St. Bernadette held their Welcome to Kindergarten event held on Thursday, May 10th.
Fifteen future JK students and their parents attended the event. Cedar Park Daycare, The Greater Sudbury Public Library and The New Sudbury Best Start Hub were there to assist with the activity centres set-up for the new students.
Category: Kindergarten
Welcome to Kindergarten at St. Andrew
On May 2nd St. Andrew School welcomed several of the children registered for JK in September to an afternoon of activities to Welcome them to Kindergarten. The classroom teacher, her student teacher and several community partners ( Minnow Lake Nursery School, Children Treatment Centre, Best Start Hub, Sudbury Public Health Unit) organized various activities for the parents and children to participate in and to learn various ways to help prepare their child for kindergarten. The Principal Melody Henry spoke of the great partnership that the Sudbury Catholic School Board has with the Learning Partnership who provide bags filled with books, and colouring and cutting tools for home use.
“Egg-citing” Time for Young Students at St. Anne Catholic School
Over the past few weeks, the French immersion full day kindergarten students at St Anne Catholic school in Hanmer investigated a new inquiry about eggs. This inquiry allowed student’s in teacher Alice Desormeaux’s class to formulate different ideas about eggs. They realized that some eggs can be eaten and some eggs have chicks. They explored the possibilities that eggs can be all different sizes and cooked different ways. They cracked eggs, decorated eggs, and discussed the different egg textures.
On one day, they even experienced two visitors that joined their class for the afternoon. A parent brought in two, one day old chicks for the students to observe and hold. “The overwhelming response to their presence in our classroom was, ‘Can we keep them'”, said Alice Desormeaux, Kindergarten teacher. They were fascinated with the idea that these chicks had only hatched from their eggs the day before. They also learned that chicks need water, food, and heat to survive.
“The chicks were so cute,” said 4 year old Cameron O’Daiskey. “It’s so neat that they have a blue dot on their head to tell that they’re boys.”. Both chicks that visited had a blue marked dyed on the top of their head to indicate that they were male. The students were excited to see these chicks and have furthered their inquiry into the life cycle of a chicken.
Learning Becomes “Magnified” For St. Anne Students
A recent visit to Science North proved to be a real “eye-opener” for students within the English E.L.K. program at St. Anne School in Hanmer. During the fall, the young children within the Sudbury Catholic System began a learning inquiry into the life cycle of plants with a garden harvest. With the arrival of spring right around the corner, the students are continuing to expand their knowledge of plant life through new growth. Before the children actually plant their own seeds, they participated in a session at Science North that discussed how plants grow, their needs and care, common plants around us, and how plants take root in the wild. Their classroom teacher, Cheryl MacRury, knew that her students had a good foundation before planting, but stated, “The children had a lot of fun. The best part of the session was watching them as they learned a lot about how plants reseed and grow in the wilderness. They didn’t know the important roles that people, animals, and insects play in a plant’s life, but they do now.” An inquiry task that involved magnifying glasses and a bag filled with seeds, berries, burrs, and felt allowed the children to put on their thinking caps and have a hands on experience with how pollination occurs. What will the final result be following their Science North visit? Hopefully a new generation of plant growers. It is never too soon to start cultivating a green thumb!
St. Anne Students “Go Green” For St. Patrick’s Day
The students at St. Anne School enjoy celebrating special days and holidays just like all other children do. This even includes holidays that take place while they are not at school. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17th while students across Ontario are away on their March Break. Just before they left for their holiday, some students in the French Immersion E.L.K.P. classroom within the Sudbury Catholic Board showed their true spirit by dressing up to demonstrate their “love for the Irish”. Anthony Bertrand, Gavin Potvin, and Jacob Carosi had a lot to tell about the costumes they were wearing. “My mom helped me get dressed for St. Patrick’s Day,” said Jacob. “My mom even helped me put on tattoos for leprechauns,” stated Gavin. “I wanted to wear a beard for St. Patrick’s Day, but it is pretty itchy,” was Anthony’s comment. The wearing of the green by some of St. Anne’s youngest students had the entire school body seeing “wee little leprechauns” throughout the day. Way to go Angels!
St. Anne Student Celebrates Pancake Day With A “Homemade” Flair
Ava Collette is a student within the English E.L.K.P. classroom at St. Anne School in Hanmer. She celebrated Pancake Tuesday with her classmates and other classrooms throughout the school as a day of celebration before the start of Lent and Ash Wednesday. The pancakes Ava and her Kindergarten friends ate were perhaps a bit more special than most. That is because they were covered in syrup Ava’s father had made from tapping the maple trees at their home. Ava, a student within the Sudbury Catholic Board, told her class “My daddy made the syrup from the trees in our backyard”. Her friends and teacher couldn’t wait to try the homemade syrup and after tasting it on top of their pancakes, everyone agreed. “It was yummy”! The syrup was so good, there wasn’t one drop left. Ava and her dad certainly knew how to put the “topping” on this year’s pancake breakfast!
Class’100 Day Celebration Supports NOFCC
Like many other Sudbury Catholic School classes, the Early Learning classroom at St. Raphael held a “100th day of school” celebration on February 13th. The students were asked to decorate hats with 100 different items – some chose dinosaurs, some chose pompoms, etc. As well, they took part in a variety of different activities that acknowledged the significance of the day. Rosemary Tripodi, the Early Learning Teacher and Domenic Vicedomini, the Early Childhood Educator decided that they wanted to tie their celebration to the virtue of the month which is compassion. They came up with an idea that they felt would teach their students about the importance of caring for others in their community while still focusing on the theme of “100”. Each student was asked to bring in 100 coins. They discussed with the class this idea and decided that any money that was brought in could be donated to the Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer Foundation (NOFCC). The class talked about kids who were sick with cancer and that their collections of 100 coins could help support this worthwhile cause. Much to the surprise of Tripodi and Vicedomini, the students collected $135 dollars to donate. Expecting only pennies, the teachers were quite proud that their students made a connection – not only to their 100 coins, but that they understood the significance of supporting other kids who were ill in their community. “ What a wonderful show of support from our students in helping out such a wonderful cause as NOFCC,” Tripodi stated. “We knew the 100 day celebration would be fun but connecting to the virtue of compassion made it a much more powerful lesson for all of the students.” David Langlois, President of NOFCC was invited into the class so that the students could present him with a cheque for the foundation.
Friendship is flourishing at St. Bernadette Catholic School
During the month of February all the Sudbury Catholic Schools are celebrating the virtue of Compassion and at St. Bernadette they extended this theme on Valentine’s Day with their Fete de L’amitie (Friendship Feast). Every year the grade 5 and 6 students take on a leadership role and organize a series of fun-filled activities from obstacle courses to bowling and floor hockey for the JK and SK students to enjoy. Each student in the school is given a red heart-shaped lollypop to symbolize the love and friendship we have and show to all of our classmates and friends at school. One lucky boy and girl in each class gets to act as le roi et la reine (the king and queen) and they wear their special crowns for the entire day.
JK students at St. Bernadette French Immersion school, Kiley Laforest and Caleb Woods are le roi and la reine for the Fete de L’amitie (Friendship Feast) held every year on St. Valentine’s Day.
100 is a Lot!
Students in a variety of classes at St. Paul School are celebrating the 100th Day of School. Students in Ms. Shewchuk’s SK/Grade 1 class dressed like they were one hundred years old for the occasion. Other activities included reading books and poems about the number 100, making self-portraits of themselves at 100, describing what they think the world would look like in 100 years, Fruit Loop necklaces, crowns and counting to 100 in a variety of ways! After hard work and a long wait for this special day, a great celebration was enjoyed by all!