Want a great way to start your day? How about a hot and nutritious breakfast? That’s what the Gr. 5/6 French Immersion students at St. Anne School recently provided for the entire student body of their school.
St. Anne School is already part of the Breakfast Clubs of Canada group, a group that provides nutritious foods to students at school. Usually, teachers and parent volunteers within the school arrange food baskets and breakfasts. Miss Shonwise’s junior class had to come up with a culminating task to their health unit that would encourage the eating of a healthy meal. They chose to prepare and cook a school breakfast. Under their teacher’s watchful eye, the students planned, prepared, and served fruit, cooked eggs, toasted bread, yogurt and milk.
Pupils from every division took the opportunity to come in and eat. From the lack of leftovers, we’d say that the meal was a huge success! The entire student body would like to thank their “chefs” of the day and say, “C’etait magnifique!”
Author: admin
It’s OK to Learn a Different Way
St. David Catholic School learned “it’s OK to learn in a different way” today when the Learning Disabilities Association of Sudbury did school wide presentations to the staff and students. Angie DeMarco, community outreach worker for the Association, based her primary grade presentation on the Warner Bros. movie “Happy Feet”. “Students were provided with messages of understanding, tolerance and appreciation of their peers who learn a different way”, stated Learning Resource Teacher and presentation organizer, Cathy Dore. Dore also stated that throughout the presentations “were messages about bullying and respecting the unique and special characteristics each of us possesses”.
St. David School is celebrating the value of empathy this month and the presentations complimented the school’s daily messages of appreciation for each others special gifts and talents. The intermediate grades participated in an interactive workshop, presented by DeMarco, that not only provided awareness about learning disabilities, it also had students experience processing challenges that increase empathy and understanding. It is through the exposure to the many quirky experiences that students arrive at the conclusion that, “a different way of learning can lead to success”.
Celebrating the Spirit Through Spoken Word
Students in Miss O’Reilly’s grade two class at St. Raphael School had a Poetry Café to celebrate their writing achievements this year.
Every student had an opportunity to stand up and be heard at the microphone.
Here is a sample of one student’s work on “How to Heal a Broken Heart”:
If you want to heal a broken heart,
First you need to give it some love to heal the first crack.
Next you need a hug to make the person happy.
That’s another way to heal a crack.
Then you can make a card to cheer them up.
It also heals a crack.
Of course, you need to be polite to the person or they will not like you.
That definitely heals a crack.
By: Sabrina Folz
Award Winning Author Visits St. Bernadette
Students at St. Bernadette Catholic Elementary School had an exceptional opportunity on Monday, May 2, 2011. As part of their Catholic Education Week events, award-winning author Colleen Syndor visited the school and sat and read with the students and staff. In two separate sessions, one for the primary and one for the junior students, Syndor talked about being an author, answered questions from the students and read some of her books aloud with the kids. Last year, principal Diana Salvador applied for a grant through the TD Canadian Children’s Book Week (April 30 – May 7) and was informed that she was successful in her application. Colleen Sydor was the selected author for the visit and the school began making preparations for her visit. As Catholic Education Week fell on the same week, Salvador felt it was the perfect fit for Sydor’s visit. “One of the sub-themes for Catholic Education Week – Celebrating the Spirit, is the spirit of hospitality,” Salvador stated. “ What better way to celebrate this as a school than to have a wonderful, inspirational visitor come and speak to the students, where we can show her the true spirit of St. Bernadette’s.”
The students listened to Syndor speak and enthusiastically answered her questions as she asked them about different parts of her book. They had been familiarizing themselves as a school with her books for the last several weeks and had several favourites of which she read to the two groups.
Making Math “Cents”
Grade 2 students at St. John Catholic School recently made their math thinking visible during a Three Part Math Lesson. The lesson structure actively engaged students in their learning and allowed for the development of mathematics in their classroom community.
To get started students activated their prior knowledge by arranging various coins from least to greatest. Groups of students were then challenged to solve the following problem: Mrs. Roque has five coins in her pocket. Mrs. Smith has six coins in her pocket. Mrs. Roque has more money than Mrs. Smith but neither has more than 100 cents. How much money could each teacher have? Students were encouraged to use a variety of strategies to justify their solutions and communicate their thinking so that others would understand their answers. St. John Principal, Tricia Dowdall-Cerilli recognizes the importance of hands-on learning and sees value in having the students work with a variety of learning tools. “In order for students to really make that connection, we know that it is so important to have many learning options available for our students – as not every student learns in the same way,” Dowdall-Cerilli stated. “By providing these options, we are supporting the success of our learners.”
Celebrating the Spirit of Animals
St. Raphael students in Mrs. DeAngelis’ Life Skills class honoured the pets in their lives on Monday, May 2nd as part of their Catholic Education Week activities. The students have been studying animals all year and putting on a play for their parents was their culminating activity.
The students then worked with their parents and relatives to complete artwork to celebrate the animals in their world.
Thank you for the animals in our lives – like cats and dogs and goldfish – are wonderful pets whom we love. Some – like cows and sheep and chickens – provide us with food and clothing. Some work for us, some scare us, some love us, some entertain us and some amaze us, but they all enrich our lives. May we always love and protect them as Saint Francis of Assisi did. Amen
St. David JK Students Experience Unique Learning Opportunity
As part of the Math, Science, Language and Religious Education curriculum, the Junior Kindergarten students at St. David Catholic School got the unique experience of hatching their own chickens. Students learned about egg development and growth, watched videos, read stories, sang songs and made crafts all related to the chicks. When asked about the process, Junior Kindergarten teacher Lindsay Michel stated “The students were amazed and engaged in the whole experience. It was really a school wide event. My students have been teaching the older classes about the process; how the chicks grow and how to take care of them using words like ‘incubator’ and ‘humidity.’
The kindergarten class had been making daily announcements counting down the days and relating it to all areas of the curriculum. Michel credits the generosity of local farmers Tom and Leila Zazulak and Matt Peredery who donated everything to make the experience successful. When asked what she learned about the chicks, four year old Mya Giroux-Bryant responded, ‘We turn them and pray for them everyday. They live in the incubator for 21 days and they are called peeps until they hatch then they can play with us. After a while they go back to their farm with their mommy and daddy.’
Bears Participate at Mac Camp
The St. Benedict Bears football team recently had their starting offensive line participate at the McMaster University “Up Front Offensive Line Developmental Camp”. St. Benedict players Erick Lessard, Carter Long, Troy Kingsbury, Emilio Frometa, and Spencer Dailey, all took part in the event.
Bears Head Coach, Frank Rocca, also attended the camp as a guest coach. Rocca said the camp was a great experience for his troops. “To have your starting 5 attend a camp of this quality is tremendous. This group, which has 4 SDSSAA all stars, including lineman of the year, could be taking time off in the off season. Instead they choose to come down here and improve. That says a lot about our kids. There are plenty of drills and skills that they pick up, plus they are marketing themselves to play football after they are done at St. Benedict.”
One player that has broke new ground is towering offensive tackle Erick Lessard. Lessard was able to become the 1st player from Sudbury to crack the starting line up for the Greater Toronto Area all-star team. Lessard played well for team GTA againstt the Golden Horseshoe all star team, but cam short losing in the end by a score of 11-7. Lessard still came out a winner as he displayed his abilities againstt the best talent from southern Ontario, in front of coaches from all over the country.
Sudbury Catholic Supports the Gift of Life
During National Organ Donation Week, staff at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board showed their support by purchasing t-shirts with the logo – Life Life then Give Life. The t-shirts are available for $10 at all of the Board’s four secondary schools and are being sold to raise awareness about the importance of the Gift of Life.