Schools
LEARNING IS FUN AT FOX TRAIL! Written collectively by: Jillian Feudo, Jillian Jones, Martin Vergara, Aria Geraci, Saioa Elesgarai, Calogero Mazzrillo. Emily Ryan and Taylor Jacob.
Davie / Cooper City / SW Ranc hes Sports & Activities Directory | Issue 11 | April - June 2015
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t’s a warm August morning. Kids are nervous with excitement and anticipation. The campus at Fox Trail Elementary is buzzing with children and adults. Students walk through the doors and they are welcomed with smiling faces from a dedicated staff, and awesome opportunities for learning. There are exciting lessons, incredible field trips and even clubs to join after school. Fox Trail Elementary offers unique learning experiences starting in Kindergarten and continuing through fifth grade. The fun times begin in Kindergarten. Kindergarteners work on reading and math skills and participate in a variety of activities. They eagerly await the fall festival to celebrate their reading skills and also have a fabulous winter celebration. In January, the100th day of school is a big deal and is celebrated with special activities. The excitement continues in first grade. First graders celebrate their learning by participating in the Storybook Parade, showing off in fabulous costumes of their favorite characters. Then they head to Flamingo Gardens for a field trip. The second and third graders also eagerly anticipate the fall parade. They show off their idioms and vocabulary words and challenge the rest of the students at Fox Trail Elementary to determine their meanings. The third graders learn about their community and head to the Old Davie Schoolhouse to bring the history of Davie to life. Learning can definitely take you places at Fox Trail. In December, fourth graders hop on a bus each year and head just a short trip down the road to Everglades National Park. They spend the day slogging through the waist high water, riding airboats and participating in experiments. They focus on science and learn about the unique ecosystem of the Everglades. After a long
day, all the students agree that Everglades National Park is an amazing experience and we are lucky that it is practically in our backyard! Fifth grade at Fox Trail is exciting, too. Positions as safety patrols and Morning News crew are privileges that hard working fifth graders can earn. Some fifth graders create a real wax museum, where people such as Henry Ford and Walt Disney seem to come to life and share their part in history. At JA Biztown, fifth graders experience how businesses and communities interact together. After a long year of learning skills in literacy, math, science and social studies, fifth graders head to Orlando for a trip to a theme park with their classmates. It is an exciting way to wrap up their journey at Fox Trail. Fox Trail is not just about academics. There are many after school activities that students can participate in. Students can join music clubs such as chorus, recorders, drums, violin or boomwackers, starting in third grade. Ms. Stewart, Fox Trail’s music teacher, is very talented and dedicated to her students. Ms. Shapiro, the art teacher, runs an art club where students can paint backdrops and props for the concerts. In the media center and computer lab, it’s easy to find students participating in bookclub, coding and keyboarding club. All students at Fox Trail look forward to Boosterthon and the always exciting Fun Run, Book Fair and Career Day. To sum up the Fox Trail experience, there are exciting activities integrated with learning at every grade level. There are tons of clubs to join and field trips to bring learning to life. By the time Fox Trail’s students walk out the doors in June, they may be a little tired and looking forward to their summer break, but they will be smiling from their awesome Fox Trail Elementary experiences!
Silver Ridge Elementary School S
ilver Ridge Elementary School was happy to host a “Family Chess Night” on Wednesday, February 11, 2015, from 6:00 – 7:30pm. The school cafeteria was turned into a chess game room, with multiple chess boards set up so that guests would have the opportunity to play chess. Students were also encouraged to bring their own chess sets so that they could challenge their friends, family members and teachers to chess matches. The purpose of the event was to promote the First Move Chess Initiative, a wonderful new initiative that aims to teach chess to every second and third grade student in Broward County. The highlight of the evening, for both the students and the staff at Silver Ridge Elementary School, was the opportunity to meet Wendy Fisher, known to the students as “The Chess Lady.” The Chess Lady introduces each chess lesson to the students and has become the face of the First Move Chess Initiative. Students (and several teachers) were excited for the chance to have their picture taken with the Chess Lady. Students were also able to ask the Chess Lady questions and get pointers from her.
Studies have shown that chess promotes concentration, critical thinking, abstract reasoning, problem solving, pattern recognition, and analysis skills in students, among other benefits. The First Move program encourages the integration of chess into the core curriculum, by incorporating history, math, and reading into the teaching process. Chess also provides many social benefits for the students. All students are able to compete on a level playing field and they are taught how to win and lose with grace and good sportsmanship. Chess also teaches students the value of patience and delayed gratification. They begin to understand that at times they may need to sacrifice a chess piece early in the game in order to set themselves up for a better opportunity in the future. At the Family Chess Night, students were able to snack on Chessman cookies while teaching their family members the finer points of chess. Many parents learned new chess moves on this evening, such as “en passant”, a move that many adults are not familiar with. Students and family members were also treated to some free giveaways from the sponsoring organization such as pens and stickers. A great time was had by all!