May 2016
Fourth and Fifth grade students from Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition were recognized as the first Beta Chapter. Beta stands for promoting the ideals of academic achievement, character, service and leadership. Tara Hearl, fourth grade teacher is the sponsor for the club. Great job students!
Erica Nicholson from Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition received a full paid scholarship to Indian river State College at the Take Stock in Children Scholarship Program held at IRSC. She was selected as a scholarship recipient and agreed to maintain good grades, stay out of trouble, stay away from drugs and alcohol and graduate from high school. Congratulations, Erica. Thank you Andrea Tang for nominating her.
April 2016
Seventh grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition, along with The Honorable Judge Smartt of the St. Lucie County Court, held a mock trial for their Civic’s Class. This was a great learning experience for everyone that participated. Pictured are students standing that participated in the trial as the prosecutor, the defense, the witnesses, and the defendant along with their teacher Mrs. Anne Lulkin and Judge Smartt. The students seated made up the jury. Great job students.
Isabella Sierra, kindergartner at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition collected over 400 food items for her sixth birthday party instead of gifts for herself. The items were donated to the schools “Grace Packs” program. This program helps provide weekly weekend food for students who lack an ample food supply, relieving the burden many of these children endure by being hungry. She is a role model student and example that love provides. A huge thank you to this generous student! Pictured from left is Isabella Sierra, Jennifer Gomez, Grace Packs Coordinator and Assistant Principal, Kathleen Perez.
Media time at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition is always a fun, learning experience. Kindergarten students recently enjoyed center time in the reading room as sixth grade student Kiana Mehu read “Mr. Wiggles” to them. Students love when older students read to them!
First grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition recently went searching for a compass. They found it on campus after learning about it during integrated Language Arts. Great job Rockets!
March 2016
Teachers at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition spent time after school recently learning another strategy to use in their classrooms. Socratic Seminars…presented by our fabulous instructional coaches. Pictured from the left is Rachel Koenig, Amy Fazzalaro and Jenny Clancy.
Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition staff, parents, and students participated in a brisk walk around the lake in Tradition for Autism Speaks. It was such a beautiful day to walk for such a great cause. Students, staff and parents enjoyed the activities.
Students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition recently participated in a P.B.I.S. (Positive Behavior Intervention and Support) Raffle. Students that earned rocket fuel for positive behavior selected what items they wanted to try for in the raffle. The prizes were McDonald’s Gift Cards, Walmart Gift Cards, A variety of sports balls, Pizza Parties for the whole class in every grade level and Kindle Fires. The students pictured below were the winners of the Kindle Fires. Way to go Rockets!
February 2016
Students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition in first and second grades enjoyed reading to their families. This is an annual “Read to Your Sweetheart” celebration and the students love sharing their favorite books with their family and friends. Their love for reading is wonderful!
Kindergarten students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition celebrated the joining of the letters Q and U as in quack and quick. They also held a ceremony for other consonants that frequently go together in words such as sh, ch, wh and th. What a beautiful occasion to commemorate these unions.
Are you smarter than a seventh grader? Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition seventh grade team hosted a fun informational session for parents and students. They competed with FSA and EOC type questions…and the student team won in all four rooms! Way to go rockets!
January 2016
Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition’s National Junior Beta Club members brought in items to donate to the local animal shelter. Our members are reaching out and finding opportunities to help our local community. Thank you Beta Club members!
Kindergarten students in Carmela Gauthier’s class at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition celebrated their 100th day of school. Students and staff dressed up for the celebration and had many activities throughout the day using 100. This was a fun way to learn and the students enjoyed the learning experience.
Recently at the Florida Music Educators convention in Tampa the Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition Band was given the state enrollment award. This award recognized them for achieving over 43 percent of the 7th and 8th grade students enrolled in a music course. This award will be held for three years. Congratulations to the Palm Pointe music program! Pictured left to right is; Principal Debra Snyder, Band Director Jason Hatfield, Guidance Counselor Andrea Tang.
In recognition of Multicultural Children’s Book Day, the beginning Spanish class at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition welcomed award winning local author Maritza Mejia. Mrs. Mejia read her book Vanilla and Chocolate/Vainilla y Chocolate. Multicultural Children’s Book Day has as its mission not only to raise awareness for children’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these books into classrooms and libraries.
Dorothy in Wonderland, The Musical is the first full drama production performed at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition. What an amazing job the cast and crew did. The drama class under the direction of Mrs. Melanie Larsen worked very hard getting ready for this show and it definitely paid off. The cast posed for a picture just before the opening performance. Congratulations to all the Palm Pointe Players!
Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition would like to thank all the students and staff who donated the 850 plus teddy bears for the Teddies for Tots Drive. This project was done during Kindness Week. The bears were donated to the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Mascara came out to Palm Pointe to pick up all the bears. These bears will be given to children in crisis throughout our community. Pictured with administration is Sheriff Mascara and several deputies in his department. Also pictured are students from Alison Perry’s fourth grade class who donated over sixty bears were there to present them all to the Sheriff.
Ms. Debra Snyder, Principal at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition along with Debborah Estrada, Dean of Discipline and Chairperson of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee proudly accept the Second Place trophy for Kindness Week. Palm Pointe’s school wide project involved collecting over 840 teddy bears from students and staff . The “Teddies for Tots” were given to Sheriff Mascara to give out to children in crisis throughout the community.
Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition recently participated in the Martin Luther King Jr Oratorical Contest that was a district event. The theme this year was “Dream Forward , Choose Peace, Equality and Change. Students wrote their essays about this theme and recited their speeches before a panel of judges. The school would like to congratulate eighth grade student Sarah Wouters for winning first place, sixth grader Kiahra Wood for placing third and fourth grader Alexia Morgan for placing third. Pictured from left is Sarah Wouters, Kiahra Wood and Alexia Morgan. Great job Rockets!
History Fair is in the air at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition. students prepare to share their performance as Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniak. Other students chose to make project boards to showcase Exploration, Encounter and Exchange in History. Pictured from left is Vincent Majors and Cristian Del Rosario.
Teachers learning from teachers how they can teach students to find their errors through supporting their claim was the recent workshop for Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition. This collaborative training was very informative and helpful to all those that attended.
Members of the Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition’s National Junior Honor Society recently donated hundreds of canned goods and other non-perishable items to the Harvest Outreach Center. A special thank you to all those students and staff who donated to help make the holidays merrier for many people. Pictured from left is Michaela Keaton, Annalise Ramirez, Fariha Imran and Jessica Lee
December
Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition’s Volleyball Team “B” recently played in a district tournament and we are so proud to announce that they took second place. These girls worked very hard to get ready for the tournament under the direction of their coaches, Felicia Smith and Stephanie Remsen. Pictured from the left in the back row is Coach Felicia Smith, Jordyn Behringer, Mariana Trujillo, Aashana Francis, Principal Debra Snyder, Kiana Mehu, Deztyni Joseph and Coach Stephanie Remsen. Front row from the left is Logan Poschman, Emma Allen, Shannon MacGregor, Miranda Lee, and Ariel Rubel. Congratulations to the team!
FAU Researcher, Shrija Dirghangi meets with fifth graders at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition to complete the second part of their fall project.
Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition would like to thank all those who donated to our Toys for Tots Drive. We were proud to present over 250 gifts to Sgt. Lynch, coordinator of the St Lucie County Toys for Tots Drive. Pictured from left is Joshua Berger, Cooper Kuba, Assistant Principal Kathleen Perez, Assistant Principal Debbie Iseman, Principal Debra Snyder, Sgt Lynch from Toys for Tots, Mason Engler, Alyssa Hartman, Chloe Zdenek and Zachary Berger.
November
Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition’s elementary school counselor, Summer Kuba, organized a “Day on the Hill” in Tallahassee where school counselors across the state met with legislators to educate them on the impact school counseling services have on student academic and social emotional development, college and career readiness, and overall lifelong success. Pictured second from the left in the front row is Summer Kuba.
The second grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research school @ Tradition performed traditional songs as well as some contemporary ones at the annual Thanksgiving Performance. Students danced the Turkey Tango, recited poetry and played drums and sticks and dressed as Native Americans and Pilgrims to commemorate this special holiday.
The Junior Beta Club members led by fourth grade teacher, Ms. Hearl at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition brought in shoe boxes full of items for Operation Christmas Child. The boxes will be shipped to boys and girls around the world. The students are also collecting and donating toys for Toys for Tots. Great job students. Pictured are the Junior Beta Club members.
Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition eighth grade students in Mrs. Huszar’s and Ms. Pulcini,s science classes recently have been working with inquiry based strategies to fully understand how photosynthesis and cellular respiration are dependent on each other. They worked to label the environmental factors, show how atoms are conserved and how these processes rely on each other. Pictured from left is Kai Rivera and Garrett Rodney.
Eighth grade students in Heather Huszar’s science classes at Palm Pointe were learning how to evaluate the law of conservation of mass by demonstrating and concluding that mass is conserved when substances undergo physical and chemical change. An experiment involving baking soda, balloons, water and vinegar demonstrated this concept. Students were engaged and excited about learning a difficult science concept. Pictured are eighth graders getting ready to conduct the experiment.
October
October is Bully Prevention Month and Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition had some exciting things planned in order to continue to create a safe and caring school environment free from bullying and exclusion. One way to increase tolerance at the school was to have students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade create Anti-Bullying posters about Building Tolerance and students in grades sixth through eighth write essays with the same topic. One poster was selected from grades K-2 and 3-5 and one essay from grades 6-8. Winners won a pizza party for their entire class. Congratulations to Caroline Croce in first grade, students in Ms. Hearl’s fourth grade class and Anna Burtsev a seventh grade student. Everyone did a fantastic job!
Pictured from left is Caroline Croce, Jordyn Bush, Principal, Ms. Debra Snyder, Dominick Brown, Kelsey Heishman and Anna Burtsev.
Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition’s Elementary School Counselor, Summer Kuba attended the Florida School Counselor Association Conference and presented to school counselors around the state on best practices for implementing classroom guidance lessons, small group and individual counseling. Her presentations included a focus on student anxiety, engaging students through interactive lessons, advocacy efforts, and elementary counseling techniques.
Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition had a school wide event sponsored by P.B.I.S. (Positive Behavior Interventions and Support). Students in grades K-8 participated in a Power Hour to raise money for their teachers’ classrooms. All the proceeds from the event will be used in the classrooms for rewards for students with positive behavior. Teachers buy items that their students can purchase with rocket fuel that they have earned. The event was a lot of fun for the students, the theme was a luau and there were games, music, limbo, photo booth, snacks and small trinkets for everyone! Pictured are fifth grade students dancing at the event!
To help celebrate Florida City Government Week, Pt. St. Lucie Councilwoman Shannon Martin came to Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition to talk with students in the seventh grade. Councilwoman Martin talked with students about public policy and how the local government plays an important role in policies and legislation. Students also were able to ask the councilwoman questions about their project topics for Project Citizen. Pictured is Councilwoman Shannon Martin talking to seventh grade students.
Make it ORANGE and make it end! What are your true colors when it comes to bullying? If you care about safe and supportive schools and communities make your color ORANGE on Unity Day. That’s the day everyone came together in schools, communities and online to send one large ORANGE message of support, hope and unity to show that we are united against bullying and united for kindness, acceptance and inclusion. Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition proudly supported the day with a school wide event of dressing in orange and students signed pledges to stand up to stand out against bullying.. Pictured from left are first graders; Kashylla Wood, Elizabeth Hannon, first grade teacher, Glenna Sigmon, Jamy Del Campo and Logan Blair.
September
Team leaders and department chairs at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition are participating in a “fishbowl” activity. Fourth grade teachers shared recent test results on the Summative Assessment Reporting form and modeled the process of analyzing data. They discussed root causes of proficiency and non-proficiency and worked to create a plan of action for student success.
August
Under the direction of Dr. Brett Lauren, PhD Director of Graduate Training Professor of Psychology at FAU, Grade 3 through 5 students at Palm Pointe will be participating in a research study entitled ” School Experiences in Childhood and Adolescence.” The purpose of this project is to examine how individual characteristics of friends shape child adjustment and school achievement.
Mrs. Callejas’ and Mrs. Lloyd’s second grade classes are learning and practicing the T.E.A.M. expectations. The teachers know the “recipe for success” and that begins with cooperation from all. The students were supplied with a baggie of all the right ingredients for a successful year! Aren’t their little chefs adorable?
