Saturday, May 8th St. Francis hosted the Sudbury Catholic District School Board Girls’ Handball Tournament and was an excellent way to celebrate community during Catholic Education Week.
The following at the results to the tournament
First Place – St. Christopher
Second Place – St. John
Third Place – St. Theresa
Fourth Place – Corpus Christi
Many thanks to the parents, students, coaches and teachers who made this day possible.
Students, family members and staff gathered at St. James Catholic Elementary School in Lively on the evening of May 7 as the school hosted a family barbecue and celebration. In honour of Catholic Education Week, the night kicked off with a performance by the school choir (under the direction of teacher Tammy Lanci), and was followed by a short service that included a student presentation of the Virtues that are celebrated by all SCDSB schools. After grace, the crowd feasted on food that was donated by Perkins, and prepared by the Knights of Columbus. As well, the Catholic Women’s League supplied desserts for the gathering. “It is a great way to come together as a community,” Cara Soehner, Principal of the school said. “It also gives our students and their families the opportunity to meet each other socially and spend some time getting to know one another.”
Ms. Smith’s Grade 2/3 class at St. Michael’s School invited parents into the classroom to view their newly released DVD entitled “Grade 2/3 Fractured Fairy Tales”. Each student wrote and illustrated their own Fractured Fairy Tale. Ms. Tina Timpano, the technology integration mentor, recorded the students reading their stories, as well as their illustrations. Students and parents spent the morning enjoying popcorn and the entertaining stories. Each parent left the popcorn party with their very own DVD to enjoy for years to come.
The Grade 2/3 class at St. Michael Catholic Elementary School performed Robert Munsch plays for their parents during Catholic Education Week. The room was filled with laughter as the students performed five stage adaptions by Robert Munsch.
The students created their own props and dressed up as the characters. The art of narrative and timing enriched each of the five plays!!
Students from both the Sudbury Catholic and Rainbow Valley East schools had the opportunity to enter a contest entitled “Raise the Flag Day”. The Kin club of Valley East once again supported this nationally celebrated event and hosted the contest for elementary students from the Valley schools. There was a picture/colouring contest for students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 4 and a Literary Contest (essay or poem) for students in Grades 5 to 8. Criteria for the contest was similar as the entry had to reflect what being Canadian means to the student and each student received a certificate of participation from Claude Gravelle, MP. A total of seven Valley schools participated and three of the top winners were students from St. Mary Catholic Elementary School. Connor Foucault (Grade 2 – St. Mary) took first place and Jacqueline Brown (Grade 4 – St. Mary) took third place in the picture/colouring contest. As well, Alyssa Menard (Grade 6 – St. Mary) took second place in the essay contest. Mayor John Rodriguez was also on hand to present the winners with their awards. Congratulations to all of our students who participated in this contest!.
On May 6th, 2010, the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s first ever Social Justice Fair involving students from all SCDSB Secondary schools took place at Marymount Academy. Students from grades 7 – 12 came together to learn more about local and global issues of social justice. They had the opportunity to listen to inspiring speakers, participated in engaging seminars, visited displays of community organizations working for justice, and celebrated what they are doing in their own schools. Some of the community organizations in attendance included Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury, Development and Peace, Access Aids, Community Foodshed, Free the Children, Sudbury Action Centre for Youth, and Chalice. Some of the seminars offered for the students included, Habitat for Humanity, Native Awareness, Global Solidarity, Social Inclusion (Sudbury Planning Council) Exposure trips, Environmental Awareness and Using Art for Justice. Jennifer Geddes, Chaplaincy Lead for the board was involved with a lot of the planning for the fair. “Today was about celebrating our achievements and exploring how our Catholic Secondary schools and community continue to champion social justice,” Geddes said. “The great thing about today is that they have been given even more tools to take back to their own schools to share with the other students and teachers. As well, the partnerships between the schools and the community organizations have been made even stronger and we will be continuing to act together for social justice.”
The grade 5 students at Immaculate Conception Catholic Elementary School had an exciting opportunity on May 2, 2010 to take part in a “Law Day”. As part of the Grade 5 curriculum, students are required to learn about citizenship and government so Immaculate teacher Chantal Rancourt felt that having her students visit the courthouse would make the material much more meaningful and interesting. Two lawyers – Lucille Shaw and Trevor Kestle from Miller Maki visited the school to explain the judicial process. To give the students an even richer experience, the lawyers extended the program even further and booked the Sudbury courthouse for their mock trial and even arranged for retired judge Justice Michel to preside over their case. “The students have been very enthusiastic about the whole process and were quite excited to take part in the mock trial.” said Rancourt. “The students got really involved in the whole unit and were really looking forward to acting as different members necessary during the trial.” The students filled all of the roles required including lawyers for the defence, lawyers for the prosecution, court reporter, bailiff, court sketch artist, jury etc. Christopher Balaz, one of the students involved felt it was a great opportunity for their class. “This is just awesome!” said Balaz. “It is a great experience and makes me consider going into law.” Several parents were also on hand to watch the mock trial take place and said that their kids were really eager to experience the court room with real lawyers and judges on hand.
Anthony Armstrong, a local Sudbury author and retired teacher, visited senior English classes at St. Benedict C.S.S. to give students a poetry workshop. He told them, “Poems are everywhere. I bump into them every day.”, and then demonstrated this fact by reading his poems titled Lily Creek and My Photograph Album. Armstrong captured the students’ attention with his thought provoking, and other times amusing, anecdotes to explain the inspiration behind his poems. For example, when he told U.S. border guards he wanted to visit the VietNam Memorial to write a poem, they asked, “Why? Can’t you write a poem in Canada”? By reading the poems from his book Shirtless Tattoo, Armstrong left the students in the room with new insights into life, the human condition, and inspired with the possibility of writing their own poetry.
The St. Benedict Band’s went on tour recently and some of their excursions included performances at Southridge Mall, St. Christopher School, St. James School and Corpus Christi. Joanne Comisso, teacher at St. Benedict and Band Director felt that the students were ready to showcase their talents so was thrilled at the many opportunities they have had to perform. “The students have been working very hard so it is great that they have had several invitations in and around the community.” said Comisso.
