During Catholic Education week the Grade 8 students at St. James Catholic school painted birdhouses as a demonstration of the Virtue of Stewardship. The students learned the importance of placing birdhouses around their home because they provide nesting sites for birds. Providing nesting sites helps preserve bird populations. Stewardship is the responsible management of God’s Earth and the simple act of hanging a birdhouse is living out this commitment.
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Celebrating Safe Schools at St. James
Earlier this year, the St. James Safe Schools student council, named C3 (Catholic, Community and Culture) was awarded a Government of Ontario “Speak Up Grant” for their inclusive education campaign. In organizing activities, the C3 aims promote a positive school culture of mutual acceptance and inclusion.
A recent C3 campaign was an in-school Safe Schools Button Contest. All students were given the opportunity to design a button that reflects the safe, caring, inclusive environment at St. James Catholic School. Several members of the school community judged the button submissions and three student designs were published as button badges for every student in the school.
The three winners are Lidia Campagnaro (grade 4), Joshua Laronde (grade 4) and Christopher De Poli (SK).
Lidia Campagnaro’s explains that in her design “everyone is holding hands to show that at St. James we’re like a family and we treat each other respectfully”.
Joshua Laronde’s button is “meant to show that St. James school is welcoming to everyone”.
SK student Christopher De Poli’s button depicts a bear, the St. James mascot “because we are all St. James Bears”.
Books are Environmentally Friendly at St. Benedict
“Read, Return, Repeat!”, was the library’s motto during a school-wide celebration of books held at St. Benedict CSS during Catholic Education Week. To further develop the love of reading, teachers encouraged students to use integrated technology like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube to share their favourite novel with a friend. Students were given time to Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) using their e-readers or an old-fashioned book. Later in the week, students met for Book Club, to swap books and journaling on the library’s Graffiti Wall. Grade 9 student Alexandria Folino stated, “I especially liked the Book Club meeting because are the first to see and take out the new books. It’s also fun to mingle with the other members, and discuss the interesting books we’ve read.”
St. Benedict Students Lend a Helping Hand
Students from St. Benedict teacher Krysten Purawec’s Grade 9 French Immersion class prepared sandwiches for the Elgin Street Mission recently. Twenty-seven students made more than 125 sandwiches, carefully packaged with homemade cookies and a brief note of encouragement. Mme Purawec commented that, “It is our collective mission as a classroom to make our entire community a better place”. The students had fun putting together the tasty snacks, which were delivered to the mission after school that day. Maurizio Visentin, a Guidance Counsellor at St. Benedict, shared a story on the origins of sandwiches and complimented the students on putting the gospel into action to help those who use the Mission on a daily basis.
Gathering Stone Ritual
On May 17 Father Jim Hutton and parent Brenda Cavallin travelled to three of the Sudbury Catholic District Schools that are closing in June – St. Theresa, St. Christopher and Corpus Christi. Students at each of these schools collected stones from the yard to symbolize something they wanted to bring to the new site of Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School opening in September. The stones will be placed in the yard but will represent the spirit of the school that have travelled from all three sites. With Father Him Hutton and Brenda Cavallin’s visit to each of the schools, students were invited to remember love, patience and the virtues they hold true at their school while holding onto the stone. The stones were then collected and brought to St. Patrick’s Parish to be stored until the students begin their new school year at Holy Cross.
St. James Students Look Through “God’s Eye”
Using an ancient tradition originating from Mexico, the Grade 5/6 French Immersion class at St. James Catholic School wove yarn around two sticks glued in the shape of a cross to create a “Sikuli”–“God’s Eye”. This tradition of the Huicholl Indians of Mexico is based on the belief that the person that “God’s Eye” was created for, will be more knowledgeable to the ways of Jesus and wiser. According to the belief, the father creates a Sikuli (God’s Eye) for their newborn and continues to add a length of yarn to the Sikuli on the child’s birthday until the child is 5 years old.
St. James Students Look Through “God’s Eye”
Using an ancient tradition originating from Mexico, the Grade 5/6 French Immersion class at St. James Catholic School wove yarn around two sticks glued in the shape of a cross to create a “Sikuli”–“God’s Eye”. This tradition of the Huicholl Indians of Mexico is based on the belief that the person that “God’s Eye” was created for, will be more knowledgeable to the ways of Jesus and wiser. According to the belief, the father creates a Sikuli (God’s Eye) for their newborn and continues to add a length of yarn to the Sikuli on the child’s birthday until the child is 5 years old.
St. James Students Look Through “God’s Eye”
Using an ancient tradition originating from Mexico, the Grade 5/6 French Immersion class at St. James Catholic School wove yarn around two sticks glued in the shape of a cross to create a “Sikuli”–“God’s Eye”. This tradition of the Huicholl Indians of Mexico is based on the belief that the person that “God’s Eye” was created for, will be more knowledgeable to the ways of Jesus and wiser. According to the belief, the father creates a Sikuli (God’s Eye) for their newborn and continues to add a length of yarn to the Sikuli on the child’s birthday until the child is 5 years old.
Cards Runners Race for Diabetes
The goal for the St. Charles College marathon team this fall was to enter and complete a half marathon and they did it. Ten students, along with their teacher/coach and principal took part in the Sudbury Rocks Half-Marathon for Diabetes this past weekend in Sudbury. Ms. Catherine Levesque headed up the team in the fall with a commitment to run everyday no matter what weather conditions greeted them after school. They were ecstatic about having their principal, Patty Mardero join them in the 50-59 age bracket.
Other highlights:
Danielle Provencher got 1st in her age/gender category out of 3 females up to 19 years of age. Katie McDowell came 2nd in the same division.
Cody Malette and Jayden Lepack finished 3rd and 4th in their age/gender category out of 11 males up to 19 years of age.