millerlandy Palomino’s class at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition recently researched and presented their findings about different customs and traditions for celebrating the New Year. Students picked a country and did the research for the topic. The parents were invited to their class to hear the students’ reports and see the PowerPoint presentation that was made to support their research. Foods from different countries were brought in to share. It was a great learning experience as well as a lot of fun! Pictured is Braylen Lopez as he presents his report on Puerto Rico.
Port St. Lucie’s Sunset Rotary President Larry Breault and Rotary Volunteer Julie Lambert received a huge “thank you” from third graders at Village Green Environmental Studies School after they were presented with free dictionaries and lessons on how to use them via a quick sleuthing activity. During the presentation, the children also learn about the Rotary and its commitment to helping children around the world and their continues effort to raise funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters, the CASTLE program, and anti-bullying programs. Pictured are Breault and Lambert with students proudly displaying their dictionaries.
Students in Meghan Brown’s third grade class at Windmill Point Elementary are enjoying working on their science experiments during their science block as they explore the scientific process. Students help one another by coaching and encouraging their teammates to formulate questions, generate hypotheses, conduct experiments and collect data. Pictured, from left, are Julia Ribeiro, Paul Alegre, Catherine Nehru, and Karicia Santiago.
Christian Baca and Adrian Colon, students from Kelita Singleton’s third grade class at Windmill Point Elementary recently enjoyed lunch with Principal Jonetha Maness. Christian saved up his Wildcat Cash for an opportunity to bring a friend and enjoy lunch in the principal’s conference room. Pictured, from left, are Principal maness, Christian and Adrian.
Students in Cara Ackenbrack’s third grade class at F. K. Sweet Elementary, have been doing a unit of study on penguins. They concluded this unit by making “Pet Penguins” out of recycled soda bottles. Each child painted their own pet penguin, named it and wrote an imaginative narrative story that included both themselves and their new pet. Pictured from left, are Samia Ahmed, Madison Hendry, Adriana Varn, and Donavyn Jackson.
Students in Shirley Helton’s fifth grade class at Fairlawn Elementary swept the fall competition of the Florida Stock Market Challenge. In the divisional section of the competition, the team placed first, second, and third. Bertony Ferinand, J. Flores, Nicholas Macias, Jacob Boyd, and Kameron Schulz placed first, Bryan Quigley, Kobe White, Jacob Ridle, Brooks Holmes, and Logan Folan took second place, and Fabian Quinteros, Roselis, Nicole Rathburn, Demitri Derice, and Holly Gamble placed third. The Stock Market Challenge is a simulation of the actual stock market with students using math and economic skills to become good consumers and producers as they buy and sell stocks in a classroom created market.