Dylan Spanish, a First Nation student at St. Andrew Catholic Elementary School proudly spoke of his family heritage and cultural traditions during the school’s annual Heritage Fair. According to Dylan, “the N’Swakmok Friendship Center in downtown Sudbury is where he spends time after school participating in cultural programs”. Dylan likes the Center’s youth activities and goes there every Tuesday and Wednesday after school. Dylan also stated that, “not only am I proud of my heritage, but I also am proud to share what I know with my friends and teachers at school. I feel good telling them about the medicine wheel and what it means.” Dylan further explained that, “the medicine wheel has four colours on it. The fours colours represent all races on Mother Earth and how everyone is equal and has gifts from the Creator.” Dylan also explained what traditional medicines were and how they are used during a sweat lodge. Dylan will represent his school at the Regional Heritage Fair at Laurentian University on May 6, 2010. Congratulations Dylan!
Category: Schools
St. Christopher Holds Successful Family Literacy Night & Book Fair
On Thursday, February 25th/10 St. Christopher School held its annual Family Literacy Night and Book Fair. Thanks to the efforts of staff and students, the evening was a resounding success. In particular, St. Christopher’s would like to acknowledge the efforts of Mr. Dumont’s Grade 6 class who read and dramatized various stories with great flair. Also, a special thank you to Mrs. Zilio for co-ordinating and organizing the Book Fair and to the many parents who gave of their time to volunteer and assist.
St. Mary’s Kindergarten Class Goes Shopping
As part of the Community Theme, the kindergarten students of St. Mary Catholic School in Capreol recently visited the local grocery store, Capreol Foodland. Using their shopping list, students picked up and paid for all the ingredients for Strawberry Smoothies. Back at school, students made and enjoyed the nutritious snack. They even shared a cup with the Principal. Yum!
St. Michael Catholic Elementary Honours Canadian Olympic Athletes
Students at St. Michael school celebrated Olympic spirit on Friday, February 26 by wearing red and white clothing. Ms. Visentin’s grade 2/3 art class celebrated the day by painting Canadian flags to honour Canada’s talented Olympians and their medal count. Students were very, very excited with the outcome of the men’s hockey game on the weekend.
St. Charles College and St. Bernadette Students Working Together to Build Partnership
Grade 6 students at St. Bernadette Catholic Elementary School have had a unique opportunity every Tuesday for the last month. Dan Boisvert, a teacher from St. Charles College has had his Grade 10 History students partner-up with the St. Bernadette students to work on their elementary Heritage Fair projects. The secondary students have been helping the elementary students with all of the research, preparation and organization involved in setting up their assignments. Nicole Snow, Principal of St. Bernadette was quite excited about the project with St. Charles College. “Partnerships like this can be very powerful.” said Snow. Chantal Therrien, the Grade 6 teacher was also enthusiastic about the student mentoring. “It is good to create this partnership with St. Charles College.” said Therrien. “Now, when it comes time for the students to go to high school, they won’t be so intimidated. It has been a really great experience for my students that they have enjoyed very much!” The project has allowed the secondary students to guide and share their knowledge with the Grade 6 students. Boisvert felt that it was an excellent opportunity for the two schools to help each other and build a stronger school community. “The more we do this, the better we get at it.” said Boisvert. “It is great to start off with small steps like this and build from here.” The two schools already have two more projects in the works including french language debate with two different class as well as a family studies class from the highschool working with the kindergarten students.
St. Albert Business Program Showcases Student Projects
Over the last several weeks, the participants of the brand new Business Program at St. Albert Adult Learning Centre have been working hard to identify and refine both their verbal and non-verbal communication skills. In order to demonstrate their new understanding of the subtle differences in non-verbal communication, each group created and videotaped two different mock interview scenarios. The scenarios were intended to demonstrate the subtleties between effective and ineffective body language and tone of voice during job interviews and were premiered on March 2, 2010 for several students and school staff. Tina Timpano, one of the Sudbury Catholic Teacher Integration Mentor teachers had visited the classroom over the past few months to assist the students with their video editing on imovie on the macbooks. The students were very enthusiastic about diving into the task of editing their movies in order to create polished, professional looking presentations for their projects. Jill Ospina, the Business teacher at the school felt that the integration of technology as well as the learning of practical hands-on real life skills will allow her students to be successful when it comes times for them to enter the workforce. “For many of the students, this project forced them to come out of their shell and experience real life situations that will benefit them for real job interview opportunities.” said Ospina. “ They have come a long way in a really short amount of time with this project and I am really proud of them.” Cassandra MacGregor, Vice-Principal of the school was thrilled that the students were pleased with the new program at the school. “ The students are earning credits towards their high school diploma as well as receiving specialized training to assist them when they enter the business world – it is a win-win situation for them.” Two of the students that presented their project, Francine Dubreuil and Peghan Verkuil were nervous but enthusiastic about their project being showcased to the other students. “We were really overwhelmed at first with this project,” said Dubreuil “but it has been a lot of fun and we have definitely learned a lot about business and technology. “ Peghan Verkuil also shared similar sentiments. “It definitely has been a lot of work, but in the end it paid off as it was a great experience to prepare us for the future.”
St. Andrew Catholic Elementary School Celebrates Ash Wednesday
The grade six students and their teacher led the students and some parents from St. Andrew School in an Ash Wednesday prayer service. The students were reminded that lent is a time to do something that makes a difference in the lives of themselves or others. Some people give up things and others do things to improve themselves. Father Al from the school parish of St. Andrew the Apostle sent over blessed ashes for Mrs. Henry to distribute to everyone present.
St. Bernadette Olympic Day Celebration
On February 26, 2010, the students and staff of St Bernadette showed Sudbury how much they “believe” as the Olympic Spirit was alive and well at St Bernadette School. Their Olympic themed play day was planned by Chantal Therrien, the Grade 5/6 teacher who felt that that having this event was important to “promote team spirit within the school.” Teams were created to represent 10 different countries and the kids made flags and cheers with a parade of nations. Some of the games the students participated in included curling, bobsled, hockey, luge and biathlon. As a special treat, the students had the opportunity to listen to Mr. McGibbon who was an Olympic torchbearer talk about his experience. At the end of the day, there was an awards presentation and, best of all, hot chocolate to warm up all of the students. Nicole Snow, Principal of the school felt the day was a great one for all of her students. “The Olympics brings with it a spirit of peace.” said Snow. “It teaches kids fair play, as well as pride and friendship – really great lessons for them to learn.”
St. John Catholic Elementary School Salute to the Olympics
Despite the frigid temperatures, the students at St. John Catholic Elementary had smiles from ear to ear as they took part in the school’s Olympic Day on Thursday, February 25, 2010. The school had many different events planned for the students including a wagon ride pulled by two horses from Wagon Wheel Ranch and the ever popular potato and spoon races. The smell of maple syrup filled the hallways as the staff and volunteers provided pancakes and hot chocolate for the students to keep them warm and fuelled their energy to keep the spirit level high throughout the day.