On Monday March 29th at 1pm the St. Andrew School junior students participated in the School Junior Spelling Bee. Fourteen brave souls participated in the competition in order to find the one student who would represent St. Andrew School at the CPCO semifinal and hopefully the final Spelling Bee. Pictured are Sydney Sheppard (winner) Hannah Smith (2nd runner up) and Sidney Smith (1st runner up) with the three judges, Mrs. Vervega, Mr. Dagonstino and Mr. Gautheir. Congratulations to all of the participants and the SCDSB wishes Sydney every success in her next level of competition!
Category: Schools
St. Francis “A” Basketball Team Bring their “A” Game all Season
The St. Francis “A” team, coached by teacher Brendan Bradley, won the Greater Sudbury Board of Basketball Officials Tournament recently. In total, this team of top-notch players have won three tournaments including their latest as well as the Macdonald Cartier and Bishop Alexander tournaments. They came second in the St. Charles College tournament (losing by one point) and third in the St. Benedict tournament. The staff and students of St. Francis Catholic Elementary school are very proud of the team and congratulate them on their excellent season!
Another SMART Opportunity at Immaculate
Some of our French Immersion students had the opportunity to learn some new things about our SMART Boards. On March 30th, Mr. Reg Fitchett, Shelby’s uncle (Gr. 5/6F) was in to do a one hour presentation. Mr. Fitchett showed the students many new features that now can be implemented into SMART Board lessons. Mme Larrivière (Gr. 3/4F) and Mme Rancourt (Gr. 5/6F) are looking forward to trying new things with their SMART Boards to increase student learning and achievement. The students expressed much excitement during the hands-on presentation. What another wonderful way to include our community partners at Immaculate, Home of the COUGARS!
St. James Gets “Wild at Heart”
The Grade One classes at St. James School in Lively enjoyed a visit by Sarah Wendorf, Education Co-ordinator for the Wild at Heart Wildlife Refuge Centre in Lively. Sarah gave a wonderful and informative laptop presentation showing how the refuge centre rehabilitates sick, injured and orphaned animals. She also had the pupils participate in an activity to help them understand the use of materials employed at the centre. The students had previously collected many supplies from the Centre’s Wish List, and were happy to actively help in supporting the animals. They also made bookmarks with wild animal pictures and slogans to encourage others to care for animals. These bookmarks were sold at St. James School and the proceeds were also given to Wild at Heart.
The pupils’ science teacher, Rosanna Battigelli, had registered her class for a Wild at Heart membership, which included many resource materials for her “Animals: Wild at Heart!” Unit. More information about getting a class membership, along with a visit from Sarah Wendorf, can be found at [ http://www.wahrefugecentre.org/ ]www.wahrefugecentre.org
St. Paul Catholic Elementary School Enjoys Aboriginal Day Celebration
The Student Parliament at St. Paul Catholic Elementary saw their months of hard work result in a powerful and beautiful Aboriginal Day of celebration on March 26, 2010. This group of students applied for a Speak Up Grant which is a grant that is applied for from the Ministry of Education’s Student Voice initiative. These grants are available for student-led projects and are available for students who want to make a difference in their classroom, school and community. As well, the school applied for additional funding from the Board to supplement the costs of their Aboriginal celebration. With the help and support of their teacher, Marlene Lee, these students were successful in their applications and collectively worked to bring together a day for their entire school community that allowed all of the students to share in the learning and understanding of Aboriginal culture. The day involved a traditional smudging ceremony, an amazing aboriginal dancing and drumming demonstration, and a sampling of bannock. As well, the students attended different hands-on information sessions including hunting and harvesting, hand drumming, medicine wheel teachings, making masks, making dreamcatchers, interactive games and storytelling. The highlight of the day was a presentation by world renown aboriginal artist Leland Bell who shared his paintings and stories with the students as well as sang a traditional song for the group. Sharon Oliver, the Principal of the school was so overwhelmed by the day’s events that she choked back tears when addressing the students at the end of the day. “This was such a beautiful and powerful day that I am having a hard time as I am so overcome with emotion.” stated Oliver. “I thank Mrs. Lee and all of the students and staff for making this celebration such an absolutely incredible day – one that each and every student will be able to look back on and remember how dynamic and moving our celebration was!”
Aboriginal Dancing and Drumming at Pius
Pius XII students, staff and families from Minnow Lake Best Start and Maple Tree Preschool participated in their first Aboriginal Dance and Drum workshop on Tuesday, March 23rd in the Pius XII School gym. Fancy shawl and jingle dancers, Rosemarie Erb, Tracy Recollet, Chelsea Recollet and Kiana Manitowabi, wore their beautiful regalia and danced to the beat of the drummers. A special prairie chicken dance was performed by Hayden Shears-Recollet. The lead drummers, DJ MacGregor and Brad Robinson, were accompanied by four student drummers, Dawson Baptiste, Joey Manitowabi, Karaka Osawamick and Isaiah Hunt from the Native Studies class at St. Charles College. All together at the big drum, they aligned their drum beat with the heart beat of mother earth. Students had the opportunity to dance with the dancers to the beautiful songs of life. After the dancing and drumming in the gym, dancers visited the JK , SK and Minnow Lake Best Start classes and created their own paper doll regalia with sparkles, beads, feathers and jingles.
St. Raphael Students Connecting With Students in Equador
At St. Raphael Catholic Elementary School, Mrs. Lucciantonio’s Gr. 2/3 class and Miss Filice’s Gr. 3/4 class have been involved with the International Friendship Project in Ecuador. They are working with Jan and David Buley who are two professors from the School of Education at Laurentian University. The students have become penpals with the students in Ecuador so that they can share the wonderful things about our community and knowledge of Canada, and learn a great deal about the community and customs of Ecuador. They have also been collecting Crayola Art Supplies to send to them as this spring Jan and David will be going to Ecuador and will be bringing 10 Laurentian Education students with them to provide an arts camp for 250 students. Both of the St. Raphael teachers feel this is an excellent opportunity for their students to learn about different cultures as well as the importance of building compassionate relationships.
St. Ben’s Students Celebrate Multicultural Day
Students from the Lifeskills class at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School were thrilled to be able to share their projects on March 11 during their Multicultural Day celebration. All of the students were asked to pick a country and then use books from the library and find information on the internet to help them put together a project for their geography assignment. Some of the countries picked included Cuba, South Africa, Mexico and Ireland. The presentation of the projects was the first part of the day’s celebration and then the students played games, listened to music from different countries, and enjoyed different foods from around the world. Pam Colasimone, the Lifeskills teacher was very proud of the work that the students had produced. “ The students have worked for the last six weeks on these projects.” said Colasimone. “ They thoroughly enjoyed learning about the countries they selected as well as learning about the other countries that were presented today. It was a fantastic project for the students and they had a lot of fun in the process!”
Pius XII School Community Celebrates Mass
All of the students and staff of Pius XII came together as a school community on March 8, 2010 to celebrate mass with Father Remi at Holy Redeemer parish. The school took advantage of the beautiful sunshine and walked over to the church to enjoy mass each other. It was a great way to start the week as well as an excellent opportunity for the school to re-energize their faith before beginning their March Break.