Laureate Park Elementary has had a strong start to their inaugural year. One of our school rules is “always set an example,” and our students, in their extracurricular activities, have taken that to heart.

Our Chess Club, sponsored by Ms. Furio, media specialist and reading coach, meets weekly on Wednesday mornings. It is attended by students from K through 5th grade with skill levels from beginner to championship. The Chess Club will attend its first tournament in March against other Orange County Public Schools. One member of the club, third-grader Sritej Sai Sattaru, recently won first place in the under-600 category in the 2017 National Scholastic K-12 Championship of the United States Chess Federation.

In December, Laureate Park Elementary sent three students to the OCPS STEM Bucket Challenge that took place at Shenandoah Elementary. Third-graders Landon Tinetti and Angelina Chenault and fourth-grader Keira Meyers represented Laureate Park Elementary. Keira took second place overall for her STEM creation.

Girls in the 3rd through 5th grades make up our Girls on the Run club. This club is designed to allow every girl to recognize her inner strength and inspires girls to define their lives on their own terms. In December, the girls participated in a Girls on the Run 5K event. This celebratory, non-competitive event is the culminating experience of the curriculum. We are so proud of our girls who worked so hard to realize this accomplishment.

K Kids, which is the elementary school chapter of Kiwanis, is a service club led by elementary school students and teaches the value of helping others through community service projects. Laureate Park Elementary has a strong club of 35 students led by 3rd grade teacher Ms. Burch. Laureate Park Elementary’s K Kids participated in the Avalon Aglow Holiday Parade and are currently collecting canned food donations for the Second Harvest Food Bank. Their winter service project is to collect and donate jackets to the local homeless shelter.