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!
Category: Community
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 “Welds Her Own Heart”
Recently, intermediate students from St. Anne Catholic School in Hanmer, participated in a”Tech Day” at Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School. The St. Anne Angel’s are invited annually to participate in this high school experience as a way of making the transition to high school that much easier. Throughout the day, students were exposed to various programs such as Welding, Wood Working, High Skills major program in computer technologies and AutoCad. The students at St.Anne Catholic School embraced the day, actively participating and asking questions about the programs, routines, and student life. The staff and students at BAC were more than happy to address all of their questions and concerns. The day proved to be an exciting one for all involved!
Zest for Broccoli Takes Over St. Charles College
On Thursday, March 8th, schools in Greater Sudbury kicked off Nutrition month by eating broccoli. Close to one thousand students participated in the “big crunch” at 10 a.m. by chomping down on broccoli crowns at St. Charles College.
In teacher Beverly Belanger’s class, students enjoyed the broccoli while writing a math test.
Organizer/teacher Elizabeth Szilva says “It was an opportunity for the students to learn about the benefits of broccoli in a fun and active way.”
St. Benedict Hosts Sudbury Rolling Thunder
Students at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School had the opportunity to buy out of last period on Tuesday, March 7, 2012 to support a great cause. The Sudbury Rolling Thunder basketball team visited the school to take part in an exhibition game involving both a student and teacher team. Proceeds from the buy out went to support local wheelchair athletes. Despite their best efforts, the St. Benedict staff and students who participated in the game weren’t able to sink many baskets againstt the Sudbury Rolling Thunder team, however the school community thoroughly enjoyed watching. One member of the Rolling Thunder, Sarah Lashbrook – a local author and writer, also stayed after the game to sign her latest book “Where the Stream and Creek Collide”.
This book is a fictional story whose main character is a paraplegic as she wanted to “give a relatable character to a minority group that seems to lack just that in the literary world.”
Stephanie Van Druenen, vice principal of St. Benedict was thrilled with the day’s event.
“This was a great opportunity for our school community on so many levels,” Van Druenen stated. “Not only did our students enjoy a lively basketball game, it was also an opportunity for everyone to learn about inclusion and awareness, overcoming obstacles, as well as enhanced understanding of equality in sports. On top of that, we raised almost a thousand dollars to support our community’s athletes.”
St. James School “Fun Family Faith Night”
St. James Catholic School and St. Pius X Parish of Lively partnered to create an event that brought the school and the faith community together. The School Council led by Chairperson Jane Saal planned a “Fun Family Faith Night”.
The evening offered an opportunity to share in many faith-based activities and games geared to both students and their families and provided a forum to celebrate the virtues and values of our Catholic School. The school community was welcomed at the door by parish priest Father Terry Fournier and Deacon Pat Raymond. School Council chairperson Jane Saal stated that, “One priority for the St. James School Council is to augment the school’s spiritual atmosphere by facilitating family faith development and a family faith evening was a perfect occasion to implement our goal. This event provided an excellent opportunity to strengthen the home, school and parish connections at St. James School. The evening was extremely well received and well attended and judging from the feedback we will continue the tradition of a faith night again next year”.
Open Letter of Thanks
This weekend the boys and girls junior handball tournaments were scheduled at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School. The St. David Junior Girls Team wanted to thank our coach and the convener of the tournament, Mr. McLaughlin. Mr. McLaughlin has volunteered his own time to coach our school teams. He taught us the importance of good sportsmanship, the strength we gain when we play as a team and that sports are all about having fun with our friends. We know that it took him a lot of time to organize the tournaments and order the trophies. We wanted all the teachers that volunteered their time to coach to know that their students appreciate it and have a lot fun playing againstt each other.
Thank you for helping us learn that even if we don’t win first place we can still have a lot of fun playing sports.
Cards City Champs Once Again!
The Boys Senior Hockey team completed their Perfect S.DS.S.A.A. season on February 29th with a three game sweep of the Manitoulin Mustangs to win the City Championship. The team’s record was a Perfect 19-0. The team won the Regular season title and the Playoff title as well as every individual award possible for the season. Individual awards included:
Regular season MVP: Trevor Bedard
Regular season Leading Scorer: Trevor Bedard
Best Goaltender Award: Matt Urso
Best Goals Against Average: Matt Urso and Nick McGregor
Best Defenceman: Evan Purcel
Most Sportsmanlike Award: Jacob Belanger
Coaches Award: Mr. Zanatta, Mr. D. Michelutti, Mr. Thompson
Playoff MVP: Zach Belanger
The team is now preparing for the NOSSA Championship held on March 5th & 6th in Thessalon, Ontario.
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!