A crunch could be heard throughout the halls and classrooms at St. Raphael’s School this morning.  Almost four hundred students bit down on a red Gala apple simultaneously to celebrate the school’s first Apple Crunch a Month event.

The school is being recognized by the Healthy Schools Recognition Program.  It is a Ministry of Education initiative that awards schools going above the call of duty when it comes to the promotion of healthy living and eating. 

Students had been gearing up for the event with morning announcements that focused on the healthy benefits of eating the fruit. 

Grade Seven student Keenan Skilliter told the student body that “eating the apple will clean teeth, massage gums and nourish the brains.”

The school will continue to hold one Apple Crunch a Month from now until summer break. 

Junior kindergarten students at St. Francis celebrated Valentine’s Day in style. Students decorated their red paper hats with valentine cards they received from classmates. Students sang songs, listened to poems, stories and made crafts for their families to celebrate the special day.

Ms Peterson’s 1/2 class celebrated the 100th Day of School on February 11th this year. The preparation for the celebration starts in September as part of the math curriculum. Starting the first day of school until the 100th Day number sense math concepts are taught visually, orally, and “tactilely,” as well as, reinforced daily: calendar, identification and value of coins, counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, 25’s forwards and backwards, adding using regrouping for ones, tens, hundreds and the importance of ten as anchor number. A puppet named “Zero The Hero” comes to visit the students every ten school days with lifesaver candies to reinforce the concepts previously listed, as well as, the importance of zero in a number for place value. The preparation from the first day of school to the 100th day of school allows the children to experience number sense concepts in a fun way.

For the class celebration on February 11th, the grade 1/2 class decorated 100 Day crowns with cheerios using ideas from a math cheerio counting book, and brought clothing from home that represented the number 100 in some way, along with a home-made collection of 100 things to display. A classroom book was created about 100 Wishes for the principal. The children played several games that included counting to 100 in a variety of ways ( orally, physically in the gym and using dice). Also, several jars of valentine candy were on display and the children had to estimate which jar contained 100 candies. The week prior to the 100th Day the students made predictions about the book, “100 Day Worries.” Of course, the classroom puppet, “Zero The Hero,” came for a visit wearing a special 100th Day costume and a special zero shaped treat. Lastly, and the class favourite, is SNACK. The snack is selecting ten pieces of candy from ten bowls with different kinds of candy to collect and place the pieces on an individual 100 Chart mat. The children get to eat ten rows of 10 different types of candy. Many six and seven year old children have been heard to say during this activity, “This is the greatest day of their entire school life!”