St. Bernadette Catholic School hosted a COME READ with ME parent workshop on the evening of December 7th, 2011. Parents and students thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to learn reading strategies that they can use at home with their young students. Teachers were on hand to provide descriptive feedback to parents as they honed their newly accquired skills and parents left that evening with a goody bag of reading activities to use at home with their children to extend the learning.
Ms. Salvador, Principal of St. Bernadette Catholic school, commented that, “We are thrilled when home and school can partner up in this way to work towards the literacy success of each of our students. Research indicates that when parents are actively involved in their child’s education great strides can be achieved. and we look forward to hosting many more such teaching/learning evenings for the parent community.”
Month: December 2011
St. James Community Generously Supports the Sudbury Infant Food Bank
The St. James C3 (Catholic, Community and Culture) Student Council decided there was no better way to celebrate the Christmas season than by helping other children in need. Upon hearing that the Sudbury Infant Food Bank is running a Christmas campaign to help raise funds and supplies for Greater Sudbury’s most vulnerable; babies and young children, the students planned a theme day in support of this campaign. The generosity of the families of St. James School is evident in the carloads of donations of diapers, baby wipes, baby food jars, baby cereal, gift certificates and money donations.
St. Anne Students “Author” Their Way Into Christmas
The English Early Learning Kindergarten students at St. Anne School in Hanmer welcomed parents and grandparents into their classroom to begin getting into the mood for the start of the Christmas season. The Kindergarten children had been working on creating and writing all kinds of “non-fiction” stories throughout the fall. They authored books on Garden Harvests, Baking Apple Pies, and Caring For a Classroom Pet. With a bare classroom Christmas tree sitting within the room, the children and their family members worked on creating, decorating, and hanging their ornaments. Junior Kindergarten student Celyna Anzil was overheard saying “I love working with sparkles.” What was the result for the students within the Sudbury Catholic System? One beautifully decorated tree and a step by step picture sequence for the class’ newest non-fiction story. When asked what title the story should have, their was only one choice of course. “A Christmas Tree Decorating Special Classroom Day!”
St. Anne Student Finds Contest Has “Sweet” Benefits
Patrick Corbin, a Gr. 4 French Immersion student at St. Anne School in Hanmer, started his school year off joined by hundreds of other students within the school in a chocolate bar fund raising contest. Little did he know that when the fund raiser was over, he and his classmates within Mme Pickard’s Grade 3/4 French Immersion room would be the top selling class within the school. The Sudbury Catholic School students won a pizza and movie afternoon for their efforts. In addition, one student was to be chosen to take over the job of Principal Mr. Guy Mathieu for the day. That student was Patrick. Besides helping his class to win, Patrick was the student who actually sold the most chocolate bars in the entire fundraising campaign and as such, was voted by his classmates to change roles from student to principal.
Dressed in a white shirt and tie, Patrick, or Mr. Corbin as he preferred to be addressed, performed many tasks throughout the day. He walked throughout the school meeting with many children from within the student body. He became very popular with the entire student population when he extended the afternoon recess by an extra five minutes and declared a “no homework day”. When asked if all of his hard work selling the chocolate bars was worth the outcome, Mr. Corbin was quoted as saying,” I had a lot of organizing to do with the new balls for the gym and preparing paper work to ready for the announcements.” St. Anne School vice-principal, Joanne Commisso, said “It was a pleasure working with the new principal for the day,” and thanked him for his efforts. A taste of being charge has Patrick geared up for next fall when the school fund raising contest comes around again. The staff and students at St. Anne School are very proud of your efforts Patrick. Way to go Angel!
December 3rd – Angels/Flames Volleyball Tournament Results
The second Angels/Flames junior co-ed volleyball tournament, of the season, was held December 3rd at St. Francis School. The development of volleyball skills was evident and the players most definitely improved their skill level over the course of the season. There were 9 teams participating in the junior co-ed volleyball tournament from various schools throughout the board. Many thanks to the coaches/teachers for their dedication to students and sport. Many engaged students were observed. Congratulations to all the athletes who participated!
The following were the results of the day:
1st place – Corpus Christi School
2nd place – St. Christopher School
3rd place – St. Raphael School
4th place – St. Francis School
Roaring Runners Do the Santa Shuffle
St. David Catholic School participated in the 19th annual Santa Shuffle / Elf Walk at Science North. The school raised over $400.00 for the Salvation Army to help to build a playground and community garden for Cedar Place the Salvation Army’s Women & Children’s shelter. The students, teachers, parents, secretary and principal ran, walked and cheered their way through the 1 km race. The students were proud be be able to donate to such a worthy cause while demonstrating their running abilities. They have been in training since early September and have seen improvements in their endurance, energy levels and overall feelings of improved confidence.
The Spirit of Christmas Alive at St. Anne
By 6:30 a.m. on December 2, St. Anne Catholic Elementary was a-buzz with excitement. The arrival of Q92’s Terry and Mel and the TD Toy Caravan had staff and students prepping the school’s foyer and library with decorations, breakfast items, and most importantly, Christmas cheer.
Guy Mathieu, Principal of St. Anne said the school was approached to be a possible location for the Q92 Toy Caravan live on location spot and without hesitation, accepted immediately. “We started sending out flyers to the community and encouraging as many people as possible to come out and donate this morning,” Mathieu stated. “This event is one that really encourages people to dig deep inside themselves and truly give from the heart. So many of the children in the Greater Sudbury community are in need of our support – we are just glad to be a part of something that helps us see what’s right with the world.”
From 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. both Terry and Mel encouraged listeners to come in and donate either a new toy or a monetary donation and people came out in droves. Students, both present and past, as well as parents, grandparents, friends and community members came through the school’s main doors and brought with them hundreds of toys as well as over $600 in money donations. Mathieu was overwhelmed by the support. “What has happened here this morning has really set the stage for us all to get in to the holiday spirit. That’s what I love about this community – everybody comes together and shows us that the true spirit of Christmas is alive and well at St. Anne’s – I couldn’t be more proud. Kids helping kids. Children giving to other children. I don’t know that I can think of anything that is more powerful than that.”
As well as getting to meet Terry and Mel – the students and staff got to see how the show worked and teacher Alice Desormeaux and custodian Dan Sauve even got to take part in the “Battle of the Sexes” of which Sauve came out as champion. By 9:15, the foyer was stuffed with hundreds of toys and the students were amazed at the piles of donations in front of them. Some teachers even walked their classes down to see just how generous the community and their school had been. “I am just so proud of our school-students, staff and parents alike,” Mathieu stated. “The Christmas spirit is alive and well at St. Anne!”
“Elders in the Classroom” at St. Bernadette
St. Bernadette students Sydney Cimino, Grade 5 and Shaeleigh Wisniewski, Grade 6 show off their colourful and intricate replica headdresses that they created at school with the aid of Winnie Pitawanakwat a Community Elder and Native Teachings Facilitator, and her husband, Bill. Through the Elders in the Schools Project, Winnie shared the teachings and traditions around the headdress with the students before they began the process of creating their own.
Cardinal Takes on Lead Role in Popular Production
Dante Falcioni, a grade 9 student at St. Charles College will be taking centre stage next week. Dante is the lead role in Cambrian Theatre’s Kid’s Curtain production of Footloose which gets underway December 8th.
Dante will play main character Ren. The high school student must move from Chicago to a small farming town and re-adjust to life at a new school. Dante says he can relate in some ways to the character as he is just entering his first year of high school and had to transition to a new school himself.
Dante has been involved in Cambrian Theatre productions for a number of years. His good friend and school mate Jenna Daypuk will also be joining him on stage as Rusty. Jenna says the two get involved in local theatre because “they learn a lot and have fun while doing it.”
The Footloose production goes until December 17th.