The Grade One classes at St. James School in Lively enjoyed a visit by Sarah Wendorf, Education Co-ordinator for the Wild at Heart Wildlife Refuge Centre in Lively. Sarah gave a wonderful and informative laptop presentation showing how the refuge centre rehabilitates sick, injured and orphaned animals. She also had the pupils participate in an activity to help them understand the use of materials employed at the centre. The students had previously collected many supplies from the Centre’s Wish List, and were happy to actively help in supporting the animals. They also made bookmarks with wild animal pictures and slogans to encourage others to care for animals. These bookmarks were sold at St. James School and the proceeds were also given to Wild at Heart.
The pupils’ science teacher, Rosanna Battigelli, had registered her class for a Wild at Heart membership, which included many resource materials for her “Animals: Wild at Heart!” Unit. More information about getting a class membership, along with a visit from Sarah Wendorf, can be found at [ http://www.wahrefugecentre.org/ ]www.wahrefugecentre.org
Month: March 2010
St. Paul Catholic Elementary School Enjoys Aboriginal Day Celebration
The Student Parliament at St. Paul Catholic Elementary saw their months of hard work result in a powerful and beautiful Aboriginal Day of celebration on March 26, 2010. This group of students applied for a Speak Up Grant which is a grant that is applied for from the Ministry of Education’s Student Voice initiative. These grants are available for student-led projects and are available for students who want to make a difference in their classroom, school and community. As well, the school applied for additional funding from the Board to supplement the costs of their Aboriginal celebration. With the help and support of their teacher, Marlene Lee, these students were successful in their applications and collectively worked to bring together a day for their entire school community that allowed all of the students to share in the learning and understanding of Aboriginal culture. The day involved a traditional smudging ceremony, an amazing aboriginal dancing and drumming demonstration, and a sampling of bannock. As well, the students attended different hands-on information sessions including hunting and harvesting, hand drumming, medicine wheel teachings, making masks, making dreamcatchers, interactive games and storytelling. The highlight of the day was a presentation by world renown aboriginal artist Leland Bell who shared his paintings and stories with the students as well as sang a traditional song for the group. Sharon Oliver, the Principal of the school was so overwhelmed by the day’s events that she choked back tears when addressing the students at the end of the day. “This was such a beautiful and powerful day that I am having a hard time as I am so overcome with emotion.” stated Oliver. “I thank Mrs. Lee and all of the students and staff for making this celebration such an absolutely incredible day – one that each and every student will be able to look back on and remember how dynamic and moving our celebration was!”
Aboriginal Dancing and Drumming at Pius
Pius XII students, staff and families from Minnow Lake Best Start and Maple Tree Preschool participated in their first Aboriginal Dance and Drum workshop on Tuesday, March 23rd in the Pius XII School gym. Fancy shawl and jingle dancers, Rosemarie Erb, Tracy Recollet, Chelsea Recollet and Kiana Manitowabi, wore their beautiful regalia and danced to the beat of the drummers. A special prairie chicken dance was performed by Hayden Shears-Recollet. The lead drummers, DJ MacGregor and Brad Robinson, were accompanied by four student drummers, Dawson Baptiste, Joey Manitowabi, Karaka Osawamick and Isaiah Hunt from the Native Studies class at St. Charles College. All together at the big drum, they aligned their drum beat with the heart beat of mother earth. Students had the opportunity to dance with the dancers to the beautiful songs of life. After the dancing and drumming in the gym, dancers visited the JK , SK and Minnow Lake Best Start classes and created their own paper doll regalia with sparkles, beads, feathers and jingles.
St. Benedict Holds Classes Over March Break
St. Benedict would like to thank The Basketball Academy, and the Sudbury Youth Basketball League, for a successful St. Benedict March Break Basketball Camp.
During the break, students from grades 5 and up, were back in the classroom at St. Benedict, learning to improve their game. Head Coach Aaron Sidenberg and his Basketball Academy staff focused on fundamentals, high intensity training on the court, sports specific training in the weight room, and the use of sports technology in the classroom.
Students were impressed with the large staff on hand that was able to work one on one with players of all ages. Sidenberg and his staff of past and present L.U. players, and coaches, reenforced team building throughout the 3 day power camp.
All players were given vertical and strength training program, along with detailed video analysis of their shooting using Smart Board technology. The hard work of the staff combined with the diversity of the camp, made a huge impact with all the students in attendance. There are plans for another camp very soon.
For further information on The Basketball Academy visit www.thebasketballacademy.net or contact Head Coach Aaron Sidenberg directly at thebasketballacademy@live.com.
St. Raphael Students Connecting With Students in Equador
At St. Raphael Catholic Elementary School, Mrs. Lucciantonio’s Gr. 2/3 class and Miss Filice’s Gr. 3/4 class have been involved with the International Friendship Project in Ecuador. They are working with Jan and David Buley who are two professors from the School of Education at Laurentian University. The students have become penpals with the students in Ecuador so that they can share the wonderful things about our community and knowledge of Canada, and learn a great deal about the community and customs of Ecuador. They have also been collecting Crayola Art Supplies to send to them as this spring Jan and David will be going to Ecuador and will be bringing 10 Laurentian Education students with them to provide an arts camp for 250 students. Both of the St. Raphael teachers feel this is an excellent opportunity for their students to learn about different cultures as well as the importance of building compassionate relationships.
Communications Co-op Student “On the Job”!
Dubinia Nieforth is a grade 12 student at Marymount Academy and is contemplating a future in marketing, advertising and public relations. When she approached her guidance teacher Brenda Thompson, the two discussed the possibility of a co-op placement that would allow her the opportunity to try out these types of jobs to see if it would be a good fit. After talking it over with her co-op teacher, Allison Simspon, Dubinia was offered the opportunity to work with the Communications Team at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board. When asked why she chose co-op, Dubinia replied that she “felt that she was ready to try some work in a real career field and preferred out-going, social situations rather than sitting in a class. By getting out and experiencing what (she) was interested in sounded like an amazing opportunity.” Dubinia has been documenting her experiences and the stories she has been covering in her own newsletter. She has also had the opportunity to learn new software on the macbook including Pages and GarageBand which will be great experience for her when looking at advertising and graphic design. Already Dubina has helped with the celebration for the United Kingdom visitors as well as visiting schools with the communications team to learn about covering events and media relations. For the remainder of the year, Nieforth will be th “eyes and ears” for Marymount keeping on top of all of the stories as well as continuing to assist the team with future marketing and Sudbury Catholic promotions and events. Dubinia is looking forward to her future assignments and exploring all of the possibilities that her new co-op placement will offer her as she wants her career to involve “ideas, writing, working with people and getting to be creative – this is just the perfect fit!”
St. Theresa Students “Zumba for Haiti”
Students from St. Theresa Catholic Elementary School had the opportunity to try something new and exciting on Wednesday, March 10, 2010. All of the classes had a chance to experience the exciting new exercise called Zumba which is a Latin inspired fitness class with a hip-hop flavour. The students had been trying to figure out something different for them to do to raise money for the people of Haiti and the idea of bringing in donations of any amount for a chance to try Zumba was the one idea that everyone agreed was the best. Zumba instructor Lori Mitchell from Lori Mitchell Fitness visited the school and had all of the classes join her in the gym to try some of the different Zumba moves. Maria DeMarco, Principal of the school enjoyed watching the students take part in the classes as well as trying out the moves herself. “It is a great way for the kids to get their daily physical activity.” said DeMarco. “As well, the school is able to promote physical fitness while supporting a really great cause like Haiti!”
St. Ben’s Students Celebrate Multicultural Day
Students from the Lifeskills class at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School were thrilled to be able to share their projects on March 11 during their Multicultural Day celebration. All of the students were asked to pick a country and then use books from the library and find information on the internet to help them put together a project for their geography assignment. Some of the countries picked included Cuba, South Africa, Mexico and Ireland. The presentation of the projects was the first part of the day’s celebration and then the students played games, listened to music from different countries, and enjoyed different foods from around the world. Pam Colasimone, the Lifeskills teacher was very proud of the work that the students had produced. “ The students have worked for the last six weeks on these projects.” said Colasimone. “ They thoroughly enjoyed learning about the countries they selected as well as learning about the other countries that were presented today. It was a fantastic project for the students and they had a lot of fun in the process!”
Pius XII School Community Celebrates Mass
All of the students and staff of Pius XII came together as a school community on March 8, 2010 to celebrate mass with Father Remi at Holy Redeemer parish. The school took advantage of the beautiful sunshine and walked over to the church to enjoy mass each other. It was a great way to start the week as well as an excellent opportunity for the school to re-energize their faith before beginning their March Break.