About Garden

Click to learn more about some of Garden's programs.

Accelerated Reader / Reading Counts	Mission and Vision
ActivBoards	Renaissance
D.A.R.E.	Safety Edcuation
Garden Grows Character	Safety Patrols
Garden Writes	Science Lab
Gator Gladiators	Student Council
KNN	SuccessMaker Enterprise
Literacy Lab	YMCA Reads
Media	Young Americans

Misson and Vision

School Vision
The Garden Elementary community is dedicated to providing a supportive environment where all children have the opportunity to achieve their highest potential.

School Mission
The mission of the Garden Elementary community is to provide students with meaningful learning experiences through the use of individualized instruction, technology, collaborative learning, and community involvement. Student success will be measured by ongoing assessment. Garden's mission will be accomplished through the collaboration of students, staff, and parents.

Garden Grows Character

Garden Grows Character is our school-wide character education program. Eight character traits (August/September – Responsibility, October – Friendship, November/December – Caring, January – Respect, February – Honesty, March – Courtesy, April – Courage, May – gratitude) are presented and integrated throughout the curriculum. Each month, Garden’s Home/School Liaison, Mrs. O’Berry, and Guidance Counselor, Mrs. Tomer, introduce the traits during the student-run news program (KNN).

Teachers watch for students who exemplify the monthly character trait. At the end of the month, each teacher chooses a homeroom student to invite to the Character Education Celebration. Parents/Guardians of the students are also invited. At the assembly, children are honored by hearing the reasons why they were chosen. Their pictures are placed on the Garden Grows Character tree painted on the wall by art teacher, Mrs. Davis, located in the main hallway. Students also receive a certificate, homework pass, pencil, bumper sticker, and coin pouch to keep all their “Caught You Being Good” coins. (The coins are worth $0.25 and can be used to purchase items at the school store.)

The entire staff believes that all students should have the opportunity to feel successful at Garden Elementary School. They look for everyday examples of students making good choices. Once a student is “caught being good,” an award slip is filled out and placed in the big, blue mailbox in Mrs. O’Berry’s classroom. Mrs. O’Berry then brags about these Greater Gators on KNN during Monday Morning Moments with Mrs. O’Berry. Let us catch YOU being good!

ActivBoards

Technology continues to be a powerful tool for implementing the Sarasota County curriculum at Garden. During the 2006/2007 school year, a program was launched by the district in which ActivBoards, or interactive white boards, and projectors were installed in many classrooms. By November 2007, all classrooms wil be outfitted with this equipment. The ActivBoard technology adds a new dimension to how information can be presented to students of all learning styles.

See the ActivBoard page.

View the ActiveBoard gallery.

Garden Writes

Garden is proud to be among the top scoring schools in the district in 4th grade FCAT Writing. Once a month, students across all grade levels write in response to a narrative or expository prompt that is similar to those used on the fourth grade test. We call this program “Garden Writes”. Every grade level has it’s own rubric for scoring students’ writings. These rubrics have been correlated to the scoring elements used by the state of Florida and include: focus, organization, support, and conventions. We proudly display our students’ writing in the school hallways and in our Garden Gazette.

Accelerated Reader / Reading Counts

Garden uses the Accelerated Reader and Reading Counts programs to motivate students to discover the wonders and joys of reading. Students are rewarded with points based on the difficulty of the book and their level of success when testing. Our networked computers are constantly humming with students taking “AR” and "RC" quizzes and advancing their reading skills. Students accumlate points to earn a gator for our "swamp". Different colored gators represent different point levels.

To compliment the program, teachers in grades 2 – 5 use the computerized SRI testing program. This allows students to know just which books are best suited for them to read independently.

AR / RC Lists

SuccessMaker Enterprise

Garden students supplement their classroom instruction by using an Instructional Learning System in reading and math. One of Garden’s four computer labs is designated as the “SuccessMaker Enterprise” lab where students spend thirty minutes two to three times weekly. The computerized exercises are individualized to ensure that students work at a level that keeps them challenged yet not frustrated. Student progress is recorded in a management system that is networked and accessible to teachers for monitoring students’ improvement in reading and math.

KNN

Garden’s award-winning KNN (Kid’s News Network) allows 5 th grade students to utilize high-end telecast technology to communicate daily information to the school’s staff and students. The KNN broadcast includes regular features such as the lunch menu, birthdays, weather, and character word quotes. It also includes special features such as the weekly vocabulary quiz contest, the Science question, and occasional guest appearances by our Principal, Guidance Counselor, Literacy Coach, and Birthday Book Club participants. All members of the KNN crew work both in front of the cameras and behind the scenes, learning editing, audio mixing, filming, and public speaking skills. Mrs. Jeanne Troiano and Mrs. Lisa Saul oversee the daily responsibility of producing a live broadcast that helps serve the needs of the staff and students at Garden Elementary.

Literacy Lab

Garden’s Literacy Lab has been developed by our Kindergarten team to enhance the readiness skills of our emergent readers. This is a multi-media lab housed in a portable classroom. Each Kindergarten class spends a 45 minute period in the lab each day, beginning in October.

The lab offers a variety of learning stations, including computer based programs in reading (Orchard, SME, Tomorrow’s Promise and Hooked on Phonics) and math (Harcourt, SME and Tomorrow’s Promise). These programs present individualized practice based upon the child’s developmental skill level. Other stations include listening and writing centers.

The classroom teacher is assisted in the lab by a teaching aide. We are pleased to be able to offer this unique opportunity to our Kindergarten students.

D.A.R.E.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is taught for 18 weeks to all Garden 5th graders. A partnership with the Sarasota County Sheriff's Department allows a deputy to instruct the students on the perils of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. Students learn about the effects of these dangerous substances, and how peer pressure and media hype tempt them to fall victim to these dangerous habits. Most importantly, they learn how to "Just Say NO"!

Renaissance

Garden Academic Renaissance program recognizes students who earn Straight A’s, A and B’s, and students who put forth exemplary effort. Students are rewarded with lunches provided by our community, certificates, prizes, and end of the year parties. Community members and business partners donate time, money, and effort to ensure the program’s continued growth and success.

Young Americans

Achieving a high quality, comprehensive, music education program demands there be an opportunity to participate in a performing ensemble. Therefore, any interested fourth or fifth grader may participate in our school chorus known as Young Americans. Much of our repertoire is devoted to the study and presentation of patriotic songs. Performances include miscellaneous selections ranging from folk tunes, patriotic melodies, and songs representing the multicultural diversity of our country.

Media Center

The hub of our school is Garden’s state-of-the-art media center. It is located in the center of the school where over 14,000 informational resources are housed. Mrs. Rule assists our students and staff in the open media center that is buzzing everyday with book circulation and research. Students can even access Selby Public Library from the electronic card catalog. A special “Parent Resource” library is also available. The media sponsors the Campbell’s Label program that provides additional equipment such as globes, tape recorders, etc. for our classrooms. Keep those labels coming in! If you ever visit our school, you won’t want to leave without a visit to Garden’s brand new media center.

Student Council

The Student Council at Garden Elementary School prides itself in providing services to the students of Garden Elementary and our surrounding community. Council members participate in projects within the community and the school such as" Hugs and Kisses, the Great American Clean-Up, Holiday Food Drive, REd Ribbon Week, Letter Carrier food drive, hurricane relief projects, Spirit Week, and much more. Two students from each fourth and fifth grade class are chosen to represent their peers and attend meetings twice a month. Student Council students show that they care about the community and their peers!

Safety Patrols

Garden Elementary is proud to have a quality group of 5th grade students as members of our school’s Safety Patrol. The purpose of the patrol is to help keep our campus safe by preventing accidents from occurring and to develop leadership qualities in our members. Membership in the Safety Patrol is an honor! Students are chosen based on their character and academic record. Patrols develop responsibility, an attention to duty, alertness, dependability, and a sense of social obligation. In addition to protecting the school, the benefits of having a School Safety Patrol range from leadership development and other aspects of personal growth to developing an appreciation of service for others and the desire to build a safer world for tomorrow.

YMCA Reads

The Florida State Alliance Leadership has granted the YMCA funding to provide an after school reading tutoring program for 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders who can benefit from this extra help. Garden Elementary School and the Venice YMCA are excited to be part of this program. Children meet at Garden twice a week for 45 minutes with a tutor to receive individual instruction. Tutors are volunteers who are trained in reading strategies, using research-based materials.

Gator Gladiators

From early Fall to the week before FCAT testing, Garden offers an early morning SME Computer Lab program called "Gator Gladiators." This program is available for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students enrolled in AIP (Academic Improvement Program) and ESE (Exceptional Student Education) classes, and is targeted at helping improve Reading and Math test-taking skills. Students arrive at 7:30, ready to "Wake Up and READ!" The students log into Garden's SuccessMaker Enterprise (SME) program and begin working on various Literacy and Math problems designed to enhance and improve their test-taking skills, with the goal of helping them better deal with the demands of Florida's FCAT testing program.

The Gator Gladiator participants have the support of current teacher advisors Jeanne Troiano and Diana Mitchell, as well as the support of teacher and parent volunteers, who circulate the computer lab while the students are working to offer advice and help. The SME program tracks student progress and automatically moves the students to higher levels of difficulty as they begin to demonstrate mastery of skills. Students who participate regularly are rewarded with incentive prizes funded by Garden's Student Advisory Council. This past school year 24 students arrived regularly at 7:30 am each morning, moving from an average working level of 3.8 to 4.8 in just 5 months.

Site by