GOODWOOD PROPERTY OWNER’S ASSOCIATION HOLDS ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING ä Page 2G
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THURSDAY APRIL 30, 2015 H
GARDEN DISTRICT • SOUTHDOWNS • GOODWOOD • TARA • SPANISH TOWN • CAPITOL HEIGHTS LSU LAKES • MELROSE PLACE • BEAUREGARD TOWN
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Darlene Denstorff AROUND MID CITY
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Tickets on sale for BREC production Tickets are on sale for BREC’s Independence Park Theatre and Cultural Center’s production of “The Lightning Thief” at 7 p.m. May 8. A special school performance is planned for 9 a.m. that day at 7800 Independence Blvd. Tickets are available at Independence Park Theatre or online at theparktheatre. com. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children 16 years old and younger. Tickets for the school performance are $8. For information, call (225) 216-0660 or visit theparktheatre.com.
Sacred Heart honors grads
School for deaf opens learning village
BY C.J. FUTCH
cfutch@theadvocate.com Seven-year-old Lexus Pleasant made her way through a series of pint-sized buildings that are made just for children, but are tall enough to accommodate adults. There’s a specific reason why. “Teachers need to be able to get in there and teach lessons,” said Nancy Benham, principal at the Louisiana School for the Deaf, where the Lagniappe Children’s Village is located. The school dedicated the children’s Village during an April 21 ceremony. Since many of the children who attend this school are
there during the week overnight, many of them never get the opportunity to go with their parents to places like the bank, the doctor’s office, a police station, or other areas that can be intimidating the first time. The purpose of the buildings, situated in the center of campus, is to teach students how these places work, what terminology is commonly used, and how to communicate the idea behind, say, making an appointment with a doctor, using a train station, getting an oil change, or taking money out of the automated teller machine. There’s a lot of roll play involved, she said, including after-school hours with the dorm
staff, and the students love it. “They’re learning while they’re playing,” she said. Pleasant was having a great time at the April 21 ribbon-cutting to the village, which consists of 13 buildings and one gazebo — a wooden structure in the center of the village that began the whole process. It was built by high school students in woodworking classes, she said. The rest of the buildings were custom made for LSD by Lilliput Play Homes, a company that manufactures play structures. Through an interpreter, Pleasant said she liked the po-
Photo provided by LAURIE WILLIAMS
Lexus Pleasant plays on a tractor that is part of the Lagniappe Children’s Village, which officially opened April 21 at the LouiäSee VILLAGE, page 3G siana School for the Deaf.
Students gather around a display of the rainforest frog habitat April 23 at Episcopal Lower School as first-graders present the information they have researched about frogs at the Frogtarium.
MAKING STRIDES
Sacred Heart School is celebrating its alumni who are graduating from high school in May, a news release from the school said. Alumni include: Cara King, who is graduating from St. Joseph Academy, has a 4.09 grade-point average and is a member of the National Honor Society, Beta Club and National Society of High School Scholars, the release says. Joshua Pickell, a senior at Catholic High School, who was selected as a Boys’ State counselor and plans to attend LSU. Darnecia Sylve, who is graduating from Gray Collegiate Academy, West Columbia, South Carolina. She was nominated and attended the National Young Leaders’ Conference and is a member of National Honor Society and Coker College Junior Scholar Awards. She received the NAACP Young Urban League All Around Award. She plans to attend Columbia College, where she received the Momentum Scholarship.
Advocate photo by C.J. FUTCH
Student-made Frogtarium project inspires BY C.J. FUTCH
cfutch@theadvocate.com
Top fundraisers announced
Community Coffee recently announced the top fundraising schools in its Community Cash for Schools program, which awards money to schools for collectäSee AROUND, page 3G Advocate staff photo by HEATHER MCCLELLAND
Mia Michot, 8, left, with friend Michelle Guidry, helps her 2-year-old brother Gabriel take a few steps toward his mother, Jessica Michot, right, Saturday during the March of Dimes’ March for Babies. Gabriel was born premature at 27 weeks and is still dealing with the consequences, but Michot says he is improving. He is starting to walk and learn sign language.
When Heather Harpole says her first-graders know their frog species, inside and out, she means that literally. “They’ve dissected frogs already,” Harpole said as she watched parents of Episcopal Lower School first-graders wind their way through the makeshift rainforest their children created as part of a school project called the Frogtarium, which was high- “My son said it lighted during an April 23 was the ‘best program at the school. day ever.’ Real frogs. He absolutely “It’s surprisingly easy to loved it.” get them off the Internet,” Harpole said. They also hatched tadpoles KENDYL WORRELL, mother of in the classroom, she said. Dissection was just one Episcopal student part of a six-week long project for the students, who also did group research projects on an assigned species of frog, created a mock habitat out of construction paper and glue and created a model of their frog. Students Jacob Duval, Avery Plum Harris and Simon Hezel researched the gliding tree frog, a rainforest dweller, and not only were they able to discuss the common characteristics and life cycle of the frogs, they also were able to detail the different layers of habitat in the rainforest. Jacob explained, pointing at his paper replica äSee FROGTARIUM, page 3G
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