During Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week students at St Bernadette school “got to know their apples” by touching them, throwing them and rolling them around. They were then asked to describe their apples. Students described their apples as bruised, dented, marked up, big and small. After a few minutes, the apples were collected, peeled and dropped into a basket. Children were then asked to find their apple within the pile. Remarkably, most children couldn’t find their apples. “They all looked the same!” students exclaimed. This activity allowed students to discover that, just like the apples, on the outside people, too, come in different sizes and shapes. But, underneath the outer layer, just like the apples, people are all the same. We have the same hopes and fears and dreams.
Category: St. Bernadette School
Ghostbusters on the Job at St. Bernadette
The staff at St. Bernadette Catholic School were well prepared for ghosts and goblins that normally make an appearance on Hallowe’en. The teachers, or Bernadette Ghost Busters as they are also known, were able to capture two very scary ghosts (who surprizingly resembled the Principal, Diana Salvador and the Secretary, Shari Schroeder). The school is safe now and ready for students when they return to classes after an evening of trick or treating.
Traffic Survey Fires Up Math Lesson
Teacher Nancy Perron’s grade 3 class at St Bernadette Catholic School recently completed a traffic survey on Auger Street in Sudbury. It was all part of a hands-on lesson in math. Students brainstormed possible makes, colours and types of vehicles they might see and then sorted them into categories. They then took their worksheets to the street. Despite the cold, every student captured their findings. When they returned to their classroom, they tallied their results. “Every student had the opportunity to interpret their data and represented their results in bar graphs,” said Mme Perron. “This survey provided an authentic learning experience and supported their learning of data management in a fun way.”
Pumpkin Decorating at St. Bernadette
St. Bernadette Catholic School Grade 5 French Immersion student, Parker Farstad, and his mother proudly show off their scary creation. The parents of grade 3, 4, 5 and 6 students joined their children in class to decorate pumpkins for use this Halloween. Parker created a spooky spider pumpkin and his classmates were just as imaginative: there were haunted houses, mummies, ghosts and skeleton pumpkins. Happy Halloween!
Cardinals Share Their ‘Goodness’ with the Sudbury Food Bank
The line ‘Teach me goodness’ is an integral part of the St. Charles College motto. This week, the students at the school learned about goodness and shared the fruits of their labour.
The secondary school students, coupled with children in the feeder schools canvassed together for the largest school food drive in the city. The goal was to raise 60 000 cans for the Sudbury Food Bank and the Cardinals surpassed that goal with a new all-time total of 125 080 cans. This is the single biggest contribution in history to the Sudbury Food Bank.
The secondary school has hosted a food drive for twenty-seven years. It is supported by students at St. Bernadette, St. Raphael, Pius XII, St. Andrew, St. David and St Paul and St. John.
Learning about Aboriginal Culture at St. Bernadette
Students in grade 1 at St. Bernadette Catholic School gathered in a circle around Aboriginal Educator, Joel Agowissa recently. Joel is sharing his knowledge of aboriginal teachings and traditions with the students.
Building Hype for Cans
This week, members of the Student Council at St. Charles College have taken their campaign about hungry people needing help to a number of elementary schools. Now it is up to the kids to take that message to the streets and collect cans.
The school is trying to meet its goal of providing the Sudbury Food Bank with at least 60 thousand cans of food to help people in our community during the winter months.
Each year, the feeder schools (St. Bernadette, St. Raphael, Pius XII, St. Andrew, St. David, St. Paul and St. John) support the initiative by getting the younger students to assist with the canvassing and collection of non-perishable food items.
Last year the school collected more than 120 thousand cans. They have been participating in an annual food drive for more than 30 years.
Student Council Teacher-lead Paola Gutscher says “it brings great joy to see kids helping kids in our community and feeling a sense of pride and accomplishment in achieving and surpassing our goals each year.”
Buster the Bus at St. Bernadette
Buster the Bus paid a visit to St. Bernadette Catholic School on Wednesday October 3rd. All students gathered in the gym and participated in a presentation which focussed on the importance of bus safety. The presentation included Buster the Bus himself; a talking and moving bus, a sing-along, an interactive presentation, and a trivia game. The students at St. Bernadette loved learning about bus safety and are enthused about making the right choices while riding to and from school on the yellow school buses.
Students and Parents say Thank You to St. Bernadette Staff
In appreciation of all the staff at St. Bernadette Catholic Elementary School, every single staff member was presented with a plaque of appreciation from the students and parents of the school community during Catholic Education week. Each teacher, the Principal and the school secretary, received their own personal plaque that described exactly why they were appreciated and cherished by the students of St. Bernadette and all of the comments and illustrations on the individual plaques were then collected and placed on a large plaque for the school to proudly display. The Catholic School Council members had secretly collected comments and artwork from the students describing why they loved their teachers.